If you are thinking of starting a consultancy or a professional services business don't neglect to protect yourself. You may be giving the best advice that you can give - but the result may turn out sour. In those cases often the advice recipient, especially if they paid you for that advice, may feel you are to blame.
Professional Indemnity Insurance will protect you against having to pay damages and legal costs should a claim arise against you.
Cover includes:
- Breach of professional duty - Breach of copyright - Breach of confidentiality - Libel and slander - Loss of documents How it works.
Professional indemnity insurance is designed to cover businesses in the event that they are pursued by third parties who claim that they have suffered a loss as a result of their professionals negligence.
Examples of how a claim could arise and the costs involved are as follows (in each of these cases the lose was covered by Professional Indemnity Insurance – but think of the cost if it hadn’t) :
An advertising consultant put the wrong telephone number in an advert and was sued for loss of income and damage to the advertisers brand. In this particular case the claimant was awarded £25,000 in compensation. Luckily the consultant had insurance to cover the claim.
A management accountancy practice failed to alert their client to losses resulting from an employee falsifying sales returns. Compensation awarded against them £14,000
A translator made an error in a technical brochure, resulting in reprinting costs and damages for the client's loss of business. Compensation awarded against them £20,000
A graphic designer adapted a drawing from a text book for use as a logo, and was sued for breach of copyright. Compensation awarded against them £35,000
Remember if your business provides advice or consultancy you have a responsibility to your clients and any breach of that responsibility could lead to a claim against you, causing serious damage to your business. Get yourself covered, or you just could lose your business.
To learn more about this author, visit Lawrence Gilbert's Website.
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Life and Death
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"Life is a highly contagious, incurable disease with a 100% mortality rate."
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Lawrence Gilbert
(Visit Lawrence's Website)
Spent time in France and Canada, before
returning to the UK. Studied Engineering
at Brunel University, and obtained a
masters in Management Science at Imperial
College, London. After running a couple of
small engineering companies held
management roles at HP, Digital, and Cray
Supercomputers before starting Oribus a
management consulting company.
Founder and CEO of Company Partners ltd
(w
ww.companypartners.com), a business
partner matching service for those
starting or growing a company. Non Exec
director of a number of SME businesses.
Member of the SLD (Second Level Domain)
panel of Nominet, the UK domain registry.
Advisor to the Regional Development Board
for Wales. Author of several articles
published in national papers and in new
media on small business, raising funds
through Business Angels, the importance of
partners in starting a business and
others.
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