--- title: "Solicitor’s Firm Closed or Collapsed: Can You Still Claim?" url: https://professionalnegligenceclaimsolicitors.co.uk/solicitors-firm-closed-or-collapsed-can-you-still-claim/ date: 2026-10-09 modified: 2026-10-09 lang: en author: "pncs" description: "If your solicitor’s firm has closed, collapsed or been intervened by the SRA, your negligence claim does not disappear. Find out how run-off cover, direct claims against insurers, the Compensation Fund and limitation periods work, and what to do first." categories: - "Insurance" - "Lawyers" - "legal" - "Legal Negligence" - "Limitation periods" - "Litigation advice" - "negligence" - "Negligence Claim" - "Negligent Solicitor" - "Second Opinion" tags: - "law firm closed" - "Limitation period" - "negligent solicitor claim" - "Professional Indemnity Insurance" - "Professional negligence" - "run-off cover" - "solicitor firm collapse" - "solicitor negligence" - "Solicitors Indemnity Fund" - "SRA Compensation Fund" - "SRA intervention" - "Third Parties (Rights against Insurers) Act 2010" image: https://professionalnegligenceclaimsolicitors.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/solicitors-firm-closed-or-collapsed-1.jpg word_count: 1751 --- # Solicitor’s Firm Closed or Collapsed: Can You Still Claim? When a law firm closes, the instinctive fear is that your claim closes with it. The solicitor who missed a deadline, mishandled a settlement or failed to report a defect in a title may no longer have an office, a partner or a working telephone number. The law anticipated exactly this situation and built protections around it. The harder questions are which of those protections applies to you, which insurer is on risk, and how much time you have left. ## A Closed Firm Does Not Close Your Claim A solicitor’s liability for negligent advice does not disappear when the practice does. The duty was owed, the breach occurred and the loss followed whether or not the firm is still trading, and in practice the claim is aimed at the insurance standing behind it. The principles are the same ones we apply in any claim for [solicitor negligence](https://professionalnegligenceclaimsolicitors.co.uk/sue-negligent-solicitor-law-firm/), and the question of [who you can bring a claim against](https://professionalnegligenceclaimsolicitors.co.uk/start-professional-negligence-claim-standing-sue-legal-solicitor-claimant-advice/) is answered by looking at the firm, its individual principals and the insurer in turn. What closure does change is the pressure on time. The ordinary limitation period is six years from the date the cause of action accrued under [section 2 of the Limitation Act 1980](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1980/58/section/2). Where the loss was not apparent at the time, [section 14A](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1980/58/section/14A) allows three years from the date of knowledge, and [section 14B](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1980/58/section/14B) sets an overriding longstop of fifteen years from the negligent act or omission. None of these is paused because the firm has shut its doors. Claimants who wait for matters to settle often find the evidence has dispersed and the deadline has moved closer, a point illustrated by our report on a [firm that avoided a negligence claim after it was ruled time barred](https://professionalnegligenceclaimsolicitors.co.uk/firm-avoids-negligence-claim-after-it-is-ruled-time-barred/). Our guidance on the [limitation period in professional negligence claims](https://professionalnegligenceclaimsolicitors.co.uk/limitation-period-in-professional-negligence-claims/) explains how the dates are calculated. ### Want legal advice on the merits of your case? Your legal enquiry goes immediately to our PN litigation team in Middle Temple, London. We can't take on low value cases or give free legal advice - our minimum fee is £1750 +VAT for a conference with a solicitor and barrister. Call us on +442071830529. [Check My Case Now ✔](https://professionalnegligenceclaimsolicitors.co.uk/litigation-case-assessment-form/) ## Run-Off Cover: The Insurance That Outlives the Firm Every SRA-regulated firm must hold professional indemnity insurance, and when a firm closes without a successor practice, the policy in force at closure continues for a further six years. This is known as run-off cover. The SRA’s minimum terms require the firm’s last insurer to provide it even if the closing firm has not paid for it, as the SRA explained in its [consultation on post six-year run-off cover](https://www.sra.org.uk/sra/consultations/consultation-listing/solicitors-indemnity-fund/). Identifying the right insurer is where claims are often delayed. Indemnity insurance operates on a claims-made basis, so responsibility sits with the insurer on risk when the claim is first asserted against the firm, or when the firm notified circumstances that might lead to a claim. If another firm took over responsibility under its own insurance, it may be a successor practice, and its insurer rather than the closed firm’s may be the correct target for claims asserted after closure. The SRA will not rule on successor status, only offer a view from its records. Where a firm has closed, the SRA’s [professional indemnity insurance disclosure process](https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/professional-indemnity-insurance-guidelines/) is the route to the insurer’s details. The SRA says it aims to respond within 30 working days, that volumes are currently high, and that it will try to prioritise a request if you give it an exact limitation date. It adds that disclosure of insurer details says nothing about whether a claim will succeed. Some claims surface after the six years have passed. For these the SRA operates the [Solicitors Indemnity Fund](https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/solicitors-indemnity-fund/what-solicitors-indemnity-fund/), which may provide cover for claims against closed firms once run-off has expired. Late claims are a small minority, but with a fifteen-year longstop on negligence claims they are not hypothetical. ## When the Firm Is Insolvent: Claiming Directly Against the Insurer A firm that has collapsed is often insolvent as well as closed, which raises a fair concern: surely the insurance money simply goes to the creditors? Parliament addressed exactly this problem. Under the [Third Parties (Rights against Insurers) Act 2010](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/10/section/1), where the insured is insolvent the insured’s rights under the policy pass to the person to whom the liability is owed, so a client with a negligence claim can pursue the insurer directly rather than queueing behind other creditors. The Act’s [explanatory notes](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/10/notes) explain that the third party may start proceedings against the insurer without first establishing the insured’s liability, but cannot enforce against the insurer until that liability is established. Both questions can be decided in one set of proceedings. The claimant also takes the rights subject to the defences the insurer could have run against the insured, with limited statutory exceptions. In other words, the strength of the underlying negligence case, and how carefully the claim is notified and pleaded, matter just as much as they would against a solvent firm, as our guide to [issuing a professional negligence claim](https://professionalnegligenceclaimsolicitors.co.uk/start-issue-professional-negligence-court-claim-case-legal-advice/) and our article on [what a letter before claim should contain](https://professionalnegligenceclaimsolicitors.co.uk/what-should-be-in-a-letter-before-claim-action-for-professional-negligence/) both make clear. Where an administrator or liquidator now controls the firm’s affairs, they are a further source of records, and in some cases their own conduct can be scrutinised, a subject we cover in our article on [insolvency practitioner negligence](https://professionalnegligenceclaimsolicitors.co.uk/insolvency-practitioner-negligence-sue-an-administrator/). ## Your File, Your Money and the Compensation Fund If the SRA intervenes under [Schedule 1 to the Solicitors Act 1974](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1974/47/schedule/1), it closes the practice at once, and the firm can no longer act for anyone. The SRA’s [guidance on interventions](https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/solicitor-closed-down/intervention/) says it takes the client papers, including files and accounting records, and all money the firm held, including client money, and returns both to the people they belong to where it can. Files are requested through the SRA’s [document request process](https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/claim-papers/), which is free, requires identification and handwritten signed authority, and which the SRA aims to complete within twelve weeks of receiving everything it needs, although a large intervention can take longer. It also warns that acknowledging a request does not mean it holds your file. It will not destroy files in the first twelve months and keeps client files for a minimum of seven years after the matter concluded. The [SRA Compensation Fund](https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/compensation-fund/compensation-fund/) is a different remedy altogether. It is discretionary, and it responds where money has been stolen or not accounted for, or where a regulated person had no insurance in place. It is not designed to meet an ordinary negligence claim that the firm’s insurer should pay. Applications must be made within twelve months of when you first knew, or should have known, of the loss, the usual cap is £2 million per claim, and since 8 April 2026 the SRA has been prioritising applications by category after a large intervention. Under its current criteria, applications arising from commercial transactions