Law Society will urge brokers to disclose commission

The Law Society will urge its members to ask their brokers for commission disclosure as part of the trade body’s wider plans to shake up the solicitors’ professional indemnity (PI) insurance market.

The Law Society will include the commission disclosure guidelines in its new broker handbook for law firms, which is currently being rewritten.

The new handbook will encourage law firms to get the best value out of their brokers.

A Law Society spokesman said:  “There will be tips to ensure that brokers are providing solicitors with a level of service that meets their specific needs, more detail about the different types of intermediaries that are in the market and consideration of the pros and cons of continuity of service.”

The Law Society will also stop publishing a list of solicitors’ PI brokers on its website and will instead refer its members to the FSA register and Biba’s list of brokers.

The trade body said it was scrapping the list because some lawyers thought the trade body was vetting the brokers before registering them, which was not the case.

The Law Society spokesman said: “Despite this lack of quality assurance, a small number of brokers have given the impression that their inclusion on the list made them ‘Law Society approved’.

“The list has therefore become a free service for brokers with little actual value to our members, which is why we intend to withdraw it.”

UIB divisional director Simon Lovat said the changes would harm the ability of law firms to find the right cover.

He said: “It’s another experience of the Law Society coming out with ill-thought concepts without due consideration to the insurance profession.

“This only serves to damage the legal industry’s ability to search for those brokers capable of helping them. This especially comes on the back of the scandal of Pinnacle Insurance Services, where solicitors bought insurance from people who weren’t capable.”