Law Practice Dissolutions How They Impact on Premiums

How They Impact on Premiums

Law practices cease for a variety of reasons. For example, you might retire or sell your practice, merge with another practice or change your business structure from a partnership or sole practitioner to an Incorporated Legal Practice (ILP).

If you are planning any of these changes, you should contact your Law Society to discuss their requirements for your practice. Lawcover can then assist you with the appropriate insurance arrangements for your changed circumstances.

Where a law practice is reconstituted with little to no change except, say, to the name of the practice or its structure, Lawcover is able to transfer the PII policy and premium arrangements from the old practice to the new practice. However, there are a number of scenarios where the dissolved law practice may be entitled to a premium refund or where it is necessary for the new law practice to arrange its own PII policy. To discuss how a law practice dissolution may impact your premium, please contact Lawcover’s Insurance Services Team on 1800 650 748 or email insuranceservices@lawcover.com.au

Prior practice

It is important to note that the issue of whether the PII policy is transferred to the new law practice is related to but separate from the issue of whether a law practice has a prior practice. The policy definition of insured law practice includes any prior practice of the law practice, as determined by Lawcover under sections 39 and 40 of the 2024/25 PII Policy.

A successor practice will inherit the claims and premium history of any prior practice for insurance and premium rating purposes.