Thread: Insurance

Hi Everyone,

I've been doing contract programming for one of my previous employees but I am looking to expand and have gotten interest from other companies. I have general liability insurance(2 million) for my company but is that enough?

What other type of insurance should I consider?

I also have contracts that I got drafted by a lawyer. They said the contract plus the liability insurance should be enough but I dont want to get screwed.

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Get a good insurance agent. Trying to figure this out yourself is a fool's errand. General liability may or may not cover you, it will probably exclude professional liability. Here are a few insurance types that are options (this is all US terminology):

General Liability: this is for someone hurting themselves while visiting you, stuff burning down, etc. If it's just you in an office or home office, there is a cheap policy called a Business Owner's Policy that covers this. As your needs grow, you'll have to move up to a real general liability policy

Professional Liability: When you screw up a program and crash a machine, this is the policy that protects you.

Non-owned auto: if you're driving your personal car to go visit customers.

Originally Posted by Flipz87

I also have contracts that I got drafted by a lawyer. They said the contract plus the liability insurance should be enough but I dont want to get screwed.

I would trust the Lawyer when they told you it should be covered. Is there a particular reason you are still concerned?

I know I stress out about liability sometimes with some of the architectural fabrication work I do. I just try to make sure I pay attention to what I am doing, and if everything is triple checked I will never need my insurance. I also turn down jobs from time to time (that seem high risk of liability) for that reason.

I try to also include some language ,when I am making components for other people as part of a larger assembly, that the safety/functionality of the finished product is there responsibilty to inspect and confirm. Which seems reasonable to me since the sum of all the parts creates a new part that I have no control over.

I am not sure anything can protect someone from blatant negligence.
I feel like just make sure you double check everything, and keep meticulous records showing who designed/approved what parts. Don't be afraid to turn down work either if you are uncomfortable with the job. Sorry I don't really have any imput as to your specific trade related insurance question. Though I would think that there are policies out there that focus more narrowly on design and drafting, but possibly only for people liscensed in certain fields. (Like architects and engineering trades)