Hundreds of solicitors firms to miss 1 October deadline

Hundreds of law firms are going to miss the 1 October deadline to get the professional indemnity insurance they need to practise.

Just hours before the cut-off period, Insurance Times has spoken to brokers who have been taking as many as 40 enquiries a day.

Apex Insurance Broker director Matt Bartlett estimated that up to 250 firms could miss tomorrow’s deadline, while United Insurance Brokers director Simon Lovat said he expected hundreds of firms to miss the cut-off.

From tomorrow any business that has not obtained cover will be given a 30-day grace period of cover by their previous insurer.

After that, they can continue to practise but will be banned from taking on new clients for a 60-day period. If they have still not bought insurance by the end of the 90-day period, firms will have to shut down.

Lovat said UIB was receiving 40 new enquiries a day in the run-up to the deadline, compared with “hardly any” this time last year.

Lovat said: “It’s the fraught last few hours, and tomorrow will be a different picture, when you see what’s left.

“I expect if you have not got insurance by now it’s going to be relatively difficult for you in the coming hours. Normally you’d expect it to slow down, but it hasn’t,” he said.

Bartlett said the number of new enquiries his firm has taken today is in double figures, which is “significantly more” than this time 12 months ago.

Bartlett added: “In terms of it turning it [an application] around you are looking at a few days at least, which means that by tomorrow they wouldn’t have found cover for the next indemnity year.”