Half of Engineers Not Covered for Injuries to the Public

Half of Engineers Not Covered for Injuries to the Public











London, UK (PRWEB) February 9, 2010

52% of UK Engineers are not covered for accidents or injury to the public, according to data from Coverzones, the business insurance comparison and policy management site, which has analysed a sample of 4,500 requests for insurance quotes over a three month period.

Eight in ten civil and structural engineers not covered for public accidents.

According to the Coverzones Engineering Insurance Report, only 48 per cent of engineers looked to purchase public liability insurance in the sample period, followed by just 29 per cent of civil engineers and 22 per cent of engineering consultants. Public Liability insurance covers policy holders against accidents and injury to the public, clients or customers. The implication of the data is that as many as 82 per cent of civil and structural engineers may not be covered for accidental injury.

Simon Ball, CEO of Coverzones: “Although Public Liability insurance is not mandatory for businesses in the engineering profession, considering that their work frequently requires professionals to visit clients on construction sites, it is extremely wise to be protected. You just have to turn on daytime television to see the prevalence of personal injury lawyers and the ease with which a claim can be made. It’s a sad truth that accidents do inevitably happen from time to time and, in an industry where work often occurs in hazardous environments, it is concerning that such a low percentage of companies are enquiring about this type of insurance.”

A third of Civil and Structural Engineers unprotected from cost of professional mistakes.

In the three month period, Coverzones data also revealed that just 65 per cent of civil and structural engineers had actively enquired about Professional Indemnity insurance, suggesting that 35 per cent may not be covered. This type of insurance protects policy holders against claims from clients who suffer a financial loss or damages due to negligence, breach of care or error in professional advice. 57 per cent of civil engineers, 56 per cent of engineering consultants and just 29 per cent of design consultants enquired about Professional Indemnity insurance in the three month sample period.

Although there is no official requirement from engineering bodies for companies to hold professional indemnity insurance, it is strongly recommended. It is often the case that engineers are required to hold and maintain cover to meet with clients’ contractual requirements and collateral warranty agreements anyway.

Ball continued: “It’s staggering, in an industry that’s been hit so hard by the recession, that such a high proportion of professionals are not protecting themselves. Imagine a situation where you might be chasing a client for unpaid fees and they file a counter claim alleging, for example, that you’d given a misleading estimate in order to delay or reduce their payment. Without Professional Indemnity insurance, you would have no recourse. Consider also that Chartered Engineers are often involved in calculations and planning of multi-million pound developments – a claim from just a single mistake could well cripple a business.”

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Protect Your Business from Liability Claims Using Public Liability Insurance

Article by Keystone.ie









Businesses that are directly associated with public are prone to liabilities as there are chances of accidents, even after making a conscientious effort to avoid them. If your customer or any other person sues you for death, injury or property damage at your premises and if you do not have public liability insurance, you may face significant costs that can cripple your business.

These liabilities pose a severe financial threat to the businesses. Apart from the claimed amount, the high legal costs incurred in defending the cases filed by the third-parties are also to be paid by the company. Hence, having public liability insurance is very important to get out of these unexpected heavy expenses.

Read on further to know about the frequency of personal injuries at business places and how the public liability insurance helps in protecting your business from these claims.

Statistics of injury claims: According to the reports released by the Injuries Board of Ireland, there were 8,645 personal injury claims lodged in the year 2009. Among them, one in six (17%) were related to public liability, with an average award amounted to 23,143 Euros for each claim. Nearly 51% of these accidents took place in privately owned establishments, 25% in retail/shopping outlets and 19% in pubs/night clubs or restaurants. With this high rate of accidents, businesses are required to take a public liability insurance to stay guarded of future legal claims.

Listed below are the benefits of having public liability insurance.

Reimbursement of claimed amount along with legal fees: Public liability insurance compensates you with the amount of reimbursement claimed by the third-party and also the money paid as legal charges for fending such claims. This is especially significant since you are required to pay large amounts of money as legal fees.

Covers expenses related to property damage: In addition to death and injury, the damage or loss caused to the property of the third-party is also covered. Hence, a public liability policy provides the third-party with the repairing costs of the damaged property or the cost needed to buy a new property.

Offers recovery expenses: Another good thing about the policy is that it offers recovery expenses. Along with the claimed amount and legal fees, the policy also provides medical aid to the injured person. This insurance covers costs related to hospitalization, treatment cost, medical bills, rehabilitation, and other damages. Some policies also offer domestic help and other aids to help the victim recover quickly.

