Professional Indemnity Insurance, what's the point?

[swamp]

What's the point in PI insurance?

* You have to have it during your entire contract and for six years after your contract has finished
* If you work via an agency then the agency gets sued first
* You can just close your company down at the first whiff of trouble
* Costs lots of money and your chance of actually using it are almost zero

[DimPrawn]

I'd like to see some stats on how many contractors have been pursued in court and how many have successfully claimed on their PI insurance.

I'd expect the 1st number to be very small and the 2nd one to be zero.

[Shimano105]

Only bought PI insurance once, couldn't see the point after that

[SuperZ]

What's the point in PI insurance?

* You have to have it during your entire contract and for six years after your contract has finished
* If you work via an agency then the agency gets sued first
* You can just close your company down at the first whiff of trouble
* Costs lots of money and your chance of actually using it are almost zero

Exactly.
Besides, most clients treat us like employees anyway or even temps. Any trouble and we`re kicked out the door.
Another tax, or waste of money insurance scheme. Gives some individuals comfort I suppose, but it`s money down the pan IMO.

[bogeyman]

I'm packing mine in (Hiscox) because it's no longer relevant to what I do.

I've never known or even heard of anyone who has claimed on their PI.

If you do business with lots of a large, litigious firms, however, it's a small price to pay.

[expat]

What's the point in PI insurance?

* You have to have it during your entire contract and for six years after your contract has finished
* If you work via an agency then the agency gets sued first
* You can just close your company down at the first whiff of trouble
* Costs lots of money and your chance of actually using it are almost zero

Some agents demand it. I suppose they reckon it costs them nothing. I've never heard of anybody claiming on it.

ISTM that you shouldn't need it. Client complains something doesn't work. Did they test it?

No ==> well bloody test it before you implement it.
Yes ==> well sue the tester then.

[pzz76077]

Some agents demand it. I suppose they reckon it costs them nothing. I've never heard of anybody claiming on it.

ISTM that you shouldn't need it. Client complains something doesn't work. Did they test it?

No ==> well bloody test it before you implement it.
Yes ==> well sue the tester then.

Some agencies demand it because they get a kickback from whoever they recommend to sell it to you.

Never heard of anyone needing this kind of insurance in the 26 years that Ive been contracting, and never shelled out for it either.

PZZ

[bogeyman]

Last one I heard of was the surveyor guy who got sued coz the estate agency he'd worked for had gone bust so the customer came after him...

However, that was for a bulging wall, not bad code...

Cost him £40k though.

No one ever got sued for 'bulging code' as far as I can recollect.

Some of my C++ was a bit thick in the middle but I think I got away with it.

[Moscow Mule]

It's a contractual requirement for the direct contracts I do - and probably very relevant.

I know of a chap - who was a permie at the time - who managed to send an entire day's worth of SWIFT messages again with some careless SQL.

The bank sued the vendor (whom said chap worked for). They settled out of court for c£750k. Chap never worked on a live system again.

Had that chap been a contractor, I'm pretty sure the insurance would have come into play...

[DiscoStu]

It's a contractual requirement for the direct contracts I do - and probably very relevant.

I know of a chap - who was a permie at the time - who managed to send an entire day's worth of SWIFT messages again with some careless SQL.

The bank sued the vendor (whom said chap worked for). They settled out of court for c£750k. Chap never worked on a live system again.

Had that chap been a contractor, I'm pretty sure the insurance would have come into play...

I'm fairly sure my insurance has some exclusion clause especially for when you're working in a system where an error could have an immediate financial impact. I often wonder why I bother paying for it