Why you may need counselling professional indemnity cover
Dealing with problems sensibly are at the heart of any good counsellor’s set of skills. Professionals need to be sensitive, well trained, and discreet, but sometimes businesses operating in this sector fall foul of legal wrangling due to the nature of their business. These days people are more aware of their rights, meaning they could take legal action if they feel they have been harmed by the advice they have been given. This means counselling professional indemnity cover is something for anyone operating as a counsellor to consider. It can provide a useful safety net for those worried about unpleasant claims.
This is not a complicated product, although some people may believe it to be because it has traditionally been associated with lawyers and architects. But it applies to anyone who provides professional advice as their main way of making a living. In short, it provides financial support if someone is formally accused of making a mistake, error, omission or act of negligence in their day to day business.
An indemnity insurance policy will pay out for legal help to defend such cases. It is important because hiring a law professional to defend an action can be an expensive and time-consuming prospect. Smaller firms may find they are immediately put into financial difficulty if they suddenly have to pay out a lot of money towards someone to represent them in a civil law case.
Up to certain limits, indemnity cover will pay out all legal bills associated with defending the case. They will even cover the cost of compensation if it is awarded to a complainant. A policy of this type also normally protects against a wide range of situations. Besides errors, it will protect a counsellor against allegations that they have breached someone’s confidence or copyright. It will even pay out against defamation actions.
Counselling professional indemnity cover is therefore potentially invaluable in the right circumstances. It takes away the worry of what a business would do if faced with a considerable legal claim. It is also quite flexible in that you can decide the level of cover your business needs which will relate to how much business you do and how many clients you have. Insurers will normally pay out right the way through a court case, from an initial hearing all the way up to the High Court. Although this may not be necessary, it is useful to know you will have protection no matter how detailed or complicated your case gets, provided it stays within the policy limit.
You can even arrange counselling professional indemnity cover for a kind of ‘run off’ period after you have ceased trading or when you are simply changing insurer, to protect against any claims which arrive when you would otherwise be in a vulnerable period when you’re not covered. Public liability insurance may even be included with some products.
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