Don’t Let Liability Covers Eat Up Your Admin Time

Whilst many insurance claims are the typical type of claim you would expect to be at the heart of a situation involving loss, a rather more unusual one has just been settled, with the parties involved being The Sepang Grand Prix circuit in Malaysia and the Haas Formula 1 team.

After almost a year, Haas has won its case. This involved an incident during practice for the 2017 Malaysian Grand Prix, when some fans may remember that racing driver Romain Grosjean spun and hit the barriers at around 170mph. Given that he crashed with an impact of 17G, the £500,000 of damage that resulted to the car was hardly surprising.

When Haas reviewed the incident, they realised that Grosjean had hit a loose drain cover that had not been properly welded by the circuit and the race organisers at Sepang. They sought compensation and have now been awarded a sum that is believed to be sufficient to cover the cost of the damage to the car.

As clearly demonstrated in this case, liability cover can be an essential level of protection, if you want to prevent potholes – or drain covers – catching you out. Any sort of business, from Grand Prix circuits to high street shops, could be deemed to be held responsible for an incident that results in injury or death to a member of the public, or which leads to damage of a third party’s property. For this reason, having public liability insurance can be a much-valued safety net.

Whilst this is a type of cover that is not mandatory, employers’ liability cover is a legal requirement under the terms of the Employers Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969. Should an employee incur an injury or pick up a disease through their work and time in the workplace, this type of insurance ensures that employers have the financial means to pay a liability claim.

A third type of liability protection is product liability insurance, which protects a business should use of their ‘product’ result in damage or injury.

Whilst all three of these types of liability cover can together provide robust protection, buying each separately can waste time unnecessarily. For this reason, businesses can instead buy a Combined Liability Insurance policy, which covers public, employer and product liability under one cover. The advantage is that of having one renewal date, whilst the peace of mind this provides cannot be understated. Having to try to fund a very large compensation claim, plus legal fees when defending a case, can be financially crippling.

It is very easy to arrange a Combined Liability Insurance policy through a professional insurance broker, even if you currently have one or two of the individual insurances that can be covered by this one policy. If you wish to find out more, please get in touch.