Professional Liability
Professional Liability
A Professional Liability (also known as Professional Indemnity or Errors and Omissions) cover gives you assurance when a professional oversight results in legal liability for compensation to third parties. While this cover is often a pre-requisite under contracts for professional services, every professional should carry such cover even if there were no contractual requirements.
Having sound Professional Liability cover is not just for when mistakes are made. It is also meant as a defensive mechanism for unjustified legal suits. While you may be confident in your service delivery, if a disgruntled party with deep pockets sues, you will still have to deal with it. A Professional Liability cover will take care of the legal defense and investigation costs as well.
Generally speaking, claims are few and far in between. However, if they do occur, the legal expenses and damages sought can be staggering enough to end businesses.
At Kloon, we have seen such claims and thankfully our clients today have not only survived but are thriving. The claims we see under Professional Liability are usually complex and can be drawn out over years. It is therefore important to select the right insurer and even more important to develop a good relationship with the insurer. This is the ethos of our service to clients in this area.
There is no standardised cover for Professional Indemnity. As such, the price range in the market can be wide. Watch out for cheap covers that are offered by digital platforms or amateur providers. The likely compromise for cheap and fast covers is usually tight policy wordings that may result in a very unpleasant surprise in a claim situation.
For example, a policy that covers you for Civil Liability is far superior to a policy that simply covers you for Negligence. Unless specifically advised, our covers protect you for broad Civil Liability and are not narrowly confined to liability due to Negligence only. One of the biggest claims we have assisted with would have been ignored by the insurer if the cover we structured was based on Negligence. Our client was not negligent but still a lawsuit arrived and our policy from a stellar insurer assisted much to the relief of our client who for 10 years trusted us blindly on our advice. When the time came to call upon the policy, their trust in us did not disappoint.
Today, we have arranged not just one but three layers of Professional Indemnity covers for this client because they now know the importance of being covered with adequate limits by insurers with integrity.
Our covers always are structured to give you assurance during a claim first and foremost. Then we focus on cost-effectiveness. If budget is an ultimate concern, we will also be upfront with you on the possible shortcomings. Let us understand your business and we will advise you on a suitable solution.
