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Anonymous @ 14:47... PII protects the client in circumstances where the practitioner may not have the means to meet any order for damages personally.

Of course you may be able to claim against the freelance lawyer or the ltd company that they're working via... but, if you litigated you'll fully know... there's no point doing that if the presumed Defendant isn't going to meet any order...

While some Clients will be savvy enough to recognise the significance of that, may likely won't ... Hence the mandatory nature of PII... to protect Clients across the board.

The only way this could work (and i still don't like it) would be if any uninsured lawyer were obliged (on pain of death) to notify, in plain English, any Client of their lack of insurance and the potential consequences that could flow from that in the event of negligence, etc. Of course, any such requirement would be relatively hollow... It would either give an incentive to freelancers to obtain insurance (for fear of losing instructions when the precarious position became known to potential Clients) or, more likely, would be ignored by reckless practitioners who would push their luck by not providing such information, gambling that the risk of being caught and/or punished (even if the punishment is on pain of death) is remote due to shambolic regulation and enforcement.

However you look at this, the only way to ensure adequate protections for Clients is to cut them out of the loop altogether on this issue, meaning they shouldn't have to think about it and PII should be mandatory across the board.

At least, if a Client instructs a McKenzie friend or whatever there's a relatively high probability they will comprehend the risks of doing so and will understand the limited role they can fulfil... It certainly would look to damage the whole profession to allow anyone to use the Solicitor title, in private practice, without adequate protections in place in the event of malpractice.

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