Professional Negligence Insurance, impact of Contributory Negligence

A surgeon in Vashi leaves a swab inside a patient. An advocate misses the limitation date and a client’s suit is time-barred. Each professional has made a mistake that can cost a client far more than the fee. One solution is professional negligence insurance, which pays if the professional is held liable. But what if the client helped cause the loss by hiding a fact or ignoring advice? Then the law of contributory negligence enters and the amount payable shrinks. This topic joins the two ideas.

In two minutes

Professional negligence (professional indemnity) insurance indemnifies a professional for legal liability to clients for negligent acts, errors or omissions, while contributory negligence reduces or removes the defendant’s liability where the claimant’s own carelessness helped cause the loss, and therefore affects what an insurer must pay.

The rest of this chapter

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