are allocated to a caseworker nine months after receipt, and the SRA says the criteria will be kept under review. Nothing in the fund’s process pauses limitation for a negligence claim, so the two routes need to be run with their different deadlines in mind. ## What to Do in the First Weeks - **Establish how the firm closed**: A voluntary closure, an abandoned practice and an SRA intervention lead to different routes for your file and your claim. The [Solicitors Register](https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/register/) shows whether the SRA closed the firm, and the SRA’s page on [what to do if a firm has closed](https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/solicitor-closed-down/) explains the position for each. - **Recover your file**: Request it from the firm, its successor or the SRA. The file is the primary evidence in any claim, and our guide to [preparing witness evidence](https://professionalnegligenceclaimsolicitors.co.uk/preparing-witness-evidence-professional-negligence-claim-specialist-solicitors/) explains why it should be gathered early. - **Fix your limitation dates**: Work from the earliest date that could be argued against you, not the latest one you hope for. Our article asking [am I out of time?](https://professionalnegligenceclaimsolicitors.co.uk/limitation-periods-time-limits-bar-in-professional-negligence-claims-advice/) sets out the common mistakes. - **Identify the insurer**: Use the SRA’s disclosure process and give it your exact limitation date. Then put the insurer on notice with a properly particularised Letter of Claim. - **Take advice before you choose a route**: The Compensation Fund, run-off cover, the 2010 Act and the Solicitors Indemnity Fund apply different tests and different deadlines. A [fixed fee second opinion](https://professionalnegligenceclaimsolicitors.co.uk/second-opinion-legal-fixed-fee-new-representation-litigation-advice/) before you act can prevent a costly choice. ## How LEXLAW Can Help We are a City of London firm of solicitors and barristers based in Middle Temple, adjacent to the Royal Courts of Justice. We act in [professional negligence claims](https://professionalnegligenceclaimsolicitors.co.uk/professional-negligence-claims/) against law firms and their indemnity insurers, we can take over conduct of an existing claim when the original solicitors can no longer act, and we regularly represent clients at mediations with insurers. Because we operate as both solicitors and advocates, the person who assesses the merits of your claim is the person who can argue it. A closed firm is not the end of a claim, but it is the point at which careful early steps matter most. If your solicitors have closed, merged or been intervened, send us the details through our [case assessment form](https://professionalnegligenceclaimsolicitors.co.uk/litigation-case-assessment-form/) and our team will review your position confidentially. ### Want legal advice on the merits of your case? Your legal enquiry goes immediately to our PN litigation team in Middle Temple, London. We can't take on low value cases or give free legal advice - our minimum fee is £1750 +VAT for a conference with a solicitor and barrister. Call us on +442071830529. [Check My Case Now ✔](https://professionalnegligenceclaimsolicitors.co.uk/litigation-case-assessment-form/) ### Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) **My solicitor’s firm has closed. Can I still bring a claim?** In most cases, yes. Closure does not extinguish a negligence claim, which is usually directed at the firm’s indemnity insurer. Our [solicitor negligence](https://professionalnegligenceclaimsolicitors.co.uk/sue-negligent-solicitor-law-firm/) guidance explains how the merits are assessed. **How long does run-off cover last?** Six years from closure where there is no successor practice. After that, the Solicitors Indemnity Fund may respond to later claims. Limitation still applies throughout, as our [limitation guidance](https://professionalnegligenceclaimsolicitors.co.uk/limitation-period-in-professional-negligence-claims/) explains. **What if the firm is insolvent?** The Third Parties (Rights against Insurers) Act 2010 allows a claimant to pursue the insurer directly, subject to establishing the firm’s liability and to the defences the insurer could have raised against its insured. **Can I claim from the SRA Compensation Fund instead?** Only in limited circumstances. The fund is discretionary and responds to dishonesty, a failure to account for money or missing insurance, with a twelve-month application window. It is not a substitute for a negligence claim against the firm’s insurer. **How do I get my file back?** If the SRA closed the firm, apply through its document request process. Otherwise ask the firm or any successor practice. Either way, our [case assessment form](https://professionalnegligenceclaimsolicitors.co.uk/litigation-case-assessment-form/) is the quickest way to have a solicitor and barrister review what you have.