Professional liability insurance for French companies
21As the legal representative of your company, not only do you pay attention to the situation of your company, but also to the situation of your employees and clients. Maybe it’s your sense of duty and responsibility, or maybe your activity just forces you to do it; but right now, you want to subscribe to civil professional liability insurance. But what exactly is it? What are you covered against? When does it apply?
Defining civil professional liability
Your civil professional liability comes into play whenever a third party finds that your activity or services have caused some “damage” to him. It could be:
- Corporal damage (for example, your client breaks a leg because the floor of your store is too slippery)
- Material damage (you’ve broken one of the belongings of your client when performing your activity)
- Intangible damage (because you’ve lost your client’s data, they have to temporarily cease their activity, which cost them money)
In these cases, because of your professional liability, you have to compensate the victims because of wrongdoings.
When does it apply?
There are many situations during which you are concerned by civil professional liability:
- Your client received their product or service late
- A case of professional misconduct
- Lack of caution
- Your products are non-compliant
- Ill advice
- Not enough recommendations or warnings
- Not enough technical assistance
- Lack of respect for image rights
- Lack of respect for individual property
As you can see, professional liability covers a lot of potential wrongdoings that can be done by you or even one of your employees. As such, no matter what your activity is, it is heavily recommended that you subscribe to civil professional liability insurance, so that you can compensate victims if need be. Not only are you liable for the wrongdoings of your company, but also for your assets, for your employees… If you aren’t properly insured, one mistake could cost a lot of money to your company, and even threaten its existence. We cannot stress this enough: do not be negligent in this matter!