Provides assistance in legal dealings: The main advantage of liability policy is that the business owners do not have to constantly worry about the legal fights. The insurance company deals with all the legal complexities associated with the claim. For instance, if you lose the case, the insurance company pays the compensation and the legal fees, and if you win the case, it collects the legal fees from the injured party. This way the insurance company eliminates your legal hassles.

Protects the employees: Public liability insurance cover helps and protects the employees in case they are responsible for any accident that injures or damages a third-party or his property due to negligence at work. As they represent the company, the policy indirectly protects them from legal costs. This shows the company’s concern towards its employees.

In order to survive in this litigious society, every business needs public liability insurance to protect itself from the risks, costs and compensations associated with accidents.



About the Author

Keystone Insurance Group is Ireland’s premier supplier of public liability insurance and business insurance solutions to Irish industry. We offer a broad range of builders insurance, construction insurance, and business liability insurance products. Our public liability insurance Ireland and business insurance Ireland products offer great value to contractors and general business customers. Our experienced and professional team quickly arranges quotes for all classes of business insurance.










www.peter-aston.co.uk Cottage Industry are a 4 piece ceilidh & barn dance band from Dorset specialising in song and dance from England, Ireland & Scotland plus medieval banquets, shanty sessions and Dorset, St. Patrick’s & Burns’ evenings. Cottage Industry were established in 1976, since when the band has been on one long rollercoaster of a tour! Gigs across the country have included theatres, castles, country mansions, hotels, boats, clubs and pubs – and leaky barns! It also seems like almost every village hall in Dorset & Hampshire has echoed to the sound of the band’s driving jigs & reels! Highlights of the past 30 years have included a ‘medieval banquet’ broadcast live from the BBC studios in Southampton and playing aboard a schooner owner by an exiled Cuban goldminer – with a crew of 10 Swedish girls! Over the years the band has done quite a lot of recording – starting in about 1978 in a 4 track garage studio owned by photographer Roger Holman, to BBC Maida Vale Studios in 1981 & 1982 which produced a release “We’re All for Swanage”, a song about Swanage Railway that made us famous on TV and radio – well, for about half-an-hour anyway! In recent years Cottage Industry have recorded in Peter Aston’s 16 track studio. Cottage Industry are available for engagements in England & Wales. A quick way to check our availability is to click on “Bookings” in the left hand menu. As Peter Aston is a member of the UK Musicians’ Union, engagements carry automatic public liability

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Why Your Business Needs Public Liability Insurance

Article by Dawie Bester









If you are a tradesperson or someone who operates a business where customers or visitors either enter your premises or you have to travel to your customers’ locations to execute your work, then you would need to have a public liability insurance policy. As the name implies, public liability insurance is an insurance policy that a tradesperson or business owner would purchase to protect a business from liability for injury or damage that could occur to other people or property, such as those occurring on your business property, or at the client’s establishment where you are conducting business. Basically, where clients and businesspeople are interacting, public liability insurance covers any possible damage or injury that can occur to people or property during the conducting of business or work.

If you own, or plan on owning a business in the future, one thing that will be extremely important is public liability insurance. What this means is that, if your business is responsible for injuring a third party, or is responsible for some type of damage to their surroundings wherever they may be, public liability insurance will protect them and cover them from any type of legal prosecution that they may be faced with. Without this insurance there as a safety net to handle any financial losses due to damages, you may be faced with paying out more then you can afford, at which point you’re basically out of business. If you want to avoid that from happening then you should make sure you have this very important insurance.

A number of businesses today are opting for public liability schemes despite the presence of some other type of business cover. However, you might already be covered by the public liability scheme as part of your existing business insurance. If you already have a public liability cover or you are planning to get one for your business, there are certain factors that you should keep in mind.

First and foremost, you should make sure that the public liability insurance you have opted for cater well to your business needs, depending upon the nature of business. You also need to estimate whether the existing cover is sufficient for your needs or if you need an extra coverage for protecting your business against other odds. You should also make sure that you are well aware of the terms and conditions of the insurance, so that you know what is covered under the policy and what is not. This would not only save you hassles later, but also ensure that you get an insurance cover for the aspects that were not covered in your earlier policy.

For any kind of business, you should make sure that you have all the insurance that is required. Firstly, you should understand the key points for the different types of insurance, and make sure that you have adequate public liability insurance, so that you can cover all the insurance required, if the business undergoes financial losses, or accidents that occur as a result of injury to a person or damage of the property.



About the Author

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