Does Public Liability Cover Professional Service or Advice?

Public Liability can cover you against a lot of business claims. But, does public liability cover professional service or advice? Read on.

Business claims can come in many shapes and sizes. Public Liability can cover you against a lot of them. However, does public liability cover professional service or advice? You see, Professional Liability is a standard excluded in all Public Liability policies. Luckily, there is a type of insurance specific to professional services and advice. It’s known as Professional Indemnity (PI) Insurance. PI can cover claims which result from any alleged behaviour that may have resulted in loss, damage, or injury.

In this particular article, we’ll discuss what may fall under Professional Indemnity insurance.

1. Unprofessional Advice

So, where could unprofessional advice apply? If you, as a business professional, give any sort of negligent advice to a client which may result to injury or damage.

For instance, a doctor providing the wrong medication to a patient causing an allergic reaction. The doctor could be sued. Keep note, words and advice can be powerful as a professional. Therefore, make sure you’re protected in case your words could go the wrong way for a client.

2. Failure to Exercise the Required Level of Skill

If your business requires any form of practical service, there may be a certain level of skill and competency expected from you. Failure to do so may be classed as negligence if it ends up in loss or injury.

Let’s use our unprofessional doctor again to illustrate an example. The doctor fails to provide a patient’s medication for their illness. What happens next? The patient gets worse and their illness increases. The bottom line, they could be liable for causing harm. Why? Failure to exercise the level of skill required by a doctor.

3. Breach of Professional Duty

Lastly, breach of professional duty. This could apply if you may be giving advice or providing a service that involves charging a fee in exchange. Basically, a client could make a claim if they suffer some form of damage or loss as a result of paid advice or service.

For example, a building surveyor made an error when filling in a report for a client purchasing a home. If this error may result in a structural damage in the future, the surveyor could be liable. Therefore, it would be advisable for the surveyor to get PI insurance. It can prove crucial for professionals!

Conclusion

To conclude, PI Insurance is the path to take when it comes to protecting your business against professional service or advice. At the end of the day, we are only human and mistakes can happen. So, be protected and take out PI insurance. More information can be found on our blog that talks specifically about Professional Indemnity. However, we also advise you get additional insurance advice by speaking to one of our insurance brokers.

FD Beck has a free online insurance quoting tool tailored for contractors, consultants or freelance professionals. In fact, our online calculator has almost 150 professional occupations to choose from. FD Beck’s online PL insurance calculator offers limits options of $5,000,000, $10,000,000, and $20,000,000. Better still, our online calculator includes other products such as PI and Cyber Insurance. That’s just to name a few.

For over 100 years, FD Beck has protected Australians. Rest assured, we have the knowledge and expertise to handle every aspect of your insurance needs.

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