Professional Indemnity, Public Liability & Medical Malpractice Insurance

If you provide a service of any kind, even if you do so free of charge, regard it as a hobby or make only a small income from it, there is always the possibility of someone making a claim against you – that you did something wrong, or perhaps didn’t do something that you should have done.

With the best will in the world, even the most honest and professional person can make a mistake. Worse, allegations can be received and have to be fought even if you are blameless but have to prove it!

Should this happen the consequences can be drastic: not only can it be very stressful and time consuming, but legal costs escalate fast and if the claim is successful the compensation to be paid can cripple your business. Of course, if you’re a sole trader your business is ‘you’, in which case it will be your personal assets (savings/ property equity etc) that will be used to cover the costs.

So, the question is, 'Would you want help handling such an unfortunate situation, and with cover costing so little, doesn't it make sense to have it?'

As this is a policy ‘in aggregate’, all of the listed liabilities below would be covered up to your chosen cover level, which means that one or more claims can be covered by this policy, as long as its requirements are met and the whole amount does not exceed your chosen cover limit.

This policy is written on a claims made basis which means that the policy covers you for claims made against you and notified to us during the period of insurance. An exception would be if you received a claim during the period of insurance for something you did before obtaining thing insurance, if the event occurrence falls within the period of your retroactive date.

• • - Public Liability
  • - Products Liability
  • - Medical Malpractice
  • - Professional Indemnity
  • - Breach of confidentiality
  • - Breach of intellectual property
  • - Loss of documents
  • - Defamation
  • - Dishonesty of employees
  • - Legal costs
  • - Public relations expenses
  • - Your work as a subcontractor
  • - The work of your subcontractors, provided they have their own liability insurance in place

• • - Prior or pending acts
  • - Bodily injury insurable elsewhere
  • - Clinical trials
  • - Your property or property in your care
  • - Product repair or replacement costs
  • - Claims arising from computer viruses
  • - Claims arising out of the manufacture of products
  • - Claims based upon insolvency
  • - War
  • - Nuclear
  • - Pollutants
  • - Asbestos
  • - Intoxication
  • - Hepatitis, HIV or Aids
  • - Abuse
  • - Discrimination

Note: on this page you will find abbreviated information for guidance only – subject always to the full Policy Wording.

Definitions

• Malpractice: bodily or mental injury, illness, disease or death caused to a customer
• Professional indemnity: negligence or a breach of a duty of care. In other words, you did something you shouldn't, or didn't do something you should have done
• Public and products liability: a customer hurts themselves at your premises, or a product you supplied failed, caused harm or was not as described
• Defence costs and expenses: all legal costs incurred in defending a claim, and compensation paid out as a result of a successful claim
• Breach of confidentiality: you or one of your staff accidentally disclose private information
• Breach of intellectual property: you or one of your staff accidentally use copyrighted material
• Continuous cover: for claims that should, but weren’t notified at a date prior to the policy provided that a previous policy with this insurer was in place at that time
• Coroners inquests: : covering the costs of representation and your attendance at any Coroner's inquest
• Court attendance costs: covering the costs of attending court (subject to maximum daily amounts)
• Defamation: compensation paid because you or one of your staff said something deemed defamation, libel or slander – up to £25,000
• Dishonesty of employees: loss suffered through the dishonesty of a member of staff – up to £25,000
• Extended notification: is a grace period of 60 days after the natural expiry of your policy in which you can notify us of any claim that arose during the policy period
• Good Samaritan acts: treatment you gave in a medical emergency, accident or disaster
• Loss of documents: covers the cost of replacing and restoring lost or damaged documents – up to £25,000
• Public relations expenses: when engaged in protecting your reputation - up to £25,000
• Representation costs: covers costs of representing you at an investigation
• Retroactive date: the date specified in the schedule from which we will cover business you performed but only where such business was disclosed to and accepted by us
• Your work as a subcontractor or agency work: when you are contracted or employed to work
• Your subcontractors: work others do on your behalf, provided that they also have their own insurance

The cost of your policy will vary depending on a number of factors (see below), but here is an example of a typical policy:-

The cost of your insurance will vary depending on the following:

• The number of people to be covered.
  You should only include those people employed by you, or working on your behalf under your business name, who provide the service for which you are seeking insurance. People who perform a purely administrative role do not have to be included.

• The level of indemnity cover required.
  You can choose from £1, £2, £5 or £10 million cover, although £10 million is subject to additional conditions. For many…. have at least £5 million.

• The size of your business.
  In this particular situation size is determined by the turnover of your business. This is how much income your business receives in a year – NOT the profit you are left with after expenses, or the amount you pay yourself. You don’t have to worry about knowing the exact amount but will be asked to choose from our range of income brackets, the lowest of which is up to £125,000.

• Whether or not you do business overseas.
  You must inform us if you conduct business with overseas clients. If this includes the US and Canada it may increase premium.

• Discount
  Westminster is very pleased that many training organisations, accreditation bodies and membership groups recommend our insurance to their students or members, and in turn we support the professionalism that these organisations encourage by offering a discount to their students/members.

  If you belong to such a body then please ask them or us if they are one of our introducer organisations.

Getting a quote, or multiple quotes, and buying insurance from Westminster couldn’t be quicker or easier. You can have your documents in minutes. All online, you can do it whenever suits you best and be in control of the whole process, but if you have any questions we are more than happy to hear from you.