The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) will now seek to extend the fund, which provides supplementary run-off cover for firms that have closed, until September 2023 while it considers points raised in feedback. Any extension must be formally approved by the Legal Services Board.
The SRA consultation, which ended in January, received more than 330 formal responses and saw direct engagement with about 3,200 people. It considered closing SIF and moving to an open market model as well as ending the requirement for post six-year run-off cover.
As a result of this feedback, the open market solution has been ruled out. The SRA also reports the majority of respondents did not support the option of ending the requirement for post six-year run-off cover since, although claim volumes are small respondents thought the potential impact on individual consumers could be significant if no protections were in place.
Respondent law firms and solicitors also expressed willingness to contribute toward funding future arrangements and highlighted the risk that future claim volumes might increase.
Anna Bradley, SRA chair, said: ‘There was widespread agreement that providing appropriate consumer protection was key, but there is clearly still room for debate about how this might be delivered.’
I Stephanie Boyce, president of the Law Society, which campaigned to keep SIF open, said: ‘We are delighted the SRA has listened to our concerns about closing SIF and has instead given the fund another chance.
‘Possible alternatives to SIF include making changes to how the fund is set up and operated, reducing the scope of protection it gives, or finding a different consumer protection vehicle funded via SIF’s surplus—which may also be subsidised by the profession.’
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