Lawcovernotes August 2015

Lawcover’s Risk Management Education Program (RMEP) is a unique education initiative described by the Australian Financial Review * as “… Australia’s fi rst extensive risk-management education program for solicitors”. It was 1995. Lawcover had implemented its landmark Risk Management Education Programwith the primary objective of changing solicitors’ behaviours towards the way they practised law. At the time, there had been an alarming escalation over recent years in the number of professional negligence claims made against solicitors and action was needed. Urgently. Premiums were threatening to double. And, as a key driver of that escalation, the nature of legal practice behaviour had to change. Lawcover responded with its RMEP. Twelve months into that widely supported program, an independent study found that practitioners who attended and actively participated in the RMEP changed their practice behaviours. They were applying new risk management strategies and implementing systems and procedures to reduce the likelihood of claims of negligence against them occurring. Twenty years later it is 2015. The same theme of behavioural change and improved practice management continues. Law practice partners, solicitor-directors, sole practitioners, employed solicitors, administrative support staff and law students – in fact tens of thousands have attended Lawcover’s RMEP since its inception. It continues to be presented throughout New South Wales at external workshops, seminars, roadshows, on-site at larger law practices, and in association with Regional Law Society CLE days and at university law schools. Actuarial analysis supports the original study of behavioural change through evidence of reduced professional negligence claims in their number and in their severity (total dollars incurred) of claims. Our analytical models show that Lawcover’s commitment to the RMEP and its investment in risk management and Practice Support Services achieves a potential $3 saving for every dollar spent on the RMEP. This has been demonstrated by lower premiums for Lawcover insured law practices and the introduction of a Policyholder Rebate in 2014. There is further evidence in the popularity of the RMEP discount regime for participation in our programs. Congratulations to the legal profession