Flexible Office Cover for Legal Professionals
When the one size fits all packcge policy just doesn’t fit…
Just like off the peg clothing, packaged insurance policies are designed to fit “most” customers; in this case those customers are not just lawyers, but accountants, estate agents, chiropodists, dentists, and just about any other kind of business that operates from an office or surgery premises.
Charles Insurance Consultants has a long history of providing high quality insurance solutions to the legal profession and we recognise the many ways in which Law firms’ needs differ from other office-based businesses.
We have a flexible office insurance policy designed specially for lawyers, which has many benefits, and cover options that are missing from traditional office package policies.
Call us on 029 2070 2333
to find out how you can benefit from better cover
Benefits of the scheme include:
- A comprehensive all risks policy wording including enhanced definitions.
- £25,000 automatic worldwide contents extension.
- Full theft cover.
- £5,000,000 public and products liability as standard.
- A wide choice of tailored business interruption extensions including public utilities – failure of supply.
- Deeds and documents cover, up to £250,000 at the insured premises or at any third party storage site including transit.
- Billable hours included within the definition of gross revenue to make small losses easier to settle.
- Up to £250,000 of cover for residential property in the course of conveyance.
- Non damage related denial of access cover up to £25,000.
- Key personnel business interruption extension following death or disablement of key staff.
- Full equipment breakdown including computer equipment with increased limits for computer breakdown, property damage and business interruption.
Optional features:
- Flexible limit of loss with a range of limits from £250,000 to £1,000,000.
- Additional flexibility and freedom in managing business interruption losses to get your live online roulette business up an running as quickly as possible following a claim.
- Theft by employee up to £25,000.
- Most policies don’t cover this and most don’t even have the option to add this cover at all.
Call us on 029 2070 2333
to find out how you can benefit from better cover
Examples of Claims:
In these examples the additional and optional covers included in this policy come into their own, benefiting the policy holder in ways that would not be possible with a standard office package policy.
Example 1 – Deeds and Documents
A Patent Attorney stored their documents in a room at their premises, but were rapidly running out of room. they decided the move their document archive to a third party storage site in a nearby town. During an unseasonal frost, the sprinkler system feed pipe burst and damaged several boxes of files.
The Deeds and Documents extension provided cover for the recreation of the printed documentation. However, there was a large quantity of hand written notes and to reproduce these using agency labour would heve been a considerable cost.
A specialist document recovery contractor was employed who was able to freeze dry and decontaminate the notes and this proved to be a more ecconomic option.
The Deeds and Documents extension provided a non average basis of cover – no reduction in claim payment if the value of the documents exceeds the sum insured. Documents were fully covered whilst at the insured’s premises, intransit and at any third party storage site within the territorial limits.
Example 2 – Billable Hours
A partner at an inner city law firm had a busy month ahead with several cases approaching trial dates. Meetings were scheduled in order to prepare witnesses and documentation.
During the course of the evening, water poured into the office from a pipe in a residential appartment above the office. As a result, the insured was unable to access the office for several days.
Even though the meetings were re-scheduled, overtime still had to be worked in order to meet trial deadline, so the insured had lost several hours that could have been used for other billable work as a result of the damage. The billable hours cover meant that the insured was quickly reimbursed for the lost time.
Example 3 – Full Equipment Breakdown Including Computer Equipment
Following a summer Bank Holiday the law firm’s employees arrived to find telephony system, server, desktop workstations and several laptops which were on charge to be inoperable.
Lightning was ruled out as a possibility in that no electrical storms were reported at the time of loss and a fluctuation in the power supply could not be proven as no other equipment in the office was damaged.
A standard All risks policy may not respond to a loss of this kind because of the impossibility of determinimg the cause of the damage, however the embedded Equipment Breakdown cover in this policy did. Several circuit boards within the telephone system and computer equipment were damaged which resulted in a replacement cost of £139,000
In addition the cost of reinstalling all the software, data and 2 days of lost revenue at £34,759 were also covered.
Example 4 – Flexible Limit of Loss
The office of a local solicitor was severely damaged by radiated heat from a nearby block of flats that had caught fire.
The building repairs will take several months and in order to resume trading the firm decided to move to an alternative office premises in a nearby town. As a result of relocating they incurred additional expenditure for rent, moving costs, overtime, expenses and accomodation for several staff.
After 2 weeks the insured was able to resume full operations, but during this time they had lost revenue in addion to the costs associated with moving their office.
Having chosen a flexible limit of loss as opposed to Gross Revenue or a first loss amount, the insured was free from the traditional spending constraints of the “ecconomic limit” and was able to choose how the claim was settled.