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Liability Insurance

M

mshields

Silver Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2011
Messages
105
Location
Plymouth, MA
I apologize off the bat on this one as it is clearly outside of the scope of this site. Still, thought this group would have some definite thoughts on this subject and would certainly appreciate your feedback.

I'm a PE, and I've been asked as I have been in the past to do some work on the side. It's some pretty routine stuff but I'm wondering how paranoid I should be about liability insurance. I wonder if I could even justify it for the relatively small dollar value of this and other projects that might come my way.

Thanks,

Mike
 
= = =



Mike,

I am not a PE or an RDP, but IMO [ my 2 cents ], ...I would be take

out as much insurance as I could to protect myself from whoever

& whatever, ...routine or not!.......To me, it is a normal business

expense!

Also, can you afford to NOT have it? :o



$ $ $
 
Insurance is a gamble between you and an insurance company. The odds are stacked in favor of the insurance company. That's why insurance companies own everything. Overbuild and stop worrying.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
these are questions you should ask yourself. you're a p.e., but you're asked to do electrical work? are you skilled enough to do it properly? will it meet code and be free from fault when done. i'm a licensed electrician, my license is worth a lot to me, i carry insurance just in case. i follow the rules, work to code, lots of time above what it asks for because it makes sense. i inspect a lot of work that folks do that "know what they are doing" . alot of the time NOT. i wouldn't design a bridge for a highway, i don't have the expertise in that disipline. are you skilled enough to do electrical work you're being asked to do?
 
Codeworks,

I don't think that mshields is planning to do electrical work. I reckon he's just lost and concerned about getting sued for giving haircuts at home.
 
What type of side work? Are you designing or engineering or building decks or doing soil sampling or what? Could make a huge difference in the answers you will get. Welcome.
 
Many question has arisen from the original post but in my case it wouldn’t matter what type of work I was doing the equation would be the same, no insurance = no work.

I know of one case where an electrician added a receptacle to the small appliance circuit over the countertop of a home that caused the poor fellow to lose everything he owned. A deep fryer was plugged into the new receptacle that caused a fire that totally destroyed the home and the electrician was held liable for the accident.
 
if indeed you are talking about electrical side work and not some sort of engineering, no amount of liability insurance is going to protect you from doing electrical work without a license. The insurance company is going to laugh at you if something goes wrong. just my two cents worth
 
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