Indemnity question

[edutech4schools]

I am self employed and look after a number of schools and was advised that I do not need indemnity. The reason I was advised this after talking with a financial adviser was that when advising a school about say a hardware choice I am not making the final decision about which company to go for but rather finding a range of companies and passing that info on to the school who then make the choice.

 

Indemnity is not very expensive so should I get it anyway?

[Steve21]

Well my understanding was Indemnity was "any loss occured", e.g. If you bork their server/lose data etc etc? As well as advisory roles. Even if you advise someone to buy/do something, they can still effectively blame you? (At least to my understanding).

 

Guess it depends how much it costs, but it's the age old spend a little, potentially save a lot

 

Steve

[Steve21]

There we go as an example:

 

•Negligence, omission or error

•Unintentional breach of intellectual property rights (copyright, trademarks, broadcasting rights, passing off ie Breach of Implied Statutory Terms under the Sale of Goods Act 1979 and Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982)

•Loss of clients' original documents or data (these could be damaged, lost in the post or even stolen while in your care)

•Unintentional slander or libel

•Unintentional misuse or breach of confidential information (Data Protection Act) or breach of confidence

 

Which you can pretty much take everyone into account while working on a system Between accidentally losing work/documents, breaching data protection or "other" personally I'd want it

 

Steve

[edutech4schools]

e.g. If you bork their server/lose data etc etc?

I did mention the server bork thing and the financial advisers reply was a school does not have a loss of earnings in that situation as they are not selling a product to lose any money.

 

•Loss of clients' original documents or data (these could be damaged, lost in the post or even stolen while in your care)

The schools have all decided to use LA offsite backup, if that goes pete tong its nothing to do with me.

 

Unintentional slander or libel

•Unintentional misuse or breach of confidential information (Data Protection Act) or breach of confidence

Would be handy to have cover for these as you never know someone else's perception on a given subject.

[michael2k6]

I'd get it anyway. Bear in mind that you don't have to cause the issues, you only have to be blamed for it!

[Steve21]

I did mention the server bork thing and the financial advisers reply was a school does not have a loss of earnings in that situation as they are not selling a product to lose any money.

 

The schools have all decided to use LA offsite backup, if that goes pete tong its nothing to do with me.

 

Would be handy to have cover for these as you never know someone else's perception on a given subject.

 

I think #1 is wrong (not legal expert though), example our school hires out halls/rooms for clubs etc. No computer system = no booking/phone system = loss.

 

Even if you just consider loss of earnings, as needing to hire temp staff/change way things are done during downtime.

 

#2 That surely depends on what is lost. If you delete/break something before backup, that's still "your fault" as such. Not the backup companies. As well as if for example you go along the lines of you install pc card, pc goes onto fire and burns documents (ok unlikely, but still would count).

 

Just be careful I'd say, just because one advisor thinks it's ok, another may not, and if a school pushes issues onto you I get the feeling they'd probably win

 

Steve

[GrumbleDook]

It is not only loss of earnings you have to cover but loss of the client's ability to deliver a service (contracted or voluntary). This clearly covers schools.

[mattianuk]

Hiscox provide it for pennies a month. Well worth it.

[m25man]

For what it costs get it, if the client believes you are to blame so will their lawyers.

 

Unfortunately we have evolved into a blame culture with blood sucking leeches (I mean lawyers) who will try and blame you when the power goes off or the backup tape gets eaten.

 

Pay up and get enough cover so you can sleep easy. The chance is you will never need it, if you do it will only be to prove your innocence when some Shylock tries to push the blame for their own incompetence onto "the contractor".

 

Do you need "Fully Comprehensive" car insurance?

Well not until you come back to your vehicle to find it smashed to bits by a failed to stop Vodka swilling Latvian courier.

Then of course it will be your fault for parking safely in the £10 per hour meter bay in the first place!

 

Its not worth the risk not to, charge for your services accordingly and the cost is irrelevant.