Law Mutual WA Overview

Law Mutual is the unincorporated association or body of persons who contribute to the Law Mutual Fund for the purpose of obtaining professional indemnity insurance and which is:

(a) provided with administrative services by the Society as trustee of the Law Mutual Fund under the business name “Law Mutual (WA)”;
(b) by the relevant sections of the Legal Profession Uniform Law Application Act 2022 (WA) (the Act) and under the name “Law Mutual (WA)”, continued as an entity under that Act; and
(c) a company within the definition of that term in s 995-1 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (Cth).

Under the Act, the Law Society of Western Australia is required to make professional indemnity insurance arrangements for practitioners and former practitioners (the PII arrangement).

Pursuant to section 155(2) of the Act, the Attorney General considers it is appropriate for the PII arrangement to be an approved insurance policy for the purposes of the Legal Profession Uniform Law (WA) and has approved the PII arrangement accordingly.

The Law Society is not licensed under the Corporations Act in relation to the operation of the PII arrangement and it is not regulated under the Insurance Act 1973.

 

Insurance

The PII arrangement is governed by the Act and the Legal Profession Uniform Law. The coverage provided by the PII arrangement is set out in the annual Master Policy.

Annual Contributions (commonly referred to as premiums) can be paid by EFT, cheque, credit card or premium funding. The Act requires law practices to pay their Annual Contribution and any administration levy by 15 May preceding the commencement of the Insurance Year (Section 158).

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Claims and Notifications

Law Mutual manages claims against an insured law practice or practitioners in accordance with its Claims Management Policy.

As stated in the Policy, Law Mutual’s aim in managing claims is to:

• ensure that insureds are financially protected and able to continue to offer legal services; and
• compensate the consumers of legal services for loss caused by its insureds professional negligence.

An insured can notify Law Mutual of a claim or circumstances that might give rise to a claim by downloading and submitting a Notify us of a Claim form.  Law Mutual’s objective is to ensure any notification is handled as swiftly and efficiently as possible to avoid further distress. For more information, please call us on (08) 9481 3111.

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Risk Management

Law Mutual’s risk management mandate is stated in its Risk Management Policy (for insureds). The mandate is to assist insureds to manage the risk of professional liability in the provision of legal services.

Law Mutual offers a range of risk management seminars. The Risk Management Seminar Programme 2022/2023  has been developed to focus on the needs of different categories of practitioners and law practices, whilst prioritising topics from the Practice and Matter Management Guidelines and reflecting issues identified in claims and risk profiling.

Practitioners are not required to attend a Law Mutual risk management seminar. However, law practices will be able to obtain a 5% discount on their base Annual Contribution Amount for the following insurance year if all of the Principals (partners or legal practitioner directors) and at least 80% of the employed practitioners of the law practice have attended at least two (2) hours of Law Mutual approved risk management training in the period 1 March to 28 February, subject to documentary evidence of attendance being produced upon request.

Law Mutual (WA) also provides tools and resources such as the Risk Control Map and Practice Management and Matter Management Guidelines to assist practitioners.

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Publications