Whether you’re a newly called lawyer or starting up your own office after leaving a large firm, you may find yourself at a loss when it comes to your professional indemnity insurance. How do you set things up? What are your options? This short guide is designed to get you up and running in no time. See also “Starting a new solo or multi-member firm”

New Call?

If you’re a brand new call, you have a slight leg up, because you’re already on our radar. After each call to the Bar ceremony, the Law Society sends out packages to each new lawyer with information about how to apply for insurance coverage. Around the same time, they send LAWPRO a list of the lawyers newly called.
There is typically a delay of several days and up to a couple of weeks from the date of your call to the date on which the Law Society assigns you a member number and gets your package to you. What to do during that delay:

• Sit tight! You can’t apply for coverage until your Law Society number exists and you know what it is.
• If you will be staying on at the firm where you articled to practice after your call, or if you’ve secured a position in a firm that starts immediately after your call, don’t worry. Your coverage, once placed, will be backdated to the date you began practice.
• With one exception: if you need Real Estate Practice Coverage – which you will need in order to register transactions in the electronic land registry system – you’ll have to hold off until that coverage is actually confirmed, which can take about ten business days from the date you apply. In the interim, you’ll have to have another lawyer who does have this coverage handle any registrations for you.

Leaving an in-house or government job where you were exempt from insurance

If you were working in-house either in the private or public sectors, you may have been exempt from the payment of insurance premiums. If you’re moving to private practice, you will need to ensure you have LAWPRO professional indemnity insurance in place from the very first day you provide Professional Services as a lawyer. Luckily, when you apply online with us via our secure MY LAWPRO member portal, your coverage takes immediate effect.

In other words, you can apply today, and start practising today – with one exception: if you need Real Estate Practice Coverage – which you will need in order to register transactions in the electronic land registry system – you’ll have to hold off until that coverage is actually confirmed, which can take about ten business days from the date you apply.
Read on to learn how to actually apply.

Download a PDF version of this page.

---