OSIGURANJE OD PROFESIONALNE ODGOVORNOSTI ADVOKATA – SRPSKA VERZIJA NOVOG OBLIKA OBAVEZNOG OSIGURANJA –

Although it has long been domesticated in comparative law, the institute of lawyers’ liability insurance is only recently (after adoption of the new Law on Advocacy) the part of our positive law. A new law regulates the lawyers’ liability insurance as a form of compulsory professional liability insurance and puts it in the section on rights and duties of lawyers. The paper is devoted to critical analyses of the provision of the said law that is introducing this very important kind of insurance into our country. Since the law only determines who is required to purchase this insurance, who is authorized to determine the minimum sums that must be bought, and what are the consequences of failure to meet such duty, the author expresses the opinion that such a provision is quite immature and it may become the source of problems in practical application. The introduction of the new type of insurance, especially if it is compulsory, requires the elements relevant for its implementation in practice to be determined as precisely as possible and legally defined. Therefore, the author seeks to open all the questions that may be disputable in the application of this provision and discredit the new types of insurance in the eyes of both lawyers and public. The biggest part of the paper is dedicated to the analyses of the issues that may arise in the practice of lawyers’ liability insurance: who is obliged to conclude this insurance and the time when it must be fulfilled, who are the contracting and the other parties to the contract, who are the third injured parties, the direct action rule, the form of the contract, the extent of coverage, who are the persons whose liability may be covered by this insurance, what is the insured event, the minimum sum of the coverage, losses that may be excluded from the coverage, and so on. The author believes that the lawyers’ liability insurance is crucial for the further developement of the lawyers’ profession in our country, as well as for providing legal services in line with EU standards.