You are reading current version in effect from 1 December 2023

Guidance

Guidance

Adequate and appropriate indemnity insurance - Guidance

Guidance: To help you understand your requirement to take out and maintain professional indemnity insurance that provides adequate and appropriate cover in respect of services you provide.

Adequate and appropriate indemnity insurance - Case studies

Case studies: This case study should be read in conjunction with the guidance on adequate and appropriate indemnity insurance.

Glossary terms

manager

means:

  1. the sole principal in a recognised sole practice;
  2. a member of a LLP;
  3. a director of a company;
  4. a partner in a partnership; or
  5. in relation to any other body, a member of its governing body
employee

means an individual who is:

  1. engaged under a contract of service by a person, firm or organisation or its wholly owned service company;
  2. engaged under a contract for services, made between a firm or organisation and:
    1. that individual;
    2. an employment agency; or
    3. a company which is not held out to the public as providing legal services and is wholly owned and directed by that individual, or

under which the person, firm or organisation has exclusive control over the individual's time for all or part of the individual's working week, save that:

  1. for the purposes of the SRA Financial Services (Scope) Rules, means an individual who is employed in connection with the firm's regulated financial services activities under a contract of service or under a contract for services such that he or she is held out as an employee or consultant of the firm
  2. for the purposes of the SRA Indemnity Insurance Rules and the MTC, means any person other than a principal:
    1. employed or otherwise engaged in the insured firm's practice (including under a contract for services) including, without limitation, as a solicitor, lawyer, trainee solicitor or trainee lawyer, consultant, associate, locum tenens, agent, appointed person, office or clerical staff member or otherwise;
    2. seconded to work in the insured firm's practice; or
    3. seconded by the insured firm to work elsewhere,

    but does not include any person who is engaged by the insured firm under a contract for services in respect of any work where that person is required, whether under the SRA Indemnity Insurance Rules or under the rules of any other professional body, to take out or to be insured under separate professional indemnity insurance in respect of that work

and the term "employer" is to be construed accordingly

member
  1. (unless (ii) below applies) means:
    1. in relation to a company, a person who has agreed to be a member of the company and whose name is entered in the company's register of members; and
    2. in relation to an LLP, a member of that LLP
  2. for the purposes of the SRA Indemnity Fund Rules, means a member of a practice, being:
      1. any principal (including any principal) therein;
      2. any director or officer thereof, in the case of a recognised body or a licensed body which is a company;
      3. any member thereof in the case of a recognised body or a licensed body which is an LLP;
      4. any recognised body or a licensed body which is a partner or held out to be a partner therein and any officer of such recognised body or a licensed body which is a company, or any member of such recognised body or a licensed body which is an LLP;
      5. any person employed in connection therewith (including any trainee solicitor);
      6. any solicitor or REL who is a consultant to or associate in the practice;
      7. any foreign lawyer who is not an REL and who is a consultant or associate in the practice; and

    any solicitor or foreign lawyer who is working in the practice as an agent or locum tenens, whether he or she is so working under a
    contract of service or contract for services; and includes the estate and/or personal representative(s) of any such persons.

interest holder

means a person who has an interest or an indirect interest, or holds a material interest, in a body (and "indirect interest" and "interest" have the same meaning as in the LSA), and references to "holds an interest" shall be construed accordingly

solicitor

means a person who has been admitted as a solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales and whose name is on the roll.

authorised body

means:

  1. a body that has been authorised by the SRA to practise as a licensed body or a recognised body; or
  2. a sole practitioner's practice that has been authorised by the SRA as a recognised sole practice
REL

means a European lawyer registered in the register of European lawyers

RFL

means a foreign lawyer registered in the register of foreign lawyers

SRA

means the Solicitors Regulation Authority

prescribed

means prescribed by the SRA from time to time

reserved legal activities

has the meaning given in section 12 of the LSA

non-commercial body

means a body that falls within section 23(2) of the LSA

client

means the person for whom you act and, where the context permits, includes prospective and former clients

in the SRA Financial Services (Scope) Rules, in relation to any regulated financial services activities carried on by an authorised body for a trust or the estate of a deceased person (including a controlled trust), means the trustees or personal representatives in their capacity as such and not any person who is a beneficiary under the trust or interested in the estate