“Management liability exposures” is a catch-all expression that describes the risks faced by directors, partners, officers, managers and business entities that arise from governance, finance and management activities. The SRA’s regulatory regime of COLP’s and COFA’s creates ready-made targets for any resulting actions.
Traditional PII liability policies aim to provide cover for professional negligence whilst Employers and Public Liability policies provide cover for actual injuries or property damage caused to third parties. Neither provides adequate protection against Management Liability exposures.
Practices can however protect themselves against these risks and moreover so can the directors, partners and officers. In our experience, whilst actions against individuals are rare we are seeing an increasing frequency of such incidents. And of course when such actions do occur they can be devastating.
Traditionally it has been a challenge to insure a partnership against Management Liability exposures; however this is no longer the case. Modern policies can be arranged to protect partners, directors and employees who are nominated as COLPs or COFAs or those who perform a management function. Policies are arranged and paid for by the practice even though cover is primarily for the benefit of those directors, partners and officers.
Cover Specifics Include:
- Wrongful Acts committed in the course of running the partnership/firm, such as breach of duty, breach of trust, breach of warranty of authority, neglect, error, misstatement, misleading statement, libel, slander or defamation
- Investigation Costs incurred at an official examination, enquiry, investigation or other proceeding by regulators or others legally empowered to investigate the firm’s affairs, i.e. the SRA, Law Society, Information Commissioner or Health & Safety Executive
- Defence Costs, the legal costs to defend an insured person in the event of a management liability claim being brought against them
The good news is that as claims are infrequent, premiums are modest! Please feel free to talk to our specialist Solicitors team:
(Left to right)
Andy Morley, Ian Laycock, Dane Turner and Sam Leeder
picture source:stock xchng and proaktive.co.uk