Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Self Employed Public Liability Insurance Cover

By Sirius Grant


As a self employed person operating your own personal business you confront risks on a daily basis that aren't encountered by those employed by other people. Whether you are actually a sole trader operating under your own personal name or actually an employee of your own limited company, you're personally exposed to a wide range of legal liabilities that could fall upon you in the normal course of trading.

For many people starting in business, they'll think that the spectre of legal action against them just isn't a realistic risk to their business and its success, except in this ever increasingly litigious society, where everybody is seeking somebody to blame, incidents do happen and when they do they can be very expensive to resolve.

As a small business and as an individual you are responsible for the actions of yourself and your company and if you cause property damage or personal injury to 3rd parties, you might be sued in respect of the legal liability in respect of these injuries or damage.

Third party liability insurance or public liability insurance is the policy of insurance that protects you against claims against you in respect of your legal liability to third parties in respect of personal injury and property damage.

The market for third party liability insurance for the self employed is such a large and highly developed one that the expression self employed liability insurance has become used as if this were a distinct type of insurance. In actual fact it isn't, it's a public liability insurance policy albeit with a variety of available features from various insurers.

Even though public liability cover is not a legal necessity for firms in all but an extremely small number of occupations and professions, it is an essential business insurance protection which could avert financial disaster for the self employed.

Under the self employed public liability coverage you will need to choose a limit of indemnity; this amount will be insurer's maximum liability under the contract and customary limits in the United Kingdom are 1M, 2M and 5m while there are growing calls for higher limits.

The limit your decide will very much depend on the industry you happen to be involved in and any contractual requirements you might have placed upon you. Clearly the higher the limit, the more costly the insurance will be although this isn't a proportional increase. Generally a 2M limit might be 20% more expensive than a 1M limit.

One of the key features of the policy is that it includes your legal defence expenses, which for many can be considered as a very powerful aspect of the cover. If someone makes an allegation against you regarding your possible responsibility for a potential loss, then your insurance company will respond and handle the defence of the claims - regardless of whether you are liable or not.

Legal defence costs can be extremely expensive, even if you are successful in your defence and can place your business and you in a dangerous financial position.

One important aspect in the arrangement of your self employed liability insurance is to ensure that your business description under the contract is accurate and adequately conveys the business activities in which you might be engaged. it is for this business description that the insurer has accepted the responsibility under the coverage and work outside the normal understanding of that trade won't be covered.

For most self employed people the cost of adequate liability insurance protection is relatively small and it is a very cost effective way of managing the risks to your business.

There are various providers involved in the supply of liability insurance and immediate quotes can be found usually on the web. A specialist liability coverage broker will generally have the ability to give you a range of quotes from insurance companies to meet your requirements.




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