What is Professional Liability Insurance for Engineers?
Professional liability insurance for engineers provides coverage in the event the client or a third party sues you. As an engineer, you provide expert service to your clients. These services come with the knowledge that you’re capable of performing the duty you’re being paid for. But if a mistake does occur, then that can lead to financial loss for the client. If the client tries to sue you, professional liability insurance for engineers will protect you and your business.
Is Professional Liability Insurance Required For Engineers?
Engineers should have two kinds of engineering insurance policies – professional liability insurance and general liability insurance. These two may look similar, but they provide coverage for very different things.
As an engineer, you want to ensure that you’re providing the best services possible to your clients. But this may not always be possible. Situations outside your control can cause delays or setbacks for your clients. For instance,
- You promised the client that you would complete the project by a certain date. By the time the date arrived, you were still not able to complete the project. The delay caused financial complications for your client, and they decided to recuperate the money by suing your business.
- You or one of your employees ordered an expensive product in excess. Most of the product was not used and it can’t be sent back either. The client sues your company as a way to get back the money they spent on the unused material.
- You haven’t done anything wrong, but the client or a third party sues your business, claiming that your bad advice cost them money.
In all these situations and more, professional liability coverage will cover you and your business. This includes your employees, the board of directors, as well as temporary hires, consultants, contractual employees, and so on if they are mentioned in the insurance document.
Engineers offer services to people. These services can include knowledge, consultation, design, programming, strategizing, and other services, depending on the type of engineering.
If your work fails to satisfy a client, you run the risk of being sued. Even if you didn’t do anything wrong, you’d still have to appear in Court to clear your name. This means that you’ll have to pay for expensive lawyer fees, Court costs, as well as fines, settlements are compensations as directed by the Judge.
Professional liability insurance for engineers, also known as PI insurance for engineers, will cover your defense and claims costs.