What is professional liability insurance in Canada?
If you provide professional, creative, or digital services for a living, having professional liability insurance can help you cover costs your business might face from unexpected lawsuits.
If you provide professional, creative, or digital services for a living, having professional liability insurance can help you cover costs your business might face from unexpected lawsuits.
If you consult, design, or provide any type of service to clients, you know that mistakes sometimes happen because, well, nobody’s perfect. Whether you accidentally miss a deadline or forget a critical requirement, these types of errors could expose your small business to costly lawsuits from your clients. If a client suffers a loss because of errors in your work, they could file a suit against your small business. Having professional liability coverage built into your policy can help protect your business from costs associated with these types of lawsuits.
Professional liability insurance helps protect your business if a client holds you responsible for errors in your work. If your client suffers a loss due to errors in your work or feels that you failed to meet their expectations, they could serve you with a lawsuit.
Professional liability insurance in Canada is designed to help professionals protect themselves from costly client lawsuits.
Any small business that provides a service for a fee should consider having this type of coverage, including:
One of the benefits of having proper insurance coverage is peace of mind. The truth is, mistakes can and do happen. If you provide a professional service to your clients in exchange for a fee, your business is vulnerable to professional liability risks. Knowing that you’re covered if you make an unfortunate mistake that results in a loss will help keep your mind at ease so you can continue to focus on your business.
Here are 4 common scenarios where professional liability insurance comes in handy:
Here are some things you can do as a small business owner to help protect your business from professional liability risks and help avoid lawsuits as a result of mistakes in your work:
Even if you’ve implemented all of these best practices, some mistakes may still be made. Having professional liability insurance is an effective way to help keep your business shielded from the cost of minor mistakes and major lawsuits.
Commercial general liability insurance: Commercial general liability (CGL) insurance is designed to protect you and your business from a loss if you’re found legally liable for bodily injuries or property damage to a third party caused by the product you sell or the service you provide. CGL insurance can also offer protection in situations where you or your employees are conducting business offsite.
Product liability insurance: Product liability insurance is often included in a CGL policy but not always. It’s important to double check that your small business insurance policy does protect you from risks associated with product liability claims.
Cyber risk and data breach coverage. Cyber attacks are an ongoing threat to small businesses and have continued to rise recently. Cyber event expense coverage is designed to help small businesses that rely on technology mitigate some of the expenses that may incur as a result of a cyber hack.
Property insurance: As a small business owner, you likely rely on your property, tools, equipment and technology to help keep your business running. If one of those key pieces of the puzzle was damaged and needed repair, you may not be able to continue operations. This is when you need property insurance coverage.
Equipment breakdown insurance: Your equipment is covered in your property insurance policy for damage caused by external sources, such as fire, floods and weather damage; however, you may not be covered for electrical or mechanical damage. In these situations, you’d look to your equipment breakdown insurance.
Commercial auto insurance: If you or your employees use your vehicle for business purposes you need commercial auto insurance to protect that vehicle in ways your personal auto policy may not be able to.