Annual PI thread

Hennybug

Well how are the quotes this year? I sent my form in the end of October, went with the firm i was with last year, sole practitioner so very little choice and only got my quote today. It's nearly double what it was last year and that's after that being double the previous year :mad: It's coming in just over €15k so i now have to frantically fill out the form for the other company covering sole practitioners and it's a fingers crossed effort. I was also told i have 5 days to accept or they may withdraw or increase the quote :eek:

Anyone else having problems this year?

Delancey

Below is from the Sunday Business Post of 2 days ago - suggests that PII premiums are doubling..........








Solicitors are facing a fight for survival, DSBA chief warns
21 November 2010

As a student at Malahide Community School in Dublin, Stuart Gilhooly planned a career in journalism. But his father, senior counsel James Gilhooly, persuaded young Stuart that the life of a lawyer was a safer bet. Stuart took his father’s advice and qualified as a solicitor in 1995.

Since then, the profession has experienced its most turbulent years, with many solicitors going out of business due to the collapse in the economy, the resulting falloff in conveyancing work and the precipitous rise in insurance premiums.

The advent of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board has also cut the volume of personal injuries work, and the reputation of solicitors generally has been tarnished by the fraudulent activities of lawyers like Michael Lynn and Thomas Byrne.

But Gilhooly, 39, remains upbeat about the future of the profession - and he should know. A member of the Council of the Law Society, he’s just taken over as president of the Dublin Solicitors’ Bar Association (DSBA), representing almost half the country’s 8,000 solicitors (including his wife, Fidelma).

As an apprentice, Gilhooly joined HJ Ward & Co, a two partner Harold’s Cross practice which specialises in personal injuries work, so he’s seen the practical financial effects of the downturn on small firms.

‘‘The biggest issue for my year as president is to get DSBA members through these impossible times and to keep them in business," he says.

‘‘There are very few solicitors making big money at the moment, particularly in the smaller firms. Everybody’s profits are way, way down. In many cases, it’s a question of trying to keep losses at a level where a firm can stay in business.

‘‘There’s no conveyancing work because people are just not buying houses - and I would have thought there were even fewer commercial transactions." Since last year, solicitors have been barred from giving undertakings on commercial property.

The fraudulent misuse of the undertakings system by a small number of solicitors contributed to the collapse of the property market and the unprecedented level of claims against solicitors who had given double - and even treble - undertakings on the same property.

The level of claims led to a surge in premiums for professional indemnity insurance (PII) - without which a solicitor may not practise.

The situation was exacerbated two weeks ago when Quinn Insurance pulled out of the PIImarket, following the earlier withdrawal of Royal and Sun Alliance.

Quinn and RSA had provided insurance for one in five solicitors’ firms.

Their withdrawal leaves just four main players in the market for the December 1 renewals - XL, the Solicitors’ Mutual Defence Fund (SMDF), Chartis and Liberty.

Most solicitors - including Gilhooly - have yet to receive their premium quotation for the imminent renewal, but one outraged solicitor rang Gilhooly last week to complain that he was being quoted double last year’s premium. ‘‘I believe there will be competition on premiums - particularly between SMDF and XL," said Gilhooly, ‘‘but I am hearing that premiums will be considerably higher than last year.

‘‘A lot of practitioners are already struggling to pay their insurance, and there are guys who are considering shutting the doors because they won’t be able to afford the premiums.

‘‘But I believe that the vast, vast majority will struggle on.

They will say ‘I don’t have the money now, but I have to find it because I need to stay in business for when times get better’."

At one stage, in late 2008 and 2009, even the big firms were laying off solicitors as the volume of work slumped. But the situation has improved. ‘‘People are still being laid off, but not to the same extent," said Gilhooly.

Despite a perception that the DSBA represents mainly small practices, Gilhooly is keen to emphasise that the 3,500 members come from all areas of the profession, including the largest firms.

‘‘Most of the larger firms are members, having signed up all their solicitors en bloc," he says. ‘‘Unlike the Law Society, the DSBA doesn’t have to regulate its members, so we are now seen as the largest solicitors’ representative body in the country."

The DSBA has also organised courses for family law mediation, and now has a panel of trained mediators. ‘‘The association wants to remove as much family law litigation from the courts as possible," says Gilhooly.

DSBA members also receive the quarterly Parchment magazine. The magazine has been shortlisted for magazine of the year in the business-to-business category of under 5,000 circulation, and Gilhooly - who was editor of the magazine from 2002 to 2006 - has been nominated as journalist of the year.

So maybe he’s not so far from his initial ambition after all.

curious123

heard of a possibility of getting PI insurance in the north, for those on the roll in the north, that will allow you to practice in the south. does any one know any more about this? and how would Irish LS look at this?

have posted this under another topic in hope of some clarification, thanks