Overall there were 1,806 claims open against the fund with the value of £196m, up 25% on a year ago.
This coincides with a decline in the number of law firms being closed by the SRA to a four year low. In the year to 30 September, the SRA intervened in 61 practices, compared to 76 in 2009/10, 87 in 2008/9 and 76 in the year before that.
Some 85% of interventions were into practices run by sole practitioners.
The number of practicing solicitors continues its inexorable rise, reaching a new peak of 124,306 in September, a 3% rise on a year earlier. There are now 161,815 solicitors on the roll.
The number of law firms has stayed fairly static, however, going up from 10,962 in September 2010 to 11,009 this year.
