Please note the following is a guide only and you must check your own specific insurance requirements with your insurance broker.

Insurance and liability are essential to every business, and it’s aware essential you are aware of your legal obligations. Failure to arrange correct insurance so can incur much greater penalties in the long run. It is also important to consider those optional and advised insurance policies outlined below. It is too easy to calculate just the costs of these and not what is at stake if cover isn’t arranged. A lack of or inadequate cover can affect more than just the photographers’ finances, but also the lives and income of people working with them.

When starting as a photographer or assisting photographer, it is a legal requirement to have certain insurance and liability protection. Others are not compulsory, but are recommended because of the financial protection they provide. Photographers should be aware of the distinctions, so they are able to anticipate the point in their career when it is necessary to get cover from these policies. There are fundamental differences between voluntary and legally required insurance and liability policies:

1. Liability provides protection against claims made by other people (or companies) against a photographer, and will cover any payment awarded against the insured, in or out of court.
2. Insurance policies can protect virtually anything including individuals, income, premises, equipment, film, portfolio, home or personal possessions, from accident, damage, loss or theft, and claims are not usually dependant on a court decision.

This section will provide details on different voluntary and compulsory general insurance covers and those policies specific to professional photography practice.

Employer’s Liability Insurance

All employers must, by law, have Employer’s Liability Insurance. The definition of an ‘employee’ in this case is often unclear and this may cause confusion, but it is generally understood to be anyone working under someone’s ‘care custody and control’, whether or not a fee is being paid for the person’s services. This can include:

• Any person(s) employed by the Insured under a contract of services or apprenticeship
• Labour masters and persons supplied by them
• Persons employed by labour only sub-contractors
• Persons offering their services on a labour only basis
• Persons engaged in work experience, manpower services or similar schemes
• Self-employed persons, freelance artists and voluntary workers
• Any person(s) supplied to or hired in or borrowed by the Insured.

Employer’s Liability protects the photographer from any claim of death, bodily injury or disease to an employee arising during a job. If action is taken by an ‘employee’ who has suffered, say, injury, and the court decides that the photographer was negligent and therefore liable, Employer’s Liability will meet the costs of the action and also the compensation. However, if they don’t have a valid policy they will be liable for all costs, fees and compensation and face prosecution for not having Employer’s Liability.

Optional but Very Important Insurance Policies

Public Liability Insurance

Public Liability Insurance is not compulsory. However, public liability will protect a photographer from a situation where the photographer’s proven negligence causes:

• Loss or damage to property;
• Disease, death or injury to another person (third party injury).

Example:       A photographer is shooting on location in a busy street and a member of the public trips over a camera tripod and injures themselves and decides to seek compensation from the photographer. A court would have to decide whether the accident was caused because of the photographer’s negligence (Was the shooting area sufficiently cordoned off? Etc.) and whether the claim against the photographer is justified.

If the photographer does not have public liability cover, they will have to meet the costs of defending an action and the additional costs of lawyer’s fees. Public Liability means that all costs are handled by the insurance company, no matter what the outcome of the claim.

Public Liability will usually only cover an incident, which would be heard in a European court.

Professional Indemnity Insurance

Professional Indemnity Insurance is considered essential protection for all professional practices in today’s litigious climate. Photographers are at risk in the same way as other professional practitioners to claims arising from professional negligence. Incidents of an apparently minor nature could ultimately result in substantial court awards and expensive legal costs. Cover enables you to reduce the financial effect of such claims on your business, and protect your livelihood.

The cover can be comprehensive and include your liability at law for the following essential features:

• Any neglect, error or omission by you or employees
• Infringement of intellectual property and copyright
• Libel, slander or  defamation or violation
• Dishonesty of employees or agents.

And in addition:

Fees and expenses which a client would have paid to you, but for your mistake;

Additional costs incurred by you to rectify a mistake;

Compensation for court attendance;

Legal defence costs.

Claims can arise from a wide variety of areas, but here are just a few situations, which could produce a claim against you:

• The client is unhappy with the quality of your work, and alleges it is not to the required standard
• Your images contain items of third party copyright, which you did not seek clearance, or you were not aware required copyright clearances. Such as the clearances required to used logos, brands, art work, and even designer furniture/props.
• An engagement is omitted from your diary or you turn up at the wrong location or at the wrong time;

It is impossible to estimate how much these claims could cost, but any commercial dispute is likely to be expensive, and substantially more will be involved if solicitors are engaged or if you have to re-shoot a large job.

We would always recommend professional indemnity. We are seeing an increase in claims relating to copyright and intellectual property. It’s very easy for a third party to bring an allegation of negligence or breach of intellectual property, even if the grounds for doing so are unfounded. Professional indemnity would provide a legal defence in such instances.

Exclusions

There are very few exclusions with Professional Indemnity Cover, however you cannot cover a claim arising from circumstances of which you were aware when you took out the policy, and you will be asked to make a specific contribution to each claim.

