Do I need professional indemnity insurance/liability insurance?

SaverSarah_2

Hello. I work as a freelance editor and proofreader and have done for eight years. It occurred to me recently that perhaps I ought to take out some sort of insurance cover in case a job I worked on went wrong (say a document went to print containing a mistake) and the client tried to sue me.

First of all, what is this type of insurance called?

Secondly, can anyone recommend a good price comparison site, or a good insurance company that offers this type of product.

I managed to find one comparison site before Christmas. Can't remember what it was called. It took all the details from me then said they couldn't give me a price and someone would call me the following day. They never did. Ahem!

Any advice gratefully received.

:beer:

Astaroth

I would be very surprised if these types of insurance policies turned up on price comparison sites as they are much more uniquely tailored to the applicant than you bog standard motor policies etc.

Do you need it? Legally you dont and therefore there is a simple question of how risk adverse you are. Obviously there is a risk that your actions result in you being liable for reprinting costs/ loss of earnings etc however your standard contract should try and mitigate this as much as possible.

As well as this you could also take into consideration that some larger clients may require you to have insurance in place before they ever consider taking your services on... on our group website we have a form for people who want to become a supplier to us to complete (on a speculative basis) and in addition to all the normal questions about turnover etc it does ask how many million pounds of liability cover you have.

mattymoo

A lot of printers get their insurance cover through the British Printing Industry Federation on a special scheme. You may be able to do something through them since you are in an associated trade.

SaverSarah_2

That's interesting, thanks guys.

I must be very fortunate never to have been refused work because I don't have the insurance, and I do work for plenty of large, blue-chip organisations. It's probably because I'm handling only smaller (less than £1,000) jobs for them, rather than multi-million-pound contracts (if only!:rotfl:). Maybe it's also because they approach me to provide a service, rather than the other way round.

Astaroth

Possibly... but at the same time I am looking for a very basic webhosting package for my employers for a purely internal thing and whilst the webhosting is only going to cost £30 a year our solicitors will have to be involved in negotiating the contract at £800 a day with an estimate of 3 days... when you get to blue chips, esp banks they always have to check their asses are fully covered.

SaverSarah_2

Lordy! That's extreme!

I'm very glad I no longer work in the corporate world, so to speak.

:A