Subject to Bar Mutual’s Terms of Cover, your policy provides you with an indemnity for Claims made against you and the costs or expenses of defending Claims. It also, again subject to the Terms of Cover, provides you with an indemnity for the costs of defending Disciplinary Proceedings.
In the event of a Claim or Disciplinary Proceedings being brought or intimated against you, please contact us as soon as possible. Where the Claim is in the form of a Letter of Claim or Preliminary Notice pursuant to the Professional Negligence Pre-Action Protocol, or where the Claim or Disciplinary Proceedings are only intimated against you, or where you are concerned that they may be intimated in the future, you must have in mind your professional obligations and duties of client confidentiality and privilege before sending information to us. Please contact us to discuss what information you can disclose to us when notifying us about such matters. You can do so by email, by post or by calling us. Email notifications should be sent to claims@barmutual.co.uk. This is the method we would encourage you to use as a claims handler can then quickly be identified to assist you, and we will endeavour to contact you that same day. Should you wish to speak to a claims handler please call us on +44 (0) 20 7621 0405. Our postal address is Bar Mutual Indemnity Fund Limited, 90 Fenchurch Street, London, EC3M 4ST.
Bar Mutual’s claims handlers are highly experienced and skilled in dealing with Claims made against barristers, and in defending Disciplinary Proceedings. Bar Mutual has operated as the sole provider of primary layer professional indemnity insurance to all self-employed barristers practising in England and Wales since 1988. Our claims handlers are all qualified lawyers and the team prides itself on providing a first class service to Members. It has developed and maintained a formidable reputation in the professional indemnity market for defending barristers.