Public Liability Insurance For Barbers

Public liability insurance protects you if a compensation claim is made against you. Due to the compensation culture that exists today, it’s something you need. The number of compensation claims that are being made is increasing thanks to the adverts for “no win, no fee” services that encourage people to make a compensation claim.

These claims are difficult to settle in view of the fact that they usually involve complex legal arguments. The cost of the claims can be high because serious injuries can result in large compensation awards. Most barbers would have a problem if someone claimed compensation from them and they weren’t insured.

Compensation claims

There are a number of reasons why you might have to pay compensation to someone, but normally, you are legally liable to pay compensation if you do something or fail to do something and that causes someone to be injured or it causes damage to their property.

Let’s say someone has tripped over a cable in your premises. If they were injured, they would be entitled to claim compensation from you. Similarly, if you have failed to warn people that you have mopped the floor so it could be slippery and someone tripped, they could claim compensation if that resulted in them being injured.

In addition to the compensation award, there are also legal fees to be paid, any wages that the claimant has lost as a result of the incident, and a range of other associated costs and expenses. As a result, a relatively minor injury will almost always result in compensation awards that exceed £1,000. Serious injuries are much more costly and often the compensation awards exceed £250,000.

Public liability insurance for barbers protects you if someone makes a compensation claim against you.

Public liability insurance

Property insurance – which protects you if your property is accidentally damaged or stolen – is easily understood by most people because they have the same cover in their household insurance. Public liability insurance is a slightly different matter.

This type of insurance covers you in the event that someone claims compensation claim from you. It’s important for a barber to have this cover in view of the amount of some compensation awards.

As well as paying any compensation that is awarded, your insurer will handle the claim for you via a team that has been legally trained and that specialises in dealing with these types of claim. Public liability insurance also covers any legal fees, even if the claim that has been made against you isn’t valid and no compensation is payable to the claimant.

As a barber, you need to ensure that your public liability insurance policy has been tailored to suit your business. There could be claims that would not be insured if you relied on a standard policy.

Barbers’ public liability insurance

Where standard public liability insurance and barbers’ public liability insurance differs is that the barbers’ policy will contain an extension to provide treatment risk cover.

This treatment risk extension is vital because standard public liability insurance does not include cover for any claims that arise due to the delivery of professional services. This causes a problem for barbers because their job is to provide a professional service. As such, many compensation claims wouldn’t be insured.

A public liability insurance policy designed for barbers should contain a treatment risk cover extension that means you wouldn’t be uninsured if a compensation claim was made against you in such circumstances.

It’s also important to make sure that your public liability insurance policy contains a financial loss cover extension. Standard public liability insurance policies don’t cover claims that involve purely economic losses. They only cover claims that involve an injury or property damage. If your public liability insurance policy doesn’t have this extension, you may not be covered if a claim for purely economic losses is made against you.

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Darragh Timlin

With over 25 years’ experience, Darragh is an expert in all things insurance. Starting his career in commercial property underwriting, Darragh has worked for a number of global insurers and is now Managing Director of Salon Saver, part of the wider Henry Seymour Group.

All articles by Darragh Timlin