Any company or individual providing services should consider the need for Professional Liability Insurance. Professional Liability Insurance provides critical protection against Third Party claims arising from mistakes made by the service provider.
In today’s fast-paced and dynamic business environment any service provider can make mistakes. With the economy becoming ever more reliant on service providers these mistakes will often lead to dissatisfied customers who will look to the service provider for compensation. Claims against the service provider will also often involve long and costly legal expenses which Professional Liability Insurance provides cover for. Put simply without the right insurance protection companies are at risk of financial disaster or even closure.
People who need Professional Liability Insurance
• Accountants
• Expert Witnesses
• Outsourcing Companies
•Acupuncture
• Franchisors
• Photographers
• Architects
• Funeral Directors
• Physiotherapists
• Advertising Consultants
• Graphic Designers
• Public Relations Advisers
• Agricultural Consultants
• Health Spas
• Publishers
• Arbitrators & Mediators
• Immigration Consultants
• Property Managers
• Architects
• Insurance Brokers
• Printers
• Associations •Insurance Agents
• Psychologists
• Auctioneers
• Insolvency Practitioners
• Radio Broadcasters
•Auditors •Internet Service Providers
• Recruitment Consultants
• Barristers
• IT Consultants
• Risk Management Advisers
• Bookkeepers
•Lawyers
• Call Centres
• Life Coaches
• Technology Companies
• Computer Programmers
• Loss Adjusters
• Telecommunications
• Counselors/Social Workers
• Management Consultants
• Television Broadcasters
•Credit Bureaus
• Market Researchers
• Training Consultants
• Data Processors
• Marketing Consultants
• Translators
• Education Institutions
•Notaries
• Veterinarians
•Engineers
• Alternative Therapies
• Web Designers
• Event Managers
Common Mistakes
Claims against professionals and service providers often emanate from basic mistakes, process failures, simple human errors and poor business decisions rather than pure negligent professional advice. These mistakes can happen to anyone regardless of the industry they are in. The below cases are actual examples of some common mistakes that have occurred within certain industries.
Lawyers
• Failure to lodge litigation proceedings within the required deadline.
• Drafting mistake in a lease agreement.
• Not carrying out the relevant checks in a property transaction.
Insurance Brokers/Agents
• Insurance cover not placed in time resulting in a claim not being covered.
• Insurance cover is inadequate for the risk.
•Wrong Advice in reducing limits on Property Insurance
Real Estate agents
• Property sold below market value causing loss to the owner. •Agent unknowingly provided misleading information in
a property purchase.
• Failure to adequately manage a renovation project resulting in the death of a tenant’s child.
Architects
•An architect specified incorrect materials in a design and the building was not approved by the council.
•An architect hastily signed a completion certificate on a new apartment block and numerous problems were found.
Recruitment Agent
•A recruitment agent failed to adequately check the work history of a candidate and the individual stole from a client.
Management Consultant
•A management consultant provided incorrect advice on how to re-structure to a large financial company. This has lead to increased costs, resignations and large financial loss to the company.
Teaching Organisation
•A school failed to provide the correct health and safety services at a sports day and a Third Party suffered a bodily injury.
Counsellor/ Social Worker
•A social worker failed to pick up key symptoms in a patient and failed to refer to correct medical help resulting in a suicide and a damages claim from the patients family.
Accountants
• Missed a critical deadline in filing tax returns.
• Poor advice in respect of a merger between two
companies.
• Failure to recognise fraudulent activity in a company audit.
IT Consultants
• A software/hardware system does not meet client expectations.
• Failure of a software platform resulting in the clients system going down.
•Transmission of a computer virus whilst installing software on a client network.
Media
•Alleged defamatory comments in a newspaper article. •A TV company breached Intellectual Property rights in
broadcasting a show without recognising the author.
•A Printer had to re-print thousands of brochures due to an error in the draft.
Engineer
•A structural engineer got the design of a commercial building wrong resulting in a roof collapsing.
•An engineer incorrectly designed the ventilation in a library that required significant remedial work.
Travel Agent
•A travel agent made errors in booking a schedule for a business conference trip resulting in significant costs to rectify.
Wedding Planner
•A wedding planner failed to arrange florist, photography and catering services for a large wedding overseas. The wedding has had to be rescheduled at significant cost and emotional distress.
Municipality
• A council negligently designed a new reading system which is now subject to a claim from an affected Third Party.
Call Centre
•A call centre team misrepresented the insurance cover available on credit cards sold by a bank. They faced claims by both the Bank and customers.
