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11 September 2015 / Frank Maher
Issue: 7667 / Categories: Features , Profession
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PII: A call to arms! (Take 2)

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Frank Maher issues a final warning for solicitors to respond to the SRA discussion paper on PII cover

Most solicitors’ firms are in the process of renewing their professional indemnity insurance for 1 October 2015. But another deadline looms large on the horizon—the closing date for responses to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Discussion paper, Protecting client’s financial interests. Ignore it at your peril—16 September is the last chance to make your views known, and firms of all sizes have every reason to respond: if all the changes under discussion were implemented, we would be moving from a world where virtually all claims are covered to one where few have the broad protection of the SRA minimum terms and conditions (MTC).

Where are we up to?

First, however, where are we up to with the renewal? It may be the last on the current MTC (a point to bear in mind for those thinking of retirement and triggering run-off before its scope is dramatically reduced).

The writer’s recent series

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

London Solicitors Litigation Association—John McElroy

London Solicitors Litigation Association—John McElroy

Fieldfisher partner appointed president as LSLA marks milestone year

Kingsley Napley—Kirsty Churm & Olivia Stiles

Kingsley Napley—Kirsty Churm & Olivia Stiles

Firm promotes two lawyers to partnership across employment and family

Foot Anstey—five promotions

Foot Anstey—five promotions

Firm promotes five lawyers to partnership across key growth areas

NEWS
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
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