Professionals, in any field, are still human. You have good days. You have bad days. Sometimes, you make mistakes in the work you do. Unfortunately, those mistakes can have profound and lasting impacts on the lives of others when made by architects and engineers. That is why you need professional liability insurance coverage.
Who Needs Professional Liability Insurance?
Essentially, anyone who provides a service to others needs to have professional liability insurance. When things go wrong, people often want to make sure that the responsible party is held accountable. The following professionals are among the service providers who may wish to purchase liability insurance to protect their business and financial interests.
- Accountants
- Engineers
- Architects
- Contractors
The list is hardly exhaustive but does provide a good idea of the types of professions that benefit from this important insurance.
What Is Liability Insurance for Professionals?
Professional liability insurance is a type of insurance that helps you defend yourself against claims made against you and to help you pay settlements or judgments against you. It is often referred to as errors and omissions insurance and works like medical malpractice insurance. In other words, it serves to help protect you from the financial fallout associated with mistakes made while carrying out your responsibilities as a professional in your field. It specifically exists to help cover claims of:
- Malpractice or inaccurate advice
- Misrepresentation
- Professional negligence
This is a type of insurance that is different from other liability insurance policies. For instance, you will still need general liability insurance to protect against injuries that occur on business property or cyber liability insurance to protect you against hacking incidents in your business.
What Does Professional Liability Insurance Cover?
As mentioned above, liability insurance for professionals is about protecting you against claims having to do with negligence or malpractice in a professional capacity. For engineers or architects, it may have to do with a measurement that was inaccurate resulting in work delays and additional costs to the consumer. Or, even worse, it could result in a structural integrity issue that results in injuries or deaths.
In these cases, your professional liability insurance coverage will help you cover attorneys' fees, settlements, or judgments against you up to the limits of your policy. If you have an umbrella insurance policy, that will kick in once your professional liability insurance funds are exhausted.
Ultimately, if you are an architect or engineer in today's society, you do not want to operate your business without the protection of a professional liability insurance policy. Reach out to a company near you that offers liability insurance.
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