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be underwritten profitably for it to be b^sed on a wide
portfolio.
If cover is to be effected by one or two companies
through the agency of the Law Society, the element of
competition will virtually disappear and will have seri-
ous disadvantages to the profession. Innovations of
cover brought into the market because of competition
would probably never appear whereas now, if a solicitor
finds the premium quoted unsatisfactory, he has at least
other companies to which he can go for a quotation. On
the other hand some solicitors with a clean sheet or low
claims record may be called upon under the Law Society
scheme to pay higher premiums than they had secured
by private negotiation.
The other alternative suggested by the Council of the
Law Society is that its own common insurance fund or
scheme should be established. It is not made clear how
this will differ in cost, if at all, from putting all the
insurance in the hands of one company (the master
policy scheme), thereby removing the element of compe-
tition completely.
Full disclosure requirement inserted prematurely
Many solicitors, too, would surely be apprehensive if
the Law Society itself was operating the scheme in
view of the special relationship which exists between the
Society and the members of the profession on the one
hand, and the desirability for complete disclosure on the
other. Many solicitors will be distrustful of disclosing
matters to their discredit to the Society although assur-
ances have been given that the scheme would be oper-
ated completely independently. Whatever assurances
may be given at this stage they are no guarantee for
future years. Also it should be noted that in Clause 16
of the current Bill an amendment has been made to
Section 29 of the Solicitors Act 1957 giving the Council
of the Law Society power to disclose a report on or
information about a solicitor's accounts obtained in the
exercise of their powers of inspection to the Director of
Public Prosecutions. Is this the way the wind is blowing?
It looks like the thin end of the wedge!
It is noteworthy that recently the Law Society has
circulated local law societies on the subject of the pro-
posed insurance arrangements. One is, therefore, in
doubt whether the problem or its solution were suffi-
ciently considered before the clause in the current Bill
was inserted. It is the writer's view that the clause was
inserted prematurely and without adequate considera-
tion of the consequences of the proposals, otherwise
there is no reason why the Society should at this late
stage be giving the consideration to the scheme which
it should have given earlier. Surely all aspects should
have been fully explored before the new powers were
sought.
In its announcement in the
Gazette
(supra) the Law
Society mentioned some unsatisfactory elements of the
present system many of which are difficult or impossible
to refute. These include rising premiums, limit of cover
to twelve months and the cumulative claims limit, so
that the maximum sum for which insurance cover is
given has to meet all claims in a year and not each
individual claim. These are all matters of concern to
solicitors but it is by no means clear how the estab-
lishment of a master policy can avoid them, or those
which I have not detailed.
Group policy through selected company favoured
What the Society might usefully be able to do is to
assist the practitioner who is refused cover to obtain it
through a group policy with a selected company which,
on the basis of a wide portfolio albeit of high risk cases,
would more easily be able to afford the risk. Whether
this would be feasible I am not prepared to say, but the
Law Society should include the possibility of this in its
investigations.
In conclusion, the indications are that, far from
effecting reductions in premiums, the Law Society's
proposals could well create increases owing, inter alia,
to the creation of a monopoly coupled with compulsory
insurance as a condition of practice. The solicitor will
have to negotiate from a position of weakness. It is diffi-
cult to see how any of the schemes proposed by the
Law Society can be an improvement on the present
system of negotiating professional negligence insurance
individually in a free and competitive market with an
insurer who is sympathetic to the requirements of the
special needs of the profession. If these negotiations are
conducted within the framework of a specialist negoti-
ated arrangement, such as the British Legal Associ-
ation's insurance scheme, which promotes and encou-
ages a free interchange of views between practitioners
and insurer, many of the problems and difficulties
encountered would rapidly disappear.
It is sincerely to be hoped that when the Solicitors
(Amendment Bill is re-presented, this ill-considered
provision will be omitted, or if included and passed,
that the Law Society will consider very carefully the
full implications of their proposals before using the
powers which the section would give them. In the
meantime practitioners who have hitherto overlooked
the provisions of the Bill should give serious consid-
eration to this one in particular, and make represen-
tations not only to the Law Society but to their Mem-
bers of Parliament before the provisions become law.
DISSENT OF M A N -
How Manxmen retain their system
Fire precautions in the Isle of Man had been criticised
by the island's chief fire officer, Mr. Cyril Pearson,
before the Summerland tragedy. There are no laws
governing fire exits, alarms, or emergency lighting, and
legislation equivalent to Britain's Fire Precautions Act
1972 is still being drafted. But this is not the only field
in which Manx laws are different.
The pubs stay open all day and moves to introduce
the breathalyser have been stalled. Income tax is 21 per
cent, a car licence costs around £10, and there is no
such thing as capital gains tax or estate duty. You drive
at 16, vote at 21, and never serve on a jury if you are a
woman. Youths are apt to be birched for a long string
of offences, and students lose their grants for mis-
behaviour.
To the English—or the Welsh or the Scots—the laws
of the Isle of Man are a chapter of anomalies, a jumble
of measures combining fiscal laxity, social severity, and
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