About Professional Indemnity Insurance
About Professional Indemnity Insurance
All legal practitioners practising as principals of a law practice (unsupervised) in New South Wales are required to hold or be covered by Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII) pursuant to section 45 of the Legal Profession Uniform Law (NSW). Insurable solicitors in the Australian Capital Territory are required to hold an approved professional indemnity policy under section 311 of the Legal Profession Act 2006 (ACT). Law practices in the Northern Territory are required to hold an approved professional indemnity policy under s376 of the Legal Profession Act (NT) 2006.
Lawcover provides approved professional indemnity insurance policies to law practices in NSW, the ACT and NT. For 2023/24, the Lawcover PII policy provides law practices with cover up to $2 million each claim, including claimant’s costs and defence costs. Lawcover also provides Top Up insurance, over and above the required primary $2 million limit, to many law practices in NSW and nationally.
Consultant
You may require clarification as to whether a consultant to your law practice is covered under your practice’s PII policy…
Prior Practices
We may determine whether the law practice is the successor to a prior practice…
Law Practice
Dissolutions
Lawcover can assist you with the appropriate insurance arrangements for your changed circumstances…
Financial Hardship for Law Practices
Lawcover is here to help by offering our Financial Hardship Policy to those impacted practices…
Apply for Insurance
Apply and pay for your law practice’s insurance via our online application…
Extent of cover
Lawcover issues two policies for law practices:
The PII policy sets out the extent of the civil liability cover provided to both the current law practice and its current and former principals and employees, as well as those of a prior practice of the law practice. The terms, conditions and exclusions are written in plain English.
The PII policy responds to civil liability for claims that arise from legal services provided by the law practice that are first made during the period of insurance, subject to the terms, conditions and exclusions of the policy.
Features of the cover
The Run Off policy covers a law practice (including its prior practices) that has ceased and that is not a prior practice of any other practice. This cover is only extended to law practices that, at the time of ceasing legal practice, were insured under any Certificate of Insurance arranged by Lawcover or Insurance policy underwritten by Lawcover Insurance.
Lawcover can only provide information with respect to the current underwriting year, and this information may change in future years.