Since 1970, every lawyer in private practice in British Columbia has been required to have professional liability coverage, which provides compensation for negligence and, in rare cases, if the lawyer has stolen trust funds or property. To best serve lawyers, and indirectly protect the clients they serve, in 1986 the Law Society of British Columbia established its own professional liability indemnification program and continues to successfully operate it today.
The BC Lawyers Indemnity Association (BCLIA), an unregulated entity, issues the policy that provides this coverage to lawyers, and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Law Society. Effective January 1, 2021, BCLIA assumed all the rights and obligations under all earlier policies of the LSBC Captive Insurance Company Ltd., which previously provided the coverage.
The Lawyers Indemnity Fund (LIF) is the division of the Law Society that manages the program. LIF operates independently and separately from the complaints and discipline functions of the Law Society. Claims information, including reports from covered lawyers, our investigations, and payments, is held in strict confidence from and is not shared with complaints and discipline staff. The one narrow exception to this is information relating to theft by a lawyer. Visit the Law Society’s Complaints and Discipline webpage for more information.
We are a group of lawyers, an insurance professional, a paralegal and administrative assistants, dedicated to maintaining the program’s exemplary standards and achieving exceptional results for the program and our covered lawyers.