Originally Posted by llanfairpg
Self employed instructors are just that self employed.
Are they? Ask your local HMRC office. I can guarantee you that the majority of so called 'self-employed' instructors, if that is their only source of income, are NOT self employed (with no insurance cover).
As for the rest of your post, I could not agree more; you can guarantee that a barrister following a claim against a defendant will rip to pieces anything s/he can get her hands on to destoy your defence. We do tend to leave ourselves wide open. The industry is very much old school (and in some ways that is not a bad thing) but we do now live in the 21st century (with its many imperfections) and like it or not we need to put up our umbrellas.
I would be very interested to see your pre-solo written test (PM).