By 1894, the London and Counties Medical Protection Society had grown to 1,000 members – with an annual subscription rate of ten shillings. Premises were taken in Sloane Square, London, and Le Brasseur and Oakley were retained as solicitors – the start of a lasting association, as the firm’s successor, Radcliffes LeBrasseur, remains one of MPS’s panel law firms today.
Until 1910, MPS only bore its members’ own legal costs, which could cause serious hardship for members if there was an adverse outcome. In 1911, MPS purchased collective insurance for members, to fund adverse costs and damages up to £2,000 for any individual member and up to £20,000 in any one year, at an additional cost of ten shillings.
By 1935, some hospitals and authorities had made membership of a defence organisation a compulsory pre-requirement to employment, which boosted MPS membership, and in 1939, MPS launched the Overseas Indemnity Scheme to afford protection to members practising outside the UK.
The “London and Counties” part of MPS’s title was dropped in 1947, but it was still affectionately referred to as “the London and Counties” by older members.