The lines and words are blurry: professional liability, malpractice, E&O, media liability, isn’t it all the same thing anyway?
Professional Liability is the catch all phrase for many types of policies that protect service businesses, professional services, and companies in the intellectual property business. We know how confusing this can be so let me sort this out for you.
- Protect yourself with professional liability insurance
A Professional Liability policy protects the insured from third party claims (usually your customers) alleging wrongful acts, errors or omissions in providing their services. With that simple definition, you can then apply this to all types of professional services such as Doctors, Lawyers, Accountants, Technology Firms, Consultants, Insurance Agents/Brokers, etc.
A Media Liability policy protects the insured from third party claims (usually not your customers) alleging copyright and trademark infringement, libel, slander, plagiarism, invasion of privacy, defamation and other similar torts arising out of the content you created (TV, Film, Live Theater, Books, Websites).
Defense costs are part of the coverage under both types of policies and when you consider the premium costs vs. the actual attorney’s fees if you are sued, the premium becomes a fraction of the cost. Having the insurance in place before this happens is a good idea.
Below is a chart that provides examples of actual claims in the various industries.
click on image to view larger version
Misusing the “F” Word Can Get You in a Lot of Trouble
By · CommentsNever Say the “F” word, unless of course you are mad at someone, then go right ahead…
A flood claim is one of the most misunderstood types of losses. Customers call all the time telling us they had a “flood” and “what should they do?” and our first reaction is NEVER SAY THE “F” WORD AGAIN.
When talking to customers, we usually discover that their roofs were damaged and started leaking, or the sub-pump malfunctioned and water flowed into the basement or a pipe burst in the bathroom causing damage to the two floors below. These types of losses are covered under most insurance policies as water damage. Just because it looks like a flood, feels like a flood and smells like a flood does not mean it’s a flood by insurance company definition!
The official FEMA (Federal Emergency Maintenance ACT) definition of a flood is excess water on land that is normally dry or a general and temporary condition of partial or complete inundation of two or more acres of normally dry land area or two or more properties (at least one of which is your property) caused by:
- Overflow of inland or tidal waters
- Unusual and rapid accumulation or runoff of surface waters from any source
- Mudflow
- Collapse or subsidence of land along the shore of a lake or similar body of water as a result of erosion or undermining caused by waves or currents of water exceeding anticipated cyclical levels that result in a flood.
Acts of nature like Hurricane Katrina that cause flooding create the most anguish for homeowners and businesses.
Protest against hurricanes with flood coverage
That’s because they have windstorm/hurricane coverage but no flood coverage and it’s very hard to adjust those losses.
Everyone today is in a flood zone as many losses over the last 10 years have occurred in zones that were never defined before. Discovering that you don’t have flood coverage at the time of a loss is definitely not cool. Ask your broker/agent what flood zone you’re in – don’t wait for a flood to happen, because if you do you will be using the “F” word a lot that day!
For Definitions of FEMA Flood Zone Designations that all insurance companies use today, click on this link to the Fema Map Service Center.
