PE Liability & Self-insured Company 3

[DanDel]

Does anyone have any experience working for a large company that is self-insured?

They don't appear to have PE liability insurance per se, but they insist that their insurance will cover me when I use my PE stamps on projects. They say it provides "indemnification of employees while engaged in Company business".

I need to know if this is enough to protect me. Thanks.

 

[dcasto]

I assume you work at a company that doesn't provide engineering services.

 

[greenone]

Sounds as if you need to check with your personal lawyer. I used to work for a $22 billion transport company that was self-insured. Thye did not let us use our stamps-everything was desinged outside, by A/Es who carried E&O insurance.

 

[DanDel]

dcasto, that's the other thing. They operate in a 'gray area' on that subject, the primary service is maintenance, with some analysis projects which sometimes require a PE stamp. Not too much straight design work.

greenone, I agree. I am looking into checking with a lawyer. I was hoping someone on the forum might have some experience in this issue already.

Thank you both for your posts.

 

[civilperson]

"Going naked", without errors and omissions insurance is a great way to proceed in design engineering until you have accumulated too much wealth to hazard. The quality and completeness is of a higher order when not covered by liability premiums. Some clients demand insurance, (this is a hint that they employ their attorney more than their engineer).

 

[dcasto]

There are no laws governing insurance requirements in most states for companies. There are laws about motor vehicles, employee compensation, and such that may be rquired. What does protect YOU is that your company is the PARTY responsible, as long as your company keeps up all its resposibilities as a corporation. The next layer is the contract between your company and the people they do business with. That contract should cover liabilities. The next line of defence is the UCC which will imply cetain terms between parties if not in writting. Finally common law fills in where all others fail. E&O insurance is getting to be tough to obtain and it may not be worth it unless like cicilperson says, you have so many assets that they need protection.

You can buy a personal liability umbrella for $2,000,000 for a few hundred dollars a year, the problem is you must raise you homeowners, auto, and other insurances to $300,000 to $500,000 which will cost several thousand per year. Also, your 401K and IRA's cannot be taken away from you in bankrutcy, if some one sues the pants off you, let them have your old pants and get new ones out of your 401K.

The above is not legal advise, but you can use the thoughts and opinions as guidance to ask the right questions.

 

[Ron]

DanDel...I worked for over 17 years for a company that was "self insured". If they state that they provide indemnification for you when performing company business, the only thing you need to do is make sure they have more assets than you! While engineers can be held severally liable in some states, it is rare that engineers working for large companies are personally chased...they are interested in the deeper pocket unless there is a point to be proven about something like negligence.

Having said that, I would get the indemnification in writing and get a statement of financial viability and commitment to your protection for work done on behalf of the company.

Most large engineering companies indemnify their engineers, but they rarely put that to a contractual statement, simply because most engineering functions would come under "employment at will" conditions (non-union, non-contractual employment), and to contract to indemnify individually would perhaps create an employment contract that neither party would necessarily like to have if you both truly want employment at will.

 

[DanDel]

Thanks, Ron, that's some good info.

 

[CJJS]

Is your company a manufacturing company? If so, the product liability policy should cover you. You need to get a hold of the policy and have a lawyer review it though. Sometimes there are exclusions included in the policy that need to be rephrased.