LIANS / CLIA professional liability insurance policy and cyber coverage for the policy year commencing July 1, 2025 through July 1, 2026 is now posted the Member Login section of LIANS’ website.
The renewal liability policy number is #38000 and it includes, as in prior years, Parts A, B and C plus endorsements:
- Part A – Basic Insurance and applicable endorsements (mandatory professional liability coverage provided by LIANS);
- Part B – Excess Insurance and applicable endorsements (optional, provided by CLIA to those who purchase it directly from CLIA); and
- Part C – Trust Protection Indemnification Policy (Lawyer’s Fund for Client Compensation provided by the Society)
There are three minor amendments to Parts A, B and C from last year. Over the course of each year, CLIA and its subscribing jurisdictions (of which LIANS is one) will agree to amendments, primarily to clarify intent and coverage.
Liability amendments for this policy year are as follows:
| Expired Wording Form 37000 in effect from July 1, 2024 – July 1, 2025 | Renewal Wording Form 38000 in effect from July 1, 2025 – July 1, 2026 | |
| Part A Section 2.4(a)(i) | Each Insured against whom one or more Claims are made in respect of an Occurrence shall pay the Damages covered by this Part A for that Occurrence up to a maximum amount of $5,000.00 (the individual deductible). | Each Insured against whom one or more Claims are made in respect of an Occurrence shall pay the Damages covered by this Part A for that Occurrence up to the applicable amount set forth in paragraph 5(d) of the Declarations (the individual deductible). |
| Part B Section 3.14 | In addition, the insurance coverage given by this Part B does not apply to: 3.14. a Claim against an Insured made by the Insured’s Law Firm, or by a person who was practising law through the Insured’s Law Firm at the time of the Occurrence giving rise to the Claim; | In addition, the insurance coverage given by this Part B does not apply to: 3.14. a Claim against an Insured made by the Insured’s Law Firm |
| Part C Definition of Member | Member means a person who, at the date of the Occurrence, was a practising lawyer as defined by the regulations of the Insured and, at all relevant times, was acting in the capacity of a lawyer | Member means a person who, at the date of the Occurrence, was a practising lawyer as defined under the Legal Profession Act and, at all relevant times, was acting in the capacity of a lawyer |
The renewal liability and cyber policies are posted to the Member Login section of the LIANS site. This will require you to login as a practising insured member. NOTE: To register your login account, visit the Membership Request page, where you will enter your name, the email address associated with your NSBS Membership Account and your NSBS Member Number.
You should take a few minutes to review the policies in their entirety.
Please keep the terms and conditions of your policies confidential.
Referring to the cyber coverage, we would remind you of Exclusion VIII.CC of the cyber policy which states that the insurer shall not be liable for any claim, directly or indirectly arising out of:
The failure of the…Law Society Member to:
a) Enable and enforce multi-factor authentication for all remote network access for authorized users and third parties
b) Back-up copies of data at least weekly, to store such back-up copies of data offsite, and to test the back-ups annually;
c) Update the Law Society Member computer network with new protection patches, anti-virus software, and anti-spyware within two weeks of critical patches being released; and
d) Install, maintain, and actively monitor, within reasonable business practices, firewalls and endpoint protection on their computer network.
e) Engage in cyber awareness training on at least an annual basis.
f) To have email scanning enabled for malicious links and attachments.
This exclusion is not unique to the coverage included with your LIANS insurance levy. If you have your own standalone cyber coverage, you will likely find it there as well.
As to part (e) – annual cyber awareness training – it is important that you engage in cyber awareness training at least annually.
If you are in a firm, it may very well be that you have access to such training. If so, we recommend you review it and make it available to all your staff. If you do not have access to programming at your firm, or if you are interested in additional resources, we recommend the following, all of which is free.
Carnegie Mellon University in partnership with the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) has produced a series of eight 3-minute videos covering the fundamentals of cyber security. They are available at: https://www.cmu.edu/iso/aware/videos/ncsa-videos.html. The “Training and Awareness” tab on that page will link to further resources.
In addition, from that site or by clicking the following link, you can access further NCSA resources: https://staysafeonline.org/resources/
Also, our friends in Manitoba have created a resource library containing relevant articles and videos on cyber security which you can access at https://educationcentre.lawsociety.mb.ca/practice-resources/practice-management/cyber-security/
With the increase in cyber incidents, we cannot understate the importance of maintaining good cyber hygiene.
Should you have any questions about the policies, please feel free to contact me.
Sincerely,
Lawrence Rubin
Director of Insurance
lrubin@lians.ca