Public liability insurance for photographers and videographers

How this applies to the work

Your invoices and diary will usually describe the business more accurately than a broad label. They show the tasks, sites and customers that the policy has to accommodate.

A public liability policy is concerned with certain claims from people outside the business. Your own tools, an employee’s injury or the cost of redoing poor work can fall elsewhere.

Three parts of the work deserve a closer look: a guest trips over a cable; a stand damages a venue; and equipment falls onto somebody. Use the list to find the parts of the work that need a clear answer in the quotation and policy.

Before opening a quotation form, find the information behind these answers: types and sizes of event; lighting rigs, drones and assistants; and work abroad or at restricted venues. A brief written clarification is easier to rely on than a half-remembered conversation.

If a customer requested the insurance, compare the certificate with the contract before sending it. Dates and limits should agree. If the answer is not clear, ask before the first job relies on the cover.

Points to think through

The risk becomes clearer when it is broken into real events:

• A guest trips over a cable
• A stand damages a venue
• Equipment falls onto somebody

Do not assume that a familiar accident is automatically insured. Conditions and exclusions still apply.

The example “equipment falls onto somebody” is useful because it forces the question into a real setting. Consider the likely scale of damage, any contract conditions and whether the activity was declared.

Then turn to “a guest trips over a cable”. If it is a regular possibility, it belongs in the conversation before cover is bought. If it is exceptional, explain when it occurs.

This kind of check takes only a few minutes. It gives the quotation questions some context and makes a vague answer easier to spot.

Have these answers ready

Use actual business records where you can. The provider is likely to need:

• Types and sizes of event
• Lighting rigs, drones and assistants
• Work abroad or at restricted venues

Use “types and sizes of event”, “lighting rigs, drones and assistants” and “work abroad or at restricted venues” to describe the business as it operates now. Include occasional work when it creates a different hazard, even if it produces little of the annual turnover.

Do not send sensitive records merely to prove a simple figure unless the provider asks for them through a suitable route. Usually the answer itself is enough at quotation stage.

Two reminders from this page are “drone liability is specialist” and “equipment cover protects your kit, not public claims”; keep them beside the documents when you check the quotation. If the policy takes a different approach to “types and sizes of event”, ask about it before the cover is needed and retain any written reply.

Keep the quotation record with the policy. If the wording describes a narrower business, ask why.

Look closely at these points

• Drone liability is specialist
• Equipment cover protects your kit, not public claims
• Lost images can raise professional issues

The certificate is only a summary. Use the schedule, wording and endorsements for the fuller picture.

One last read-through

Keep the quotation answers, schedule, wording, endorsements and certificate together. They are parts of the same record.

If the business changes during the policy period, ask whether the provider needs to be told rather than waiting for renewal.

Put the renewal date somewhere it will be noticed before any long-running contract passes through it. A customer may need an updated certificate, and the renewed policy may not use exactly the same terms.

Keep one further reminder with the quotation: lost images can raise professional issues; check how this affects the jobs you accept and ask for clarification if the policy takes a different approach.