Residential conveyancing continues to rank as the main source of negligence claims among partner law firms, according to research by Aon.
The leading insurance broker and risk management consultant has revealed that conveyancing gives rise to the highest number of claims amongst two to 10 small to medium sized law firms.
This represents one in three (35%) claims over a four-year period from 2000 to 2004 with 29% relating to residential, and an additional 6% attributable to commercial conveyancing.
Martin Thomas, Managing Director of Aon's Claims Solutions team said: “Based upon our experience, the majority of claims causes flow from three core areas: timing issues, drafting errors, or advice which is not properly thought out, misleading or simply factually and, or, in some cases, legally incorrect.
“The more paid claims that an individual firm experiences, the less attractive they are to insurers, and the greater amount of premium they will need to pay for their cover.”
Angus Cameron, Executive Director, Aon's Professional Risks unit, added: “No firm wants to be paying over the odds for insurance cover and so it is in their best interest to reduce their claims frequency.”
Personal injury also scored highly, with one in five claims (20%) emanating from this line of legal work.
