Topic: Professional liability

Sureties Pursue Design Firms for Recovery of Losses

When a surety has to take over a project from a defaulting contractor, the surety completes the work under the bonded contract and is entitled to the remainder of the contract cost. Often, the cost of completion exceeds the available payments and the surety looks to sources of cost recovery. In virtually every state, courts…

Educational Opportunities

In cooperation with AIA/CES, the AIA Trust provides opportunities for AIA Members to earn learning units in the areas of firm management, risk management, and financial management based on the programs and educational resources that the AIA Trust offers. Self assessment tests The AIA Trust offers numerous self-assessment tests based on AIA Trust resources including…

Professional Liability Insurance Definitions

ADMITTED (or LICENSED) Carrier is an insurance company licensed and authorized to do business in a specific state and subject to regulation by the state insurance commissioner. Many states require brokers to seek coverage from admitted carriers first, placing coverage in an excess and surplus (E&S) market only when admitted carrier coverage is not available…

Decision-Making Tips for Buying Insurance

The AIA Trust has assembled resources to help you to better understand what to look for in your professional liability insurance coverage. When applying for Professional Liability Insurance Underwriters and actuaries assess various factors to assess your firm’s potential risk, including your firm’s size, billings, location, clients, and project types. A Victor study identifies these…

Business Owners Insurance

Almost every architectural firm or component office depends on some kind of specialized property to do business. Property coverage protects you against loss of or damage to essential pieces of your business such as valuable documents, laptops, or your place of business – because it only takes one disaster to wipe them out. Casualty coverage…

Professional Liability Insurance

While architects always try to do their best for their clients, mistakes happen. And in a litigious society, lawsuits have become an inevitability. Professional liability coverage not only pays judgment costs, it prepares you for a lawsuit by paying claims defense costs. Even fraudulent claims cost your firm money. The Victor & CNA program offers…

Joint Ventures Should Anticipate Professional Liability Claims

A joint venture is essentially a partnership, but only for a specific, and usually limited, purpose. Both partnership agreements and joint venture agreements usually allocate responsibility and compensation between or among the parties. Comprehensive joint venture agreements also address issues such as determining fault for performance that is deficient and establishing obligations for rectifying harm…

Statutes of Repose Can Be Vital in Limiting Exposure

It seems that during each cycle of the state legislative sessions, efforts are made either to expand or reduce the business and professional liability exposures faced by construction-related professional service firms. In some instances, under the overall rubric of “tort reform,” efforts are made to redefine exposure and channel liability. Some efforts are highly beneficial…

Can a Design Professional Be in Absolute Compliance with the Law?

There are two kinds of clients who insist in a contract that a design professional absolutely comply with laws, regulations, codes, ordinances, standards and a plethora of other business and design constraints. First there is the client who, perhaps with strained incredulity, asks “Do you mean to tell me that you do not intend to…