Professional Liability Insurance Question

There's some information here: http://www.writermag.com/wrt/default.aspx?c=a&id=712

Not sure it really helps, but it's all I could find.

You might check whether there's an umbrella liability policy you could get that might also cover your freelance work. I suspect most, if not all, of those policies contain an exception for business-related lawsuits, but it might be worth checking the language of the policies. Although, the LLC might also complicate matters, b/c umbrella policies cover individuals, not companies, I believe.

JD, not giving legal advice, just general information, and it's been way too long since I studied this kind of insurance contracts.

I don't know anyone in this market, but let me give you some ideas that might work. Before I do, however, let me warn you that insurance has become more difficult to acquire in speciality markets over the past ten to fifteen years. I just read that State Farm is not going to write any new policies in Mississippi because of its problems there. Florida requires insurance companies to cover some of the less than desirable markets if they want to sell insurance. And the market nationwide for health insurance is rediculous (sp?).

Insurance companies are willing to take risks by spreading it through a bunch of different people. For example, X number of cars will be in an accident in the next year. The insurance company knows almost exactly what number X is. They use it to calculate how much money they need to charge. The larger the pool is, the easier it is for them to calculate X. That's why car insurance is easy to obtain.

When you get down to speciality markets, the pool is small and insurance companies don't like to get involved. As a result, a lot less companies are willing to offer insurance. (I know, I use to help people find speciality insurance.) One approach that I found successful is to contact people in the industry and ask who they are insured by and can you have the phone number. I'd talk with a couple of your editors and publishers to see if they have anybody you can contact.

One problem is that some industries self insure. I use to transport horses and contacted a couple of companies that do that business. They have an association that provides the insurance, and a minimum size for a firm to be in the association. I wasn't and ended up having to do a different route to get insurance. Scan the internet, because most of these companies are going to be national, not local. Try insurance agents, lots and lots of them. You need to be willing to invest a lot of leg work and time, and the end result is that you might find no one is willing to cover.

When my nonfiction book came out, I wasn't able to find anyone that covered me, but my publisher was able to do me as an also-insured on its policy.

Jim Clark-Dawe

After writing the above, I did a search and found http://www.ivanhoffman.com/atty.html. I'd try giving Ivan Hoffman a call and see if he can help you.

Jim Clark-Dawe