Businesses need insurance to protect themselves against uncontrollable elements, like weather that causes property damage, and more preventable occurrences, like workplace injuries that result from carelessness. Depending on what industry your business operates in and what products or services your company provides, you may also need to protect your business from within by covering costly employee errors.
Professional Liability Insurance Basics
Professional liability insurance, also known as errors and omissions insurance, is a type of policy aimed at protecting service providers from claims made against them by their clients. It specifically covers the policyholder from any perceived mistakes they make while carrying out their professional duties.
Protected claims can include negligence, misrepresentation, and inaccurate advice. However, it's important to note that this policy does not protect professionals from intentionally malicious actions. As a form of liability insurance, professional liability insurance pays money to the claimant, not the policyholder.
What Industries Present the Highest Risks?
Due to the nature of professional liability coverage, it's not necessary for businesses of all professions. As a rule of thumb, companies that provide a form of service should consider a professional liability policy.
In some states, attorneys must have professional liability insurance or at least disclose to their clients their insurance status. For some lines of work, such as health care, industry standards require this form of coverage. Professional liability insurance may not be regulated in other industries, but other businesses won't sign a contract with your company if you do not have coverage.
Even service-based businesses that don't need professional liability insurance to operate often opt for coverage because of the potentially devastating costs of a single error. Aside from lawyers and medical providers, professional liability insurance is highly recommended for the following types of professionals:
- Accountants– Accountants perform detail-oriented work, and a mistake can have wide-reaching consequences for clients. Common claims made against accountants include inaccurate ledgers and accounts receivable errors.
- Architects– For architects, common liability exposures include design flaws, inaccurate cost estimates, construction delays, construction defects, and contractor negligence.
- Consultants– Across industries, consultants often face claims of contract breaches, conflicting interests, inaccurate advice, and failing to properly secure the client's private information.
- Engineers– Like architects, engineers will be held liable for any mistakes in their final product if it can be determined those mistakes were reasonably avoidable.
- Insurance Brokers– Yes, even insurance agents should have errors and omissions insurance. Brokers are just as susceptible to lawsuits as these other professions. Clients are often dissatisfied with the ruling on a claim, and their main avenue for recourse is to sue the broker.
- Real Estate Agents– Since real estate agents act as intermediaries between two parties, there are twice as many chances for disputes to arise. Common complaints include improper listings, failure to disclose all information on a property, and discrepancies regarding inspections and documentation.
Further Considerations
Aside from covering the costs of client claims and drawn-out legal battles, having professional liability insurance offers substantial benefits. For example, many insurance providers include risk management services for all their clients. These educational programs can help businesses identify their unique liabilities and take action to prevent claims.
Furthermore, having professional liability insurance gives peace of mind to both your employees and clients. When those performing a service know they have financial protection should something go array, they can fulfill their duties more confidently. On the client side, customers may be willing to spend more and ask for additional services if they know their investment is protected.
Assessing Your Exposures and Insurance Needs
As previously mentioned, not all businesses have to have professional liability insurance. If you're still on the fence about your coverage needs, it may help to make a list of all the possible exposures associated with the services you provide.
From there, do a little research—how often do businesses similar to yours face those claims? How much do businesses typically have to pay when they lose a lawsuit in those areas?
On the other hand, how much would it cost to insure your business? For accurate projections, you may want to request quotes from numerous providers. You can click here to learn more about professional liability insurance quotes for small businesses.
Digging deep into the cost of professional liability insurance compared to the financial risk of not having coverage should inform your ultimate decision.
Many of these shortcuts are similar to Windows however some are slightly different or add extra features to help speed up your day-to-day tasks.
1. [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [Backspace] = kill X. Kills your current X session and returns you to the login screen. Use this if the normal exit procedure does not work.
2. [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [Delete] = shutdown and reboot. Shuts down your current session and reboots the OS. Use only when the normal shutdown procedure does not work.
3. [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [Fn] = switches screens. [Ctrl]+[Alt] + one of the function keys displays a new screen. [F1] through [F6] are text (console) screens and [F7] is a graphical screen.
4. [Alt] + [Tab] = switch tasks. If you have more than one application open at a time, you can use [Alt] + [Tab] to switch among open tasks and applications.
5. [Ctrl] + [a] = move cursor to the beginning of a line. This works in most text editors and in the URL field in Mozilla.
6. [Ctrl] + [d] = logout of a terminal or console instead of having to type exit or logout.
7. [Ctrl] + [e] = move cursor to end of a line. This works in most text editors and in the URL field in Mozilla.
8. [Ctrl] + [l] = clear the terminal. This shortcut does the same thing as typing clear at a command line.
9. [Ctrl] + [u] = clear the current line. If you are working in a terminal, use this shortcut to clear the current line from the cursor all the way to the end of the line.
10. [Middle Mouse Button] = pastes highlighted text. Use the left mouse button to highlight the text. Point the cursor to the spot where you want it pasted. Click the middle mouse button to paste it.
11. [Tab] = command autocomplete. Use this command when working in a terminal. Type the first few characters of a command and then press the [Tab] key. It will automatically complete the command or show all the commands that match the characters you typed.
12. [Up] and [Down] Arrow = show command history. When working in a terminal, press the [up] or [down] arrow to scroll through a history of commands you have typed from the current directory. When you see the command you want to use, press [Enter].
ImAFish.com is the brainchild of Pete White (pwhite) and Ben Powell (Benjie) in April 2001 when they were working on their GCSE exams. Along with James Vardill (Yammez) they created the site ImAFish.com version 1. The site was an instant success with its wide range of topics covered including gaming, downloads and a forum, though the site had a hard time staying online because of different hosting problems on geocities. Then in September 2001 Version 2 was launched on their new hosting on f2s.com with the new help from Ben Shenton and Matthew Shannon, here the site continued to become popular and in November 2001 version 3 was launched. Yammez sadly decided to move on from the site because of lack of time commitments.
Christmas came and so did news that f2s was closing its free hosting section so the move was made to purchase some professional hosting. Shortly after in February came the launch of ImAFish 4 was the sites biggest success so far attracting many new visitors and starting to build up an active forum and IRC community. The site celebrated its 1year birthday in April with a number of activities on the forum such as the awards and Big Brother. The following months brought further success to the site with the Articles and Columns sections and throughout June and July the sites traffic significantly increased.
One of the most popular areas found was to be the IRC bot called Xbot many of these hits were coming from sites such as Google. Xbot provides a good free IRC bot that can do almost everything a channel owner needs from a bot which it seems not many other free bots can provide. In August 2002 it was decided to start work on designing ImAFish 5 with the aim of delivering dynamic content to the users fast and effectively in a way that is simple and easy to understand. The site also wanted to attract more writers and to keep the current visitors coming back to the site to read the articles and take part in other site activities. For a more detailed history I suggest you take a look at http://imafish.com/history.php .
CBD has been known to treat a number of anxiety disorders because of its relaxation effect. Many people suffering from anxiety have turned to CBD to help them stay relaxed. Research carried out recently has proven that CBD can be used to effectively treat most anxiety and other neurological disorders. It is advised to see a doctor before you start taking CBD products for your anxiety. This is because you might not necessarily have a disorder and the anxiety might be short-lived. It is therefore important to look at the symptoms and causes of anxiety before going into the usage of CBD for treatment.
Symptoms of common anxiety disorders.
- Feeling nervous and restless.
- Insomnia.
- Increased heart rate and hyperventilation.
- Sweating and trembling.
- Gastrointestinal problems.
- Trouble concentrating.
- Having a sense of impending danger or panic.
- Causes of anxiety
- Genetic factors - Anxiety disorders can run in the family.
- Medical conditions - There are several medical problems that may be linked to anxiety such as diabetes, heart disease, respiratory disorders, and misuse of medication. Anxiety can also be a side-effect of using medication.
- Stress - Build-up of stress from work, school, financial crisis, broken relationships, or the death of loved ones can cause anxiety disorders.
- Drug and substance abuse - Abuse of drugs and alcohol can result in anxiety issues. Withdrawal from the same drugs can also cause anxiety.
- Trauma - Our past experiences can contribute to many medical problems, anxiety included.
Using CBD for treatment of various anxiety disorders
1. General Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
People with this disorder tend to worry, exaggerate, and have excessive anxiety over situations that are not necessarily stressful or worth being anxious about. It is difficult to control and affects how you feel in almost all situations. Vaping small doses of CBD-infused products can help you to stay calm in both extreme and normal situations.
2. Agoraphobia
This disorder is characterized by fear of places or situations that might cause fear and anxiety. This behaviour can lead to other anxiety disorders. People with this disorder are encouraged to purchase CBD products from reliable suppliers such as Cannaflower after receiving advice and prescription by specialists.
3. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
This disorder is a result of having encountered terrible events or misfortunes such as assault, death of a loved one, or an accident at one point in your life. The memories of these encounters cause victims to suffer from anxiety whenever they re-live it or are faced with a similar situation. Research carried out in 2017 showed that CBD worked well for people with PTSD because it reduced their anxiety.
4. Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD)
This is also known as social phobia. It is a common disorder where people avoid social places and situations due to feelings of fear, embarrassment, and overwhelming anxiety. This can lead to another disorder called selective mutism. A combination of therapy and using CBD in small doses helps people suffering from this disorder to face social situations without the feelings of anxiety.
5. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
People suffering from OCD feel the need to do things obsessively and repetitively. Therapy is the most effective treatment for this case, but using CBD can help with relaxation.
Conclusion
As more research is done to assess the health benefits of CBD, it should be noted that just like regular medication, there are side-effects when using these products and therefore users should be cautious.
