Liability Insurance for Legal Professionals
The legal profession, aside from generating litigation, is itself often a target. This high profile profession is also quite vulnerable. Individuals who provide professional services, such as lawyers, are contacted for advice in difficult situations. Their decision to represent a client gives no assurance that the client will persevere and when the client losses, he or she often turns to litigation against the legal team to recover their losses. Therefore, a legal profession must be insured to protect the law practice from claims of malpractice, error, or mistake committed or, alleged to have been committed, by the insured in the course of pursuing the clients case.
Professional liability insurance offers protection for professionals that extends to their clients. The coverage given by Professional liability insurance shields personal assets and corporate assets. A defense will be made on the behalf of the insured by the Professional liability insurance provider that will maintain his or her good reputation through the defence of allegations of wrong doing which prove to be frivolous or false.
For the client who truly has suffered some damages through the actions of a professional, liability insurance will ensure that there are adequate funds available to make amends to the claimant without harm being done to the legal professional. A professional liability policy covers errors, omissions or negligent acts that may arise in the course or providing the usual duties carried out by the insured. In many countries, when the professional is an employee of a firm, his or her culpability can extend to the firm, as the employer, who is ultimately is responsible its employees' actions. However, it is also possible that a court of law may find a professional personally responsible for an error, omission or negligent act committed by the professional as an individual. In both cases, professional liability insurance offers protection.
Most Professional liability insurance policies include an Errors and Omissions clause and it is standard in most cases. This insurance covers damages caused by mistakes made by the professional or damages caused by something the professional failed to do that was within his or her capability. Clients often claim that something was done on their behalf incorrectly, and that this error cost them to lose their case, resulting in a loss of money or other harm.
Professional legal service work places an obligation on the individual to see that the task is properly performed. Any error or omission in the performance of a particular duty may make the individual responsible for client damages. Therefore the Errors and Omissions clause in Professional liability insurance is designed to protect the individual in such a situation.
by Sally.Anderson 19 years ago