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Solicitors indemnity fund

Published 24 October 2019 | Updated 3 January 2023

Solicitors Indemnity Fund - post six-year run-off cover

The Solicitors Indemnity Fund (SIF), run by Solicitors Indemnity Fund Limited (SIFL), provides indemnity cover for claims made more than six years after a firm has closed and which had no successor practice.

However, the SIF cannot run indefinitely in its current form. We therefore consulted on proposals for a scheme that we run. This is deemed the most cost-effective and proportionate solution to providing appropriate consumer protection for post six-year claims.

You can read about those proposals in our consultation which closes at midnight on 3 January 2023. We will then analyse all responses and our Board will make a decision on next steps in due course.

Interim arrangements

Use of the SIF has been extended while we make arrangements for an alternative.

This means that the SIF will continue to provide post six-year run-off cover for claims against firms which have closed without a successor practice until September 2023. It will also continue to manage any post six-year run-off cover claims which it has been notified of prior to 30 September 2023.

What SIF will do until then

The SIF indemnifies the following exposures:

  • Claims made during the period a law firm was covered by the SIF master policy.
  • Claims made after 31 August 2000 by law firms that closed without a successor practice which relate to work done while the firm was covered by the SIF master policy.
  • Claims made between 1 September 2007 and 30 September 2022 after the run-off cover in the SRA's minimum terms and conditions has expired.

This post six-year run-off cover is not a requirement that we impose on closing firms or solicitors through any of the our regulatory arrangements.

As claims managers, it is for SIFL to consider whether there has been a demand for, or an assertion of a right to, civil compensation or civil damages or an intention to seek such compensation or damages by a claimant that they need to respond to.

We do not regulate the SIFL or any of the decisions made relating to its claims management function. The SIFL, in any particular case, has the sole and absolute right to decide in which way or combination of ways indemnity is provided.

Further information on this is available from our Professional Ethics helpline

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