Liability Insurance
The purpose of liability insurance is to protect you when you are held liable for injury or damage to a person or their property as a result of your negligence, there are two elements to a combined liability policy, Public Liability and Employers Liability.
Employers’ Liability cover is required under the Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 and provides cover where you are held liable for injury to, death of or illness contracted by an employee while working for you.
There is often some confusion regarding Employers’ Liability insurance, in particular whether or not you are required to cover self-employed or freelance members of staff. You may choose to employ someone on a self-employed basis for tax reasons but when it comes to insurance they could still be classed as your employee, dependant on the nature of your relationship with them. If you are not sure of this relationship, the best thing to do is chat to your insurer or the health and safety executive who will be happy to assist.
Public Liability insurance provides cover for third party property damage or bodily injury where you are found legally liable. Examples of Public Liability claims that we see include horses getting loose and causing accidents, kicking cars while hacking and kicking other horses at competitions.
A lot of you may compete at international events in Europe, if this is the case it is important to ensure that your policy extends to include European Union law & jurisdiction. This will ensure that if you have a public liability claim brought against you in an EU court of law the policy will respond.
You will be offered a selection of limits of indemnity for public liability; while a lower limit is cheaper, significant claims settle at over £1,000,000.Back in 2016 there was a well-publicised case where damages were awarded in excess of £3,000,000, the person involved was insured but only had cover for up to £2,000,000.It is therefore worth considering the limit that you choose carefully, particularly now Partial Payment Orders (PPOs) can be awarded by courts.