Architects and consulting design engineers, whether practicing solo, as member of a group or a design firm or as an employee of the firm, can obtain malpractice insurance for themselves, even if the group or the design firm's policy affords them coverage. In fact it is highly recommended that design professionals who work in a group environment do get their own malpractice policy in addition to the one offered by the firm. There are several reasons for this, any of which could have a devastating effect on your practice. Just to name a few:
- A group policy protecting the design firm, if on a Claims Made form (as most professional liability policies are on Claims Made form) may or may not afford the same coverage once you leave the firm, and if a claim is filed against you after you have left the group, you may not have the same coverage as you did while you were practicing there.
- If the firm dissolves after you have left them and/or their policy is later cancelled or non-renewed (or a "tail" is not purchased after such non-renewal) and later a claim is filed against you for your errors & ommissions while you were active in that group, you may have have no protection, unless your current group policy (if any) honors claims brought against you individually in a predecessor firm and the retroactive date of such current policy is on or before the date of the incident, or if solo, your current individual policy (if any) honors claims brought against you as a member of a predecessor firm and the retroactive date of such current policy is on or before the date on which the incident in question occured.
- If a claim is filed against the firm, for an incident unrelated to your practice, and a judgement is entered, which exhausts or reduces the limits of that policy, that policy will end up with little or no coverage left to pay any claims made against you in the same policy year.
- If the firm's policy does afford you coverage and you still have your own policy, chances are your policy will be secondary to the group policy, therefore you still have a cushion before your policy becomes exposed.
The above are only some of the issues which need to be considered when purchasing a practice policy. Our brokers will be happy to answer all your questions in detail.
