Getting Insured Is A Must
Professionals are no less fallible than any other human beings, having even a higher exposure, both due to the high expectations of their clients and their heavy workload (and the stress under which they carry out their activity). If you add to this a practice that involves sensitive and vital aspects – like health, beauty or the relationships between people, then getting insurance is a must for overall protection in case of trouble. In fact, legal and medical businesses are requested to purchase professional indemnity insurance according to law.
If you have a medical practice, for instance, you know that different bodies react differently to various stimuli, and, as such, you are well aware of the wide range of unexpected events that may happen. Such a simple occurrence like your client having some soup before the consultation, containing some cauliflower he has allergy to, that he ate completely unaware, may change entirely the course of events and make you and he believe that something was wrong with the injection you administered him. Till things may get clarified, you seem to be guilty and liable to pay. Besides the fact that occasional errors are always possible, you, as a doctor, can be held liable even for the mistakes or misdeeds of your receptionist or your nurse.
But nothing may be more expensive and time-consuming than legal troubles, and, if you have a law practice, especially in our litigious world in which nine cases out of ten end in a court of law, then you are facing huge risks. Whether you are a solicitor that prepares contracts of sale-purchase of property or a divorce lawyer, you’d better have professional indemnity insurance, at least in the form of malpractice insurance, so that to be sure that some figures typed wrongly by your secretary or your own misjudgment regarding some piece of evidence and, consequently, the advice you gave to your client wouldn’t make you accountable and oblige you to pay huge amounts from your own pocket.
On the other hand, the self-employed can easily become victim to the claims made by professional lawyers, especially if they don’t know their rights. As such, if you don’t want to lose everything you have in a split second, in case someone cleverer appears that knows how to turn the situation upside-down, you’d better be properly covered for negligent acts, negligent errors or negligent omissions, or even for something wider as civil liability, which includes also breach of contract, slander or libel.
In any case, whether you purchase contractor liability insurance, employer’s liability insurance, malpractice insurance or medical indemnity, according to your specific needs, you’ll be protected against any person, company or organization asking for compensations for the damages or injuries you, your firm or your personnel caused it.