subject: PROFESSIONAL INDEMNITY INSURANCE: Be Aware Of Your Duty Of Care [print this page] PROFESSIONAL INDEMNITY INSURANCE: Be Aware Of Your Duty Of Care
If you're in the business of providing professional advice or services, you owe a legal duty of care to your clients. It means, in practice, that if as a result of something you do (or fail to do) in your professional capacity the client suffers a financial loss, you are liable for that loss. And it's this concept of a duty of care that makes professional indemnity insurance so important.
In today's litigious business world, if something goes wrong, there's an instinctive response to find someone external to blame and to make that someone pay. And increasingly, the mechanism for achieving that is to allege negligence or, in other words, a failure to provide that all-important duty of care.
Of course, it can be difficult to prove. But from your point of view, as a freelancer or a small consultancy, that will only add to your problems if you don't have any pi insurance. Why? Because the legal costs you'll incur in seeking to defend yourself could be ruinously expensive. And, much as you might want to, you can't just ignore it if a claim is brought against you. The only alternative you have to defending yourself is to admit liability. And that, if you don't have professional indemnity cover, could lead straight to you having to pay out an even more ruinously expensive sum in compensation.
For large organizations, recourse to the law is a relatively easy option. For you and you business it could be a cost too far. So make sure you have the indemnity insurance you need to protect yourself. Call 01480 470220 or email info@coulsonpritchard.com
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