We arrange professional indemnity insurance for graphic designers, which will spring into action if a client or third-party brings a claim against you. A claim generally involves a threat of legal action or a demand for monetary damages.
For graphic designers we find the types of claims that arise are mostly:
- copyright infringement claims. This can stem from logos, typefaces and even third-party assets used in work like stock imagery
- clients trying to recover compensation from a mistake that’s been made. Usually this involves typos that have been spotted too late or designing to incorrect product dimensions
Insurance isn’t a legal requirement, but it works in much the same way as wearing a seatbelt when you get into a car. Nobody is anticipating an accident, but if one arises it minimises the amount of damage done.
This is especially important for freelancers since you won’t have an in-house legal team or large pots of cash to help fight any fires that arise throughout your freelance career.
Whilst we know you’re great at what you do, everybody is prone to human error or sometimes things happen through the project lifecycle that are outside of your control. Client relationships break down, work is delivered late, client expectations aren’t met… the list goes on.
If any of these things happen which then leads to a threat of legal action against you or a client trying to recover compensation, this is when your insurance could help.
The professional indemnity policy is very meaty, but here are some of the features that graphic designers could find useful:
Breach of contract
If your client feels they’ve suffered a loss as a result of you unintentionally breaching your contract they can look to recover this loss from you. This could be down to work that isn’t delivered to the agreed timescale or to spec, which can leave you vulnerable to claims of breach of contract.
Negligence
The negligence clause in your professional indemnity policy is intentionally broad so that it captures lots of situations. The gist is; if you make a mistake in your work (or you are perceived to have made a mistake) and your client tries to recover monetary damages from you, your insurance can help. For example, if you design packaging for a client and a typo is only discovered once the product has went to print, your client can look to recover the costs to fix the mistake from you.
Unintentional copyright infringement
Copyright claims are common against graphic designers. If you’re creating original logos, type faces and designs, somebody can throw an accusation of copyright infringement at you if they deem your work to be similar to theirs. Usually these are accompanied with a monetary demand.
Emergency correction problems
This feature is ideal for graphic designers working with physical material like brochures or product packaging. The insurer will pay the reasonable costs in correcting mistakes in advertising or marketing material to enable the content to be published inline with the client’s original expectations.
Mitigation costs
If your relationship with a client breaks down, the client may refuse to pay any or all of your fees. The mitigation costs clause means that if your client isn’t happy with the work you’ve delivered, refuses to pay your invoice and accompanies that refusal with a threat, the insurer will pay you the money owed to you if they believe it will avoid a claim for a greater amount.
One thing graphic designers have to be mindful of is copyright infringement. It’s one of the biggest causes of claims against them.
One of our talented customers was hired by a brand to redesign their logo. After doing a considerable amount of research for the project, preparing a mood board, collecting inspiration and iterating on revisions, the final logo was approved and launched. Everyone was happy.
Several months later a third-party approached the brand claiming that it shared a resemblance to their logo. They said it infringed their copyright and asked for thousands of pounds in damages.
The brand approached the designer in a panic. If damages have to be paid, they’d expect the graphic designer—the person responsible for designing the logo—to cover the cost.
At this point the graphic designer contacted us. A claim of copyright infringement and the request for damages to be paid meant their professional indemnity policy was triggered. The insurer appointed a team of legal experts who specialise in copyright law to defend the freelancer.
Despite the threat of thousands of pounds of damages, it was a simple case to defend because the designer could show their research, thought process and work to produce the final design. This helped prove they hadn’t copied the logo. When the solicitor presented these facts to the accuser, the claim was dropped.
Don’t just take it from us. Read one of our customer’s accounts of why graphic designers need professional indemnity insurance.
By now you should have a better understanding of what insurance is and how it can help you, but how much is it going to cost?
With Jack can arrange £1,000,000 of professional indemnity insurance for graphic designers from £168 per year. Payments are interest free so this works out to just £14 per month.
Just a heads up that there will be additional costs if you add other products to your policy, turn over more than £250,000 or opt to extend the jurisdiction to include US cover.
There are lots of benefits to being insured:
- It removes the pain of sourcing the right lawyer should you find yourself in a legal dispute
- You won’t have to pay expensive, upfront fees for a consultation with a lawyer
- You won’t face situations alone. Whilst freelancers are working solo, being insured means you have a team of legal experts behind you
- You’ll go into each project with more confidence
- Insurance is tax deductible
As a freelance graphic designer your reputation is everything. You’re responsible for
- delivering work on time
- meeting client expectations
- providing work to a certain standard
- communicating efficiently with clients
Being insured not only puts you in a better position to fix a wrong, but it gives clients confidence that they’re working with a trusted professional.
We’ve talked about what features insurance has that can help you, real stories from graphic designers that have had to use their insurance and how much it costs. You can take the next step and get a quote.
