Professional Liability and Car Insurance??

Hi Scribette

Scribette said:

Hi there,

A company that wants to work with me wants me to sign a contract that states that:

I have professional liability insurance and/or general liability insurance as well as automobile insurance (not less than $1 million dollars) etc.


Any comments??

Thanks!

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Hi Scribette,
It sounds pretty strange to me! It almost sounds like that they want you to use a company vehicle,but use your insurance on it. This smells fishy! I wouldn't work with a company that requires something like that when you aren't even an employee.

I'm interested to what others have to say about this situation.

Michelle
www.visitmichelleonline.com

It's their attempt to put a million dollar buffer between anyone who might sue you and their bank account. They'll likely require you to list them as an 'additional insured'. Same with the auto insurance requirement. If you were to have an auto accident in which you were at fault, the other side's lawyer would more than likely go combing through your business trying to find some affiliate with deep pockets to sue along with you.

I'm going to approach this from a different side--it's entirely possible they gave you an employee's contract, simply changing the wording to independent contractor. They may not have even READ the contract before sending it over. No one in their company may have read it since the lawyers drew it up 20 years ago. It could be the same contract they gave their truck drivers or delivery boys (which would explain the auto insurance thing.)

I'd give them the benefit of the doubt, look it through for anything else "odd," and ask them if they might have a contract more suited for the (writing) work you'll be doing for them. If not, draw up your own and ask if they'll sign it, or cross out what you don't like in theirs and ask if they'll sign accept it.

I would bet your editor will be like, "That's in there? Really?"

As an aside, liability insurance -- or registering as an LLC and then doing your work under that LLC -- IS a good idea for writers. Check out the Rich Dad, Poor Dad books for more details on why... I'm not a lawyer or business expert, just a budding finance writer.

Dawn

In all the years I worked as a real estate agent I had to prove I had such insurance. Like it has been said....it is for the buffer zone between the company and the client.

Can't answer on anything else, but regarding the issue of not being sued if you are incorporated, there are two things to know:

1. Anyone can sue anyone for any reason whatsoever. I can sue you right now because I think your handle infringes on a crazy trademark or because I think you caused me emotional distress by making me think I might need a million dollar liability insurance policy. The fact that no judge in his right mind would actually award me a judgement doesn't stop me from doing so. So, even though a corporation generally protects the personal assets of the writers and employees, you *can* be sued. It just means it's highly unlikely that they'd win.

2. Even though it is highly unlikely that they'd win, there are rare occasions when a court can say that there was malfeasance on the part of the corporation's employees and hold them personally liable.

I'm not an attorney and this should not be construed as legal advice, but I happened to do some reading up on it years ago when I was incorporating my own software company.

The other (non legal advice) thing to think about is that unless you have something worth going after, no one is likely to sue you anyway.

Eric

Huh??

Are you a freelance writer? What kind of job is this? Will you be required to drive in order to get the info you need for writing this assignment?

Never hurts to cross out the line and then see what they say.

(Okay, speaking from very limited experience here.)

Is this for freelance work, or is it a book publisher? Though in all honesty, having done both, I would refuse to sign such a contract.

Tell them, "Sure. Sign me up with your insurance companies."

Scribette said:

It is with a manufacturing company - I would be writing articles for their company newsletter for their internal employees.

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Okay, I can kinda sorta see why they might be interested in personal/general liability insurance, so that if one of their employees sued them over something you wrote, they could turn around and sue you. Which is precisely why I wouldn't sign a contract like that.

I'm thinking this is something they may ask for from all of their sub-contractors, no matter if they write, or are involved in work that tends to be a bit more physical.

If I were you, I might try to get a hold of their H/R person and see if an exception could be made.

Scribette said:

Realistically - would an employee sue them over an article or profile highlighting one of their employees? Seems like an odd occurance - in Canada at least.

Also - they are also asking for personal injury and property damage liability.

Additionally, they are also asking for auto insurance - which does not make sense.

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I'll bet they're wanting you to take photographs, which would require you to travel to where the employee is. They also might consider that you'll want to do personal interviews, which also involves travel, as well as the possibility of hitting another driver or a mailbox or something. I've had this requirement made of me when I was doing freelance secretarial work--even though I did it out of my house and never went to the office in question.

But yeah, people do tend to sue down here in the States, and for really stupid reasons. I'm often amazed by the sheer audacity of people who are offended by people trying to do something nice.

No I do not need to travel to take photos or do personal interviews.

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Right now . . . that you know of.

In terms of what to do about it, anytime something in a contract makes me uncomfortable, I will strike it out, initial it, and then ask them to initial it. it has never been a problem, usually it's the way-out-there cases such as this where you don't know why it's there to begin with.
Contracts are a two-way street, you can make changes/deletions as you need.
Good luck!