Professional Indemnity Insurance
A professional person or company providing advice, design or a service to another, owes a duty of care to that person or company. If work is carried out negligently the consultant can be held legally liable for the financial consequences.
Normally advice or services are provided under the terms of a contract; liability usually arises because there has been a breach of duty of care under the contract. However there is a trend towards liability arising “just because things have gone wrong”.
A Professional Indemnity Insurance Policy will protect against Professional Indemnity claims by enabling consultants to vigorously defend claims but if shown to be responsible, will deal with the financial consequences (subject to policy limits).
There are a number of areas that professionals working in the environmental field have to consider to ensure that any insurance policy they may take out provides the correct coverage.
In particular:-
Exclusions
- Pollution and Contamination risks are often excluded
Scope of Cover
- Contractual Liability is usually always excluded but generally cover for an element of contractual exposure is needed such as collateral warranties
The IEMA strongly recommends that members hold Professional Indemnity insurance to protect both themselves and to also ensure that if a dispute with a client arises, there is a route to independently investigate the claim and if appropriate compensate the client.
The IEMA works with preferred Broker S-Tech Insurance Services and through S-Tech you are able to obtain free of charge advice, information and quotations.
For many consultancies, S-Tech can offer an enhanced wording only available to IEMA members.
S Tech Insurance Services Ltd
Contact Tim FitzJohn or Sarah White
Telephone No. 01223 324233
or visit their website at
http://www.s-tech.co.uk/com/iema.asp
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