Forced Photographer Liability Insurance?

Liability? Is it in case you get hurt on there property? What is it covering?

i dont know. My client just informed me. I am going to call the facility but I just wanted to here others opinions b/c i dont know much about it & have never been forced to so. I dont do enough weddings to pay insurance on it is kinda of my issue

The facility has their own liability paperwork i do know that so they should be ok

Consider an umbrella policy on your homeowners insurance. It costs very little, and insures you for fairly large liability amounts at low cost. I would consider this anyway, since it's easy to exceed the liability on your auto insurance, for example. If you are doing work for hire, it's a reasonable requirement. If you are doing it gratis, as a gift to your friend, then it's a pretty unreasonable requirement, in my opinion, but a personal homeowner's liability rider should do it for you at low expense, and you should consider it anyway.

Just as you would want contractors to be insured if they're working on your house, and have unemployment insurance for their sub-contractors, for example, so YOU wouldn't be liable, so the facility wants to spread the risk and keep their insurance affordable by assuring that other subcontractors that come into the facility are insured, in order to limit THEIR liability. Your flash might explode, but you might trip, falling onto the wedding cake, startling the bride into jumping to rescue the cake, who hits the husband, knocking him over, breaking his leg, and ruining their wedding night, and the rest of their lives.

Read "This is the theory that Jack Built" in Space Child's Mother goose for a better chain reaction example.

There are many reasons they would expect you to have insurance. Here's a just for example. Something you do causes a guest at the wedding to trip and fall. If you don't have insurance, yes, their insurance will likely end up being the one that has to handle the cost, but that's not ideal for them. Their rates will go up. Liability insurance is something they'd expect for anyone working on their site from outside caterers to florists to you. It's not specifically liability insurance for photographers. it's liability insurance you would have as a business.

Mark

do you have a HomeOwners policy Katie ? Call your Insurance agent - they can probably put a " rider " on your policy to cover a one day event.

yes i do have a homeowners policy! I will check that out thank you

Maybe you can do a one day rider, but it's so cheap, compare it to an all year rider. Chickenfeed. Huge potential savings if found liable for anything at all.

i will look into that as well!!

If I were still photographing weddings in this climate I would have all kinds of insurance, I know you said you don't to a lot, but just the wrong one and you might not have to worry about homeowners insurance any longer...just saying.

TL Mair
tlmair.com

Some shows require liability insurance like this - in case someone trips in your tent or something I guess... So may as well get a policy that covers your butt for anything.

I've worked in insurance for 30 years. You can add a business endorsement to your homeowners policy. The price varies per insurance company, you will just have to call your agent/company.

If the venue requires it, I'm not sure there is much you can do if you don't want to cause problems and potentially stress the bride/groom out. I'm sure the last thing the bride and groom need is their photographer arguing with their choice of venue. Would you want to be personally liable if a guest tripped over your tripod? Or your flash blinded grandma and she fell into the wedding cake and broke her hip? (Far fetched, I know but people are sue crazy these days). I've been required to show proof of general liability insurance for art shows/festivals (and provide my own fire extinguisher) even on just my 10x10 booth. Its the world we live in.

I'm sure you can add this to your camera insurance.
If you are photographing weddings and other social events, you should really have some kind of insurance to cover yourself.
Or notify the couple getting married that you have no insurance and get it in writing that that is ok with them.

http://www.packagechoice.com/intro-to-photography-insurance.jsp
Something I never thought about but yeah I can see it happening. You direct someone a little tipsy to slide to the left or right and they break their ankle from being too drunk. I mean because you told them a little left or right. Pretty sad to think that way but its a reality.

With people being sue happy these days & not taking responsibility for their own actions (I drank way to much which is why I fell but let me blame it on the photographer instead so I can get some free money) I know I should get something...I guess I never thought to b/c I only do family & friends as of now.

I called my insurance geico & they are telling me I cant add it to my homeowners policy or do a "rider" that I would have to get General Liability insurance. Julie Senf is that true they can't add it? Bugs me when I dont know enough about it to believe them or if they are trying to pull one on me

Once you get insurance, from here on out, pass that cost along to the clients. They might appreciate the thought that you are insured if explained straight forward.

true..I am sure it would be one less stress off them

Katie Jeans: I'm not a lawyer and therefore can't give legal advice , but I can suggest questions you might want to ask your attorney.
1. You should incorporate.
2. Have the corporation insured.

Lets say you live in a modest 2 million dollar home which is insured with a home owners policy in which you have a personnel liability policy for say 2 million dollars- we are looking at 4 million dollars of coverage, in this example. Now say you are sued by a client while photographing a wedding and the court awards the plaintiff a 20 million dollar damage settlement. You need to ask your attorney if in this example ,with your homeowners insurance policy if you would forfeit your home? Also ,, ask if you were insured as a corporation in the same lawsuit would you have to forfeit your home. ,
A lawyer is the person you need to question on any legal issue.
This is the best legal advice I can offer.

All this just got so serious in one day lol a lot to think about. I dont have a lawyer. I know I should be thinking of all this...but it all just wasnt in my thought process when I am helping friends/family out b/c they cant afford a true professional photographer. I know I need to look out for myself at the end of the day...but I am not making enough money through photography to have a lawyer/ another month bill (liability insurance) etc. I dont know...I'm just going to have to start making some big bucks with these helping friend weddings from now on i guess

Katie, The endorsement that can be added is called a "Home Enterprise Endorsement", not all companies have it available though. I would think that Geico probably does not. They are a