Quinn Insurance enters administration

Irish insurer Quinn Insurance, which has a substantial London Market presence, has gone into administration, leaving their policyholders in a potentially precarious position. Solicitors may be particularly at risk.

Quinn is reported to insure in the region of 2,000 firms of solicitors. However, if Quinn is removed from the Law Society’s list of approved insurers (which only includes insurers which are able to meet certain criteria, including being solvent), those solicitors will be required to find alternative insurance elsewhere, or face being placed into the Assigned Risks Pool. In either case, policyholders are likely to find the cost of obtaining alternative insurance to be prohibitive.

Also under pressure as a result of Quinn entering administration are the insurance brokers who recommended that their clients buy policies from Quinn. So far as their clients incur additional costs as a result of having to find cover with alternative insurers or, in the worst case, if Quinn becomes unable to pay policyholders’ claims, the brokers that placed insurance with Quinn are likely to face mis-selling claims from their clients.