Solicitors
When solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance returned to the open market in 2000, QBE positioned itself as a major insurer in this field. The size and diversity of the portfolio necessitated the development of sophisticated underwriting systems and claims management resources. In addition, a unique quality assurance-based approach to risk management was developed for solicitors’ practices of all sizes, democratising a service that has commonly been the preserve of larger organisations.
Our primary quality assurance-based risk management service for solicitors, either insured or seeking insurance, is the self-assessment process. This process uses a quality assurance focussed questionnaire to:
- provide a rigorous benchmark against which solicitors can assess their risk management controls;
- raise awareness across a broad spectrum of operational, regulatory and business risks;
- assist practices to fulfil their compliance obligations;
- enable underwriters to view individual firm’s risk profiles and delve deeper into areas of strengths and weaknesses of practice management and to make better informed underwriting decisions;
- facilitate comparisons of risk profiles within selected groups;
- enable underwriters to tailor coverage and risk management support solutions accordingly.
Over the decade or so that we have been using a quality assurance based approach to risk assessment, we have found that solicitor firms engaging in our self-assessment process have much lower claims value (by some 25%), than those that don’t engage. Hence, those firms participating in the process are more likely to benefit from competitive quotes.
The self-assessment process is completed in two stages using QRisk; QBE’s innovative web-based interactive software designed to help our policyholders to assess and manage their risks more easily.
1. Completion of the Questionnaire in QRisk
There are three levels of questionnaire as follows:
- Risk Management Essentials Questionnaire (RMEQ) - to establish necessary information on essential risk management controls, often used to assess risk prior to policy inception;
- Standard QA Questionnaire - a more extensive set of questions but still focussed on the essential risk management controls representing a high PI risk if found to be lacking;
- Comprehensive QA Questionnaire - a broad-ranging set of questions that provides a review of best practice approaches as advocated by a wide variety of sources. This extends the high PI risk questions covered in the Standard QAQ, to include those of medium and lower risk.
Your underwriter will invite you to complete one of the above although higher levels may be completed as an option. Reports on the questions and your answers, where completed, can be downloaded at any stage for sharing within your practice, and for input from others where needed.
2. Review Recommendations
For any requirements in the questionnaire that are not fulfilled, or only partially fulfilled, QRisk will generate automatic recommendations which are prioritised to 3 levels according to the likelihood of causing PI claims. QRisk enables you to provide feedback and submit any changes implemented as a result of the recommendations, from which your risk profile will be automatically updated. A Recommendations Report and updates can be downloaded at any stage.
Once you have provided us with feedback on any recommendations, you will be eligible to claim CPD points as our QA Questionnaires have been accredited by the SRA as a distance learning tool. The points awarded are:
- Standard (Short Form) QAQ and feedback process – 3 hours CPD
- Comprehensive QAQ and feedback process – 6 hours CPD
Using QRisk is completely free of charge to policy holders and some potential clients. Participants will benefit from a comprehensive and impartial review of their business and operational controls. A health check against similar criteria by an independent consultant could cost a four figure sum.
We hope you find QRisk straightforward, informative, and above all, an effective way to help you manage risk within your business. You will be given the opportunity to provide feedback on QRisk following completion of your questionnaire and we would encourage you to send us your thoughts to contribute towards its continual improvement.
What about Compliance?
Whilst our QA Questionnaires include compliance requirements and references to OFR principles and outcomes where appropriate, they are much more than regulatory compliance checklists. The questionnaires are built on best practice drawn from a variety of quality standards including ISO 9001, Specialist Quality Mark, and the Investors in People Standard, together with a range of legal and regulatory requirements impacting upon businesses generally, plus of course, our own extensive knowledge of professional indemnity claims. As such, the quality assurance approach is more comprehensive than many traditional risk assessment tools that respond only to failure events rather than incorporating best practice from the start.
Engagement in QBE’s risk management process through QRisk, will also contribute to fulfilment of your obligations under OFR, in particular Outcome 7.3 which requires businesses to:
“...identify, monitor and manage risks to comply with the Principles, rules and outcomes and other requirements of the Handbook...”
QRisk also provides links to QBE’s Core Management System precedent pack which contains an extensive array of forms, letters and policy guides that can be adapted to your business in order to implement many of the recommendations, helping you to comply with the second part of Outcome 7.3 of the Code:
“…take steps to address issues identified.”
The questionnaire generally will assist in achieving compliance with Chapter 7 (Management of your Business) as a whole, including Indicative Behaviour 7.3 which encourages firms to identify and monitor financial, operational and business continuity risks including complaints, credit risks and exposure, claims under legislation, relating to matters such as data protection, IT failures and abuses, and damage to offices. A new Risk Register product is in development to assist practices further with the achievement of this objective.
Additional Services
In addition to the self-assessment process available through QRisk, other support services are available. This may be in response to QBE Underwritings’ own requirements, for instance, following one or more claims, or at the request of a broker or policy holder.
Core Management System (CMS) Precedent Pack: This precedent pack of documents pack is intended to assist clients to implement controls considered to be high and medium priority in controlling exposure to professional indemnity claims, where no controls or limited controls only are in place. The precedent pack includes Procedures Manual plus precedent policies, forms, checklists and letters. It can be used as a stepping stone towards a recognised quality standard such as Lexcel but additional work will be needed to address lower PI risk elements and other business risks that are not addressed in the CMS pack. The documents can be accessed via QRisk and are cross-referenced at relevant questions and recommendations.
The following on-site & bespoke services are also available and may incur consultancy fees although, under certain circumstances, fees may be subsidised by QBE. Requests for these services should be made through your broker. As appropriate, for example in response to one or more claims, your underwriter may request for some services such as an on-site review to take place.
CMS Implementation Services: This is a ‘no-frills’ package designed to install the key management systems required to control risks. CMS generally takes 4-6 days of consultancy time and benefits from being quick and thereby cost effective to implement. It uses the CMS precedent pack detailed previously to keep the process streamlined and less time-consuming.
Site Audit: This provides a more in-depth investigation than is capable through the self-assessment or brief review process. Site audits involve examination of a complete cross-section of the firm’s files in detail and all practice management policies and procedures. Emphasis is placed on reviewing complaints and claims histories and the measures instigated to prevent recurrence of the problems encountered. To prepare for a site audit or review, please download our Solicitors - Audit Preparatory Checklist and Site Audit Information Sheet.
Quality Standards Implementation Service: This is applicable to organisations of all types and sizes utilising both generic QA standards (e.g. ISO 9001) and industry specific standards (e.g. Lexcel and Specialist Quality Mark). The process includes assistance with documentation, implementation, training, and preparation for third party assessment.
Training Services: Focussing on risk management, quality assurance and management systems, our training packages can be delivered as public courses or to individual practices whereby the emphasis can be tailored to suit particular claims issues and risk management issues within the firm.
Bespoke Consultancy Services: These are available to clients with unique requirements for which a service can be specially developed. This might include for instance, risk reviews with individual personnel, root cause analysis, or detailed claims reviews, and will draw on a mixture of risk management, quality assurance and analytical expertise.
