Well let's start with the planes as on 1 October in 1881 the American Engineer and aviation pioneer William Edward Boeing was born in Detroit, Michigan. The name Boeing remains one of the most recognizable throughout the aviation world even now over half a century since his death.



So what about the trains then? And why is October 1 such an important date in the railway world? This time we have to go back to just October 1st 1964 which is when the world's first high speed railway, the Tokaido Shinkansen (or the Japanese Bullet train), opened between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka. By it's 40th anniversary in 2004 over 4.16 billion passengers had traveled on the Tokaido route and it today remains the world's most heavily traveled railway route.

So that brings us onto modern day living and the significance of the date of October 1st on lawyers and solicitors.

Well for UK solicitors and legal professionals the date may not have the same global impact as Boeing or the Bullet Train but October 1st still remains a significant date due to changes in the year 2000 when the Law Society opened the way for Solicitors Professional Indemnity Insurance to be sold via the Commercial Insurance market when the Solicitor Indemnity Fund (SIF) ended.

This change in the legal profession meant that for the vast majority of UK solicitors the date of October 1st has become surnonimous with their Solicitor Professional Indemnity Insurance renewal.

Since 2000 we've seen:

• Solicitor fee income increasing by on average 7% per year

• Solicitor PI claims increasing by around 5% per year

• Premium income falling with 2006 showing a fall of around 10% from £234 million to £211 million

• The compulsory limit of cover for solicitors doubling to £2 million from £1 million

So with more fee income, more claims and more cover you might expect premiums to rise but the trend has been for solicitors insurance to fall. For solicitors this of course is great news and no doubt 2007 will once again mean more insurance providers fighting for a slice of the solicitors insurance PI.

For most of us this means very little but for solicitors, lawyers and UK legal professionals this means that in order to continue doing business they have to make sure their firms Solicitor Insurance is in place and renewed by October 1st.

Business Insurance and specifically Professional Indemnity Insurance for Solicitors is a highly competitive market so firms such as Northern Counties Insurance Brokers (The UK's Solicitor Insurance Brokers) have set up facilities aimed at making the purchase of Solicitor Insurance as simple as possible.

With online quote facilities, SMS quote request facilities and above all a fast, friendly and reliable service at hard to beat Solicitor Insurance premiums it has never been easier for UK Solicitors to see how much they can save.