What is Public Liability Insurance?
By Dom at Eversure,
06 January 2020
You’ve probably heard this phrase banded around a few insurance websites out there, but if you are still unsure have a read through our guide, that will hopefully explain literally everything you could possibly want to know about Public Liability Insurance (PLI for short).
The thing about PLI is that some insurance policies offer it as standard, in some it’s an optional extra and some only offer it and nothing else. This can make it difficult to work out how important it actually is. But first, let’s get to the bottom of the details.
As the name suggests, public liability insurance is there to protect the general public against injury and their possessions against damage.
For example, if you were a photographer taking photos in a park and a jogger were to run past and trips over your tripod and breaks their leg. PLI would cover you for legal charges and compensation incurred as a result of the jogger’s injury. Performers, photographers and drone operators alike are all required to have PLI in place in order to work in certain areas of the UK.
How Much is Public Liability Insurance?
This will vary depending on how much liability cover you need. Eversure offers PLI from £1 million all the way up to £10 million.
Public Liability for Photographers
For our photography insurance customers, we offer an exclusive “Public Liability only” policy that can be tailored around your needs. For example, if you just need PLI for specific venues you shoot in, you can select the amount of cover you need (up to £10 million) and even add employer’s liability, professional indemnity and a whole host of other useful cover options to make sure you and your business are kept well covered.
For more info about our photography insurance take a look here
Do I Need Public Liability Insurance?
Many venues require you to have PLI in place. The risk of losing income due to a workplace accident should be a big enough incentive for you to think about purchasing PLI, not to mention that clients will almost certainly request that you have some in place before they hire you.
Even if photography is just a hobby its still worth considering, any public area could be the setting to someone hurting themselves on your equipment – so do bear that in mind.
How do I get Public Liability Insurance?
With Eversure, purchasing or adding PLI to your policy couldn’t be simpler. During the sales process, we ask you whether you’d like it included, all you have to do is choose the best cover level to suit you and it’ll be added to your policy.
If you’re already a customer (you lucky thing!), then you just need to head to our contact us (LINK) page and fill in the super quick form and we can add public liability to your current policy.
Self-employed Public Liability Insurance
It’s more common for self-employed people to take up PLI due to the protection it affords should an accident happen. If you are self-employed and don’t currently have PLI then you should seriously consider it. Think of it this way – if someone were to make a public liability claim against you, you’d be unprotected and left open to paying potentially vast sums of money out of your business.
What does Public Liability Insurance Cover?
PLI covers damage to members of the public or their property caused by your presence. For example, if you were a photographer taking photos at a wedding and a guest were to trip over your tripod and break their leg, PLI would cover you for legal charges and compensation incurred as a result of the guest’s injury. Public Liability claims are much more likely if you are using your insured items as a professional. Musicians, photographers and drone operators alike are all required to have PLI in place in order to work in certain areas of the UK.
It's also worth mentioning that PLI can cover damage you cause, so for example if during a photo shoot at an English Heritage property, you accidentally broke a vase, you'd be covered.
To find out how much a policy including public liability with Eversure could cost, take a look at our products below: