409 law firms fail to get cover

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) says 409 law firms applied to enter the assigned risks pool (ARP) on 1 October, the deadline for professional indemnity insurance (PII) renewal, the Law Society Gazette reports.

The SRA said on 1 October last year there were 411 applications. Firms have four weeks’ grace to find cover on the open market.

Firms are then helped to find cover or the ARP acts as the insurer of last resort. There were 269 firms in the pool during 2009/10.