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Legal services
Yes. If you give legal advice, draft documents or support litigation without being a solicitor, you need professional indemnity insurance, and it has to match what the law lets you do. A drafting slip or a missed court deadline can cost a client money without injuring anyone, so public liability will not respond. PI does, subject to its terms. But policies are usually written around the work you are entitled to carry on, so knowing the legal boundaries is part of buying the right cover.
Part of: Professional indemnity for consultants
In short
In England and Wales, legal consultants and freelance paralegals can give legal advice and draft many documents, including wills and most contracts that are not deeds, without authorisation. Six reserved legal activities under the Legal Services Act 2007 do need it, and carrying one on when not entitled is an offence under section 14. In March 2026 the Court of Appeal held in Mazur that an unauthorised person can conduct litigation for and on behalf of a supervising authorised individual. Giving immigration advice is an offence unless you are qualified, for example by registering with the Immigration Advice Authority, whose regulated organisations must hold PI. Claims management and debt counselling are separately regulated financial services activities.
Last reviewed 5 October 2026 by the Apex professional indemnity team.
Professional indemnity (PI) insurance usually covers your legal liability when a client, or a law firm that engaged you, says your work fell below the standard of a competent adviser and caused a financial loss. It pays for your defence too. For a legal consultant or paralegal that work might be contract drafting and review, employment or regulatory advice to businesses, legal research, document preparation, disclosure and bundling for law firms, or support for people running their own cases.
Public liability (PL) is about accidents: a client tripping over a cable in your office or a box of files damaging a hired meeting room. It does not respond to a limitation clause that turns out to be unenforceable, or a court deadline you diarised wrongly. Those are professional negligence allegations, and PI is the policy for them.
PI also does a particular job for unregulated legal advisers. Clients may assume you carry the same protections as a regulated firm. Holding PI that fits your actual services, and saying so in your terms, is how you meet that expectation.
These examples are illustrative. They show the kinds of allegation unregulated legal advisers face, including two where the boundary of what you may do decides whether PI responds. They are not real claims.
In each case the first question is whether you used the care expected of a competent adviser. For unregulated advisers there is often a second: whether you were allowed to do the work at all.
The Legal Services Act 2007 does not stop you giving legal advice. It reserves six activities to people who are authorised or exempt, and makes it an offence to carry one on when you are not entitled. Other laws regulate immigration advice, claims management and debt advice separately. This page covers England and Wales.
| Activity | What the law says | Can an unregulated adviser do it? |
|---|---|---|
| Rights of audience | Appearing before and addressing a court, including calling and examining witnesses. Forums where no restriction applied before the Act’s appointed day are excluded. | Not where the right is reserved. |
| Conduct of litigation | Issuing proceedings in a court in England and Wales, prosecuting or defending them, and ancillary functions, except where no restriction applied before the appointed day. | Where reserved, only for and on behalf of a supervising authorised individual, following Mazur. |
| Reserved instrument activities | Preparing transfers and charges for Land Registration Act 2002 purposes, lodging documents for registration, and preparing other instruments relating to real or personal estate or court proceedings. Wills, powers of attorney and agreements not intended as deeds are outside it, but contracts for the sale of land are inside it. | No. |
| Probate activities | Preparing papers on which to found or oppose a grant of probate or letters of administration. | No. |
| Notarial activities and administering oaths | Work customarily done by notaries, and the powers of a commissioner for oaths. | No. |
| Immigration advice and services | It is an offence to provide them unless you are a qualified person, for example registered with the Immigration Advice Authority (IAA) or authorised by a designated professional body. | Only if registered and working within your IAA level. |
| Claims management | Since 1 April 2019 the FCA has regulated claims management, including advising, investigating or representing claimants in six sectors: financial services and products, personal injury, housing disrepair, specified benefits, criminal injury and employment. | Only with FCA permission for that sector. |
| Debt counselling | Advising a borrower about the liquidation of a debt due under a credit agreement is a specified regulated activity under the Regulated Activities Order. | Only with FCA authorisation. |
Section 14 offences carry up to two years’ imprisonment on indictment, and an offence committed by purporting to exercise a right of audience or to conduct litigation is also a contempt of court. The IAA, which was called the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner until January 2025, investigates and prosecutes people who give immigration advice illegally.
In September 2025 the High Court held that unauthorised staff could support, but not conduct, litigation under supervision, a decision the Court of Appeal later noted had real-world impact. On 31 March 2026 the Court of Appeal allowed the appeal in Mazur [2026] EWCA Civ 369. It held that an unauthorised person can lawfully perform any task within the conduct of litigation for and on behalf of an authorised individual, such as a solicitor or appropriately authorised CILEX member, who keeps responsibility for it. The authorised individual is the one carrying on the conduct of litigation, and the unauthorised person commits no offence.