Equipment Insurance

Most insurance brokers can provide insurance for loss, theft or damage to a photographer’s equipment, but a firm which specialises in the film, TV and photography business is usually recommended, because it will probably have a better understanding of your business needs. A complete list of all the insurable items should be submitted to the insurance broker with accurate information or current replacement values. Where items of equipment are obsolete, the nearest equivalent should be found to avoid under-insurance. These figures should be updated annually so that equipment is absolutely covered. Policies can be arranged to protect equipment for:

• Studio only
• UK only
• Worldwide

Photographers are able to expand the cover if they are shooting outside the area normally covered, and pay an additional premium. If a photographer has to do this more than twice in a year, it is usually cheaper to upgrade the policy at the renewal date to include the additional area(s) on a permanent basis.

Some equipment policies automatically cover theft from the photographer’s car, but individual policies may specify that cover is only during daylight hours or that the car should be fitted with a ‘suitable’ car alarm. However, some policies will exclude theft from a car altogether, and so policies should be considered very carefully to ensure that the provision is suitable. Details should always be checked and nothing should be assumed.

Please also be aware that household insurance policies will often exclude business equipment, and will certainly not provide adequate cover in respect of hired equipment in the event of an emergency. As an example, our photographic policies include hire protection as standard. Our policies will allow you to rent equipment whilst your own equipment is being repaired or replaced.

Portfolio Insurance

A portfolio will often be out of the photographer’s or agent’s care, custody or control and the personal and commercial value that it holds should be insured for. Most photographers pay an additional premium on their equipment insurance to cover their portfolios against loss, damage or theft. If you consider the times that a book will be with a courier or will be carried in the street or on public transport, insurance is essential. However, be aware that portfolio insurance only covers the cost of remounting a new portfolio and not the cost of re-shooting the lost or damaged images.

Increasingly photographer’s portfolios and libraries are being stored on computers, so consideration should be given to insuring reinstatement of data and possibly loss of income (in relation to libraries) in respect of problems related to computers.

Re-Shoot Cover

With the cost of photographic shoots increasing all the time, consideration should be given to insuring the re-shoot either on an annual or job-by-job basis.

The main elements of a re-shoot cover are as follows:

1a)      Non-Appearance:    Cost to re-shoot following the loss of photograph or anything essential to the shoot, who is in your original budget.

1b)      Negative/ Digital:      Cost to re-shoot following loss of / or damage to exposed film or digitally generated images.

1c)       Extra Expenses:       Cost to re-shoot following loss of / or damage to essential equipment, props or location.

Re-shoot policy can also include hired equipment, props, sets & wardrobes, cash, liabilities etc.

Property of Others

Property of Others is a voluntary insurance policy, which protects photographers against damage to props they have hired or borrowed. These ‘temporary’ products and props are not covered on Public Liability policies. The Property of Others module is usually an addition to a photographic or production insurance policy. Many companies and freelance people in the industry should have Property of Others cover, whether they are stylists, home economists, design groups, advertising agencies, or any person/organisation that may be temporarily entrusted with someone else’s property. In the case of a photographer, this is loosely referred to as ‘props, sets and wardrobe’. Property of Others does not cover camera, lighting or hire equipment. The only exception to this is the insurance of hire studios and locations, which are covered by the photographer’s Public Liability and not Property of Others.

Cover is normally for a specific amount between £5,000-£10,000 and the photographer is able to organise additional cover for items that go over this limit, such as a car or jewellery or an expensive prop specially made by a model-maker.

It is a common mistake for a photographer to think that Public Liability cover will always protect them against damage to another person’s property, caused by their negligence, during the course of a job. However, special circumstances of props and locations must always be considered and accounted for, before the day of the shoot.

Example 1a:              A photographer is on location in a stately home and is photographing an interior shot. They walk backwards, knock a valuable vase from a pedestal and smash it.

Possible Outcome:   The vase was not in the shot and would probably be covered under Public Liability Insurance.

Example 1b:              A photographer is commissioned to photograph a vase in a stately home. They knock the vase from the pedestal and it smashes.

Possible Outcome:   The vase was intrinsic to the shot and was therefore a prop. The photographer would not be covered under Public Liability but would have to make a claim on Property of Others. Negligence does not have to be proven in court before the insurance company will pay.

It is a common mistake to assume that Public Liability will provide cover for this situation because damage was done to another’s property. However, anything that is featured in or is intrinsic to the photograph is considered to be a prop and therefore any damage would have to be claimed for under the photographer’s Property of Others policy.

Policy Excesses

All policies will vary but it is important to check the excess that is payable. An ‘excess’ is the amount the insured must contribute to a claim before any payment is made by the insurance company and applies to most insurance policies.

Working Abroad

Travel Insurance

If you are shooting aboard, you must always consider travel insurance. Whilst travel insurance will cover matters such as cancelation and curtailment, more importantly travel insurance will cover your emergency medical expenses if you are taken ill overseas. Medical expenses can rack up very quickly, especially in countries such as the USA where medical bills can be expensive. 

Please also remember that if you have assistants or employees travelling with you, you have a duty of care towards those persons. As such, you must also ensure adequate travel insurance is also arranged for anyone that is travelling at your request.