Professional liability insurance, also called Professional Indemnity Insurance, protects professional practitioners such as Architects, surveyors, consultants, engineers, home inspectors, lawyers, physicians, and Accountants against potential negligence claims made by their patients/clients. Professional liability insurance may take on different names depending on the profession. For example, professional liability insurance in reference to the medical profession may be called Medical Malpractice. Notaries public may take out errors and omissions insurance (E&O). Other potential E&O policyholders include, for example, real estate brokers, appraisers, and website developers. There are also specific E&O policies for technology companies, such as software developers, technology consultants and other creators of technology. This coverage focuses on the failure to perform, financial loss and error or omission of the products or services sold. Additional coverage for breach of warranty, intellectual property, personal injury, security and cost of contract can be added.The primary reason for professional liability coverage is that a typical general liability insurance policy will only respond to a bodily injury, property damage, personal injury or advertising injury claim. The above mentioned professional services and products can cause claims without causing a bodily injury, property damage, personal injury or advertising injury. Common reasons alleged in making claims on these policies are negligence, misrepresentation, violation of good faith and fair dealing, and inaccurate advice. For example, if a software product fails to perform properly, it may not cause physical damages, personal or advertising injuries, therefore the general liability policy would not be triggered. It may, however, directly cause financial losses which could potentially be attributed to the software developer’s misrepresentation of the product capabilities.It’s important to note that almost all professional liability insurance policies are sold on a “claims-made” basis. This means that the insurance only covers work performed while the policy is in force, and for claims actually filed during the term of the policy. If you cancel your professional liability insurance policy without arranging for an extended reporting period, your coverage would end, and any claims submitted after the cancellation would not be covered, even though the work was performed while the policy was in effect. Allow us to customize a professional liability insurance policy for you that is affordable and effective.
How does professional liability insurance protect your business?
No one expects to make an error or omission that harms a client. But mistakes do happen. And even if you’re not at fault, a disgruntled client could bring a lawsuit against you. Many honest, hard-working business owners have been ruined by lawsuits that, although unjustified, diverted the owner’s time and resources away from running the business.
When you have professional liability insurance, any lawsuit should trigger a call to the agents at Accessible Marine Insurance, who will work with you to initiate the claim. You can return to the priorities of running your business, confident that the insurance company, which would have to pay any judgment against you (up to policy limits), will be protecting your mutual best interests throughout every step of the legal process.