On the face of it, professional indemnity insurance (PII) is just another type of specialist liability cover protecting against damage and loss plus defence costs for professionals. Classic PII does not cover injury, but specialist versions of it like medical indemnity do. Things get more awkward for medico-legal reporting, which is not directly medical, but can lead to the injury of a patient.

The important point to bear in mind is the risk of loss without physical damage, so called “economic loss”.

Critically, the professional indemnity cover must provide an indemnity for economic loss because that is the most likely loss for the majority of professions. It is also potentially the major type of loss the professional will face and will often be out of all proportion to fees or other charges associated with the work undertaken by the professional.

At MRSL Enterprise, we have people well versed in the evolving case law in this area and the ability to analyse contracts to determine what, if any, exclusion clauses will genuinely protect the professional by way of excluding, or more commonly, limiting loss in the event that something goes wrong.

We see professional indemnity insurance as the glue that holds together the contract documents with your clients on the one hand, with a forensic analysis of the losses, particularly the economic losses, that are likely on the other.

As with Directors and Officers insurance, this is another type of cover that can be particularly nuanced and one where the professional in search of protection that will operate in their moment of crisis, will need the advice of those who understand the legal issues as well as the insurance market.