Top ten insurer quits legal indemnity market

Solicitors professional indemnity insurer Cox has withdrawn from the market, claiming that it had failed to attain the critical mass required to make a profit.Cox underwrote 4% of the market, amounting to 6.6 million of cover.

It had the ninth largest market share.The withdrawal follows the pull-out of the Independent insurance company earlier this year, following its collapse, and the decision by several smaller insurers to withdraw from the market.The market has now shrunk from 35 insurers at the start of the year to 26.Andrew Darby, the Law Society's head of professional indemnity, said firms with Cox policies would be covered until their existing contracts expire.He said: 'This is still a healthy market, and so long as the main players are still there we're not worried about one or two others pulling out.'A Cox spokesman said: 'This only represented 1% of our total overall turnover.

We decided that we could not compete in the sector without critical mass, and that we preferred to concentrate on areas where we have that critical mass.'

By Jeremy Fleming