Liability Insurance for local consulting jobs

[phxsun2001]

I am a contract ISO Auditor for a registrar. I am sarting to pick up local consulting jobs. One job I picked up recently involves conducting internal audit for a company. I was asked to provide them with my liability insurance information. On my other consulting jobs I had, I sent them a contract and they issue a PO. I checked with my insurance company and the agent quoted me $600 a year. My wife is paying about $400 for her error and ommission issurance as a real estate broker. This $600 insurance does not cover auditing errors.

I may be consulting 20-25 days this year. Do you think I really need this type of insurance? I suppose I could press the wrong switch in the manufacturing floor and damage some machines. Where is a good place to get this insurance? Please help.

TY

[Miner]

There are many auditors in the Cove that will probably respond with more knowledge and experience, but with the tendancy to sue so prevalent, $600 is a small price to pay for the protection.

Regarding auditing errors, your contract should address the fact that audits are a sampling of the process and does not guarantee that you will catch all nonconformances.

Are you auditing only, or do you recommend specific actions to pass another third-party audit? I see a greater potential for risk if you make a specific recommendation that your customer implements as stated, but later fails an audit involving that specific recommendation. Your contract should limit your liability to waiving your fee (or similar penalty) in such an event.

[Madfox]

Some registrars require contract ISO auditors to carry liability, some could care less...$600 is way too high a quote, fleet average is $325.

The Madfox
(If you can't argue the facts, argue the law.
If you can't agure the law, argue the facts.
If you can't argue the law, or the facts, pound the table!)

[phxsun2001]

I got a more reasonable quoto from a smaller company in town for $350. The others are between $600-$1,000.

[phxsun2001]

Miner,
This company is hiring me to conduct internal audit to satisfy the AS9100 requirement before registration. They don't have the resource to do it. There is a demand for this type of service. If everything go right, I'll be doing it every 6 months or a year for the same company. I am going to give general recommendations when I conduct the audit. Thanks for all your recommendations.

[phxsun2001]

I found a big company for my liability insurance for $300 a year. If anyone need the information, let me know. The other quotes were $500-$600.

Tony

[Marc]

I can understand the concern, but if you buy liability insurance, what are the terms? That is, specifically what will they cover? For those of you who actually have insurance, how does the policy read? Specifically, what does it cover? And what are the $ 'maximums' and such?

What could you screw up doing something like an internal audit that you could cover with insurance?

Lastly, has anyone ever heard of (please cite evidence) an ISO 9001 auditor being sued for 'errors or omissions'? Or for anything else, for that matter.

Also see this existing discussion thread:

Professional Liability Insurance - Have been asked by a registrar to obtain!