Two limits matter for freelancers:
Expect a PI proposal to probe exactly where your work sits. Insurers want to know whether you work through law firms or directly for the public, who supervises any litigation work and how that is recorded, whether you help litigants in person and with what tasks, and whether you ever touch conveyancing, probate, immigration, claims or debt matters. They will also ask how you describe yourself, because marketing that suggests you are a solicitor or a regulated firm invites both complaints and coverage disputes. Clear answers, backed by engagement letters that define your role, make cover easier to place and harder to dispute later.
| Usually covered by PI | Often excluded or limited | Needs a different policy |
|---|---|---|
| Negligent legal advice and research within your stated services | Reserved legal activities you are not entitled to carry on | Accidental injury or damage at your office or a client’s premises (public liability) |
| Drafting errors in contracts, policies and other unreserved documents | Immigration, claims management or debt advice without the required registration or authorisation | Injury to your own staff (employers’ liability) |
| Mistakes in paralegal work done for a law firm under supervision | Fines, penalties and the costs of a prosecution | Loss of client files or data through a cyber attack (cyber insurance) |
| Missed deadlines and diary errors, where the work was within your role | Fee disputes and claims for refunds | Theft of client money by an employee (fidelity or crime cover) |
| Defence costs, including responding to complaints that become claims | Work outside the business description, such as tax or investment advice | Claims against you as a director of a client company (directors’ and officers’ liability) |
Every policy is different and cover is subject to the insurer’s acceptance and the wording. Describe your services precisely. A policy written for “legal consultancy” may be read narrowly if most of your income comes from paralegal work for firms, or from employment advice.
For most unregulated legal advisers no law sets a PI limit; the figure is driven by clients and the firms that engage you. Law firms using freelance paralegals often set a minimum in their engagement terms, and business clients may do the same for contract or compliance work. Immigration advice is the exception: every IAA-regulated organisation must hold current and adequate PI to join or stay in the scheme, and the Commissioner recommends a minimum of £250,000.
Base your limit on the largest loss one piece of work could cause. An unenforceable clause in a template used across a client’s business, or one mistake repeated across a bulk instruction, can produce a claim much larger than the matter in front of you. Check whether your limit applies to each claim or in the aggregate.
PI is claims-made, so the policy that pays is the one in force when the claim arrives. Drafting errors often surface only when a contract is tested in a dispute, which can be years later. Keep cover continuous, keep your retroactive date when you switch insurer, and arrange run-off when you stop practising: see run-off cover explained and claims-made and occurrence cover.
A complete proposal gets better terms than a bare one, and a broker can only present what you tell us. Have these ready:
Speak to a broker
PI for legal consultants and paralegals, placed by a named broker
Start the online proposal and save it as you go, or leave your number and a named broker will call you back, usually the same working day.
Apex Insurance Brokers is an independent insurance broker based in Bristol, established in 2009 and authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. We are not tied to one insurer: we work with over 30 markets, including Lloyd’s syndicates through wholesale brokers, and every client has a named broker who handles the placement, mid-term changes, certificates for clients and the renewal.
See also: Paralegal PI insurance
Yes. Drafting errors, poor advice and missed deadlines cause clients financial loss rather than accidental damage, so public liability does not respond. PI covers your legal liability for that loss and your defence costs, subject to the policy terms, as long as the work is within your business description and you were entitled to do it.
Not generally. No law requires unregulated legal advisers to hold PI. Immigration advice is different: the IAA’s Code of Standards requires every IAA-regulated organisation to hold current and adequate PI, and the Commissioner recommends a minimum of £250,000. Law firms and business clients commonly require PI in their engagement terms.
Following the Court of Appeal’s decision in Mazur in March 2026, an unauthorised person can carry out litigation tasks for and on behalf of an authorised individual who supervises them and keeps responsibility. Acting for a litigant in person is different, because they cannot delegate the conduct of litigation to an unauthorised third party.
Usually not. Carrying on a reserved legal activity when not entitled is an offence under section 14 of the Legal Services Act 2007, and policies for unregulated advisers are written around work you may lawfully do. Disclose everything you do on the proposal and ask before taking on work near the boundary.
Yes, if you give immigration advice or services to an individual. It is an offence unless you are a qualified person, such as someone registered with the Immigration Advice Authority, formerly the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner, or authorised by a designated professional body. Unqualified work is unlikely to be covered by PI.
Employment is one of six sectors in which advising, investigating or representing claimants is claims management, regulated by the FCA since 1 April 2019. Check with the FCA whether your work needs permission before taking it on, and tell your insurer. Advising employers on HR matters raises different questions.
Apex arranges professional indemnity insurance for legal consultants and paralegals across the UK. Tell us about your work and we’ll find cover that fits. Or call 0117 325 0027.
Start your PI proposal Call 0117 325 0027Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered in England and Wales, company number 07014570. This page is general information, not advice on your individual circumstances. Cover is always subject to the insurer’s acceptance and the policy terms, and this page does not guarantee that cover will be available or on what terms.
