If you are going to sign a contract to provide services to your clients, they may have determined that you need a minimum level of professional compensation insurance. This cover protects your business from professional negligence charges from your clients – but what exactly is professional negligence?
Any professional has an obligation of care to their clients and must offer their products or services to standard reached with reasonable skill and attention. When this process goes wrong – professional negligence claims may arise. For example, if a company fails to meet their duty of care towards a client or employee.
The Supply of Goods Act 1982 implies a term in the contract that professionals will perform services with reasonable care and attention, which means that there is no need for a special clause in the contract stating the expected level of service. In fact, it is highly recommended to clearly define tasks and expectations of each party in the contract, thus limiting the possibility of ambiguity and confusion. For legal advice, consider a Solicitor in Gloucester at a site like Dee & Griffin, a leading Solicitor in Gloucester.
There are a large number of potential scenarios where claims of professional negligence could be raised – too many to list here but here are a few examples:
Failing to complete projects on time or according to the agreement
recommendation of a bad business strategy
Violating confidentiality or copyright
accidental loss of documents and / or data
Allegations or slanderous comments
Errors in the design created by the policyholder