OPINION! Ralph Günther, founder of exali.de: “Freelancers cannot avoid professional liability insurance”

Ralph Günther is an insurance expert and Founders as well as managing director of the insurance portal exali.de. In an interview, he explains why professional liability insurance is particularly important for freelancers.

Ralph Günther has many years of experience in risk management and insuring IT experts, creative people, consultants and lawyers. His focus is on the protection of financial losses and the further and new development of industry-specific insurance concepts. As one of the pioneers in Online-Versicherungsbusiness, he was actively involved in improving insurance protection for freelancers and introduced new service extensions in professional liability via exali.de to the market. Be Background he regularly passes this on to his target group as an author in relevant specialist media. On his blog “Financial Loss: Rethinking Insurance” http://www.rgblog.de/ he also provides information on current market developments and highlights practical claims. Website: http://www.exali.de

Mr. Günther, why is the issue of employability a topic that independent service providers and freelancers no longer go by?

Freelancers and service providers can no longer avoid professional liability because the risks from globalization and the Word Wide Web have become so complex and even case law lags behind technical progress. And wherever "gray areas" arise, this is exploited - as in the area of ​​legal violations.

Think of the countless waves of warnings that we had in Germany. The very complex German data protection law is also a good example of a large area of ​​tension. This then drives style blossoms, as a nationwide active political party recently fared with its website, the clear Violated German data protection law.

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Would not the legislature be in duty?

If, so to speak, the legislature itself fails because of its own regulations, how is a freelancer supposed to do it on a daily basis? Business avoid all “stumbling blocks”?!

And to come back to one of the greatest achievements of the 20th century - the Internet: As with any advancement, there are two sides to this one. Unfortunately, the risks have increased due to the global network and that too Risks, causing damage has become “internationalized”.

Just think about who is reading your blog. Nowadays, you can use the simplest of means to distribute content, images, videos, etc. all over the world and make them accessible: This of course increases the risk of infringing copyrights, naming rights or personal rights and that the people concerned do so too fast Can be detected. Whether you are based in Augsburg or in Barcelona...

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In which cases is the professional liability now pay exactly?

If you speak of THE professional liability insurance in general, I would like to point out that a professional liability insurance primarily refers to the corresponding Industry and their specific occupational risks should be tailored. As a result, there may be differences in content in which cases professional liability pays.

In general, professional liability pays for financial losses as well as personal injury and property damage for which you are liable based on statutory regulations (e.g. in the German Civil Code). Good professional liability insurers also assume the liability that also arises from contractual agreements with the client or the contractor. customers results (so-called contractual liability). In addition, there is usually the payment for violations of rights, violations of confidentiality and data protection agreements, publication risks for one's own products or services, violations of competition law and, for example, virus damage.

Within the framework of the liability cover, for example, rent damages or damages on business trips, when participating in trade fairs or exhibitions, are paid. In general, there is always a passive legal protection, which takes the defense costs (eg attorneys, reviewers and court costs), if the self-employed or freelancer is wrongly accused and paid for cash.

With media liability, IT liability and consulting liability, exali.de offers three concepts, all of which are pretty similar at first glance ...

You correctly recognized that there is a common “denominator” for the three professional liability concepts, as some risk areas overlap.

Media liability is generally directed at creatives and media agencies. IT liability to IT and telecoms experts and consulting liability to advisory professions such as company consultants, trainers, coaches.

Can you differentiate that again exactly?

Yes gladly. Protection is also characterized by the fact that exali.de professional liability is based on the needs of the respective industry:

• With media liability, the policyholder can, for example, also protect himself from unsuccessful print orders and advertising advertisements or the faulty production of merchandising articles.
• The IT liability covers as a special feature also the fault-independent liability for the deviation from the agreed upon nature of services in the context of Service Level Agreements (SLAs). In addition, there is an optional service extension to insure certain contractual penalties from IT project contracts.
• The consulting liability offers a special feature such as the protection of personal liability from the activity as an interim manager (so-called personal DundO insurance).

In order to meet the risks of the information society and its negative impacts, 2013 has also been able to insure our own data damage through cybercriminals through all professional liability insurance policies.

Does this assure you of the consequences of a hacker attack? What then is paid?

We provide protection against costly peculiarities related to a hacker attack, a DoS attack, computer misuse, theft of data carriers and other data breaches by unauthorized third parties or employees.

Payments are made in this context, for example Costs for restoring or repairing your own computers or IT systems, hiring external computer forensic analysts or specialized lawyers (including criminal defense) as well as crisis management and PR. In addition, additional costs for the quick elimination or avoidance of a disruption in business are also covered.

A question that interests many freelancers: Is it also possible to insure their loss of earnings?

First of all: Professional liability generally occurs when the self-employed or freelancer causes damage to a third party (e.g. customer or client). If the self-employed person suffers a loss of earnings, he is damaged himself (in insurance jargon this is referred to as personal damage) and is therefore not insured. So much for the theory.

In practice, with our special benefit extensions, we can still insure loss of earnings, at least under certain circumstances. For all professional groups, this is the resignation of the client from Projects.

Why is such a thing necessary?

According to the German law of obligations, a client has a right of withdrawal if the contractor, despite subsequent improvement, Performance does not provide as agreed (e.g. creation of a website, an article, software, an expert opinion, etc.). In this case, the client no longer has to pay and can even request a refund of down payments already made. In these cases, professional liability replaces the loss of earnings (insurance jargon: wasted fee expenses) and the wasted material costs (e.g. for business trips or research).

Especially for the IT industry, we also offer protection against loss of earnings if the project contract is terminated extraordinarily. In this case, the IT freelancer shall be reimbursed for the agreed fee until the date on which the ordinary termination according to the project contract was possible at the earliest. In addition, we can not currently protect our own losses.

In this context I would like to explain the so-called compensation legal protection, which is part of all concepts, for the readers. If the client offsets the agreed fee with an unjustified claim for damages and on this grounds cuts or completely eliminates your earnings, the insurer will cover the legal costs (e.g. lawyer, court and witness costs) for enforcing your loss of earnings. BGB = Civil Code

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