Excess Insurance

Professional liability insurance beyond the limits of the primary coverage is called excess coverage.

LAWPRO offers Excess insurance to help protect against a single large claim or the possibility of multiple claims exceeding your primary coverage. Unlike the primary policy, where coverage is offered on an individual basis, Excess insurance is sold on a firm-wide basis. This means that lawyers in a given law firm share the same excess limit (i.e., the excess limit may be eroded by the claims of other firm lawyers) and firm lawyers may find no coverage for their past practice with other law firms.

No – excess insurance is an optional coverage that law firms can purchase as additional protection beyond the coverage required of lawyers by the Law Society of Ontario.

No – excess coverage is available and can benefit lawyers in all areas of practice. For family law, real estate law, and wills and estates law, rising real estate and personal property values can mean higher potential losses from a single mistake.

In considering whether your firm should purchase Excess insurance, and in what amount, you may want to review our excess insurance resources. These include our online “stress test” to help assess your potential for a high-value claim..

As a law practice grows, the exposure to claims can also grow. More closed files means there’s a greater possibility that a past error will come to light and result in a claim. Taking on more and larger files, becoming involved in other practice areas, and adding new lawyers and firm staff, all signal the potential for greater risk. As a lawyer’s client base ages along with the lawyer, clients’ net worth – and the financial risk of working with those clients – can increase substantially.

The following excess limits are above the $1 million per claim / $2 million aggregate limit protection afforded under the LAWPRO policy:

• $1 million per claim/$1 million in the aggregate
• $2 million per claim/$2 million in the aggregate
• $3 million per claim/$3 million in the aggregate
• $4 million per claim/$4 million in the aggregate
• $9 million per claim/$9 million in the aggregate

Review the current standard form LAWPRO Excess policy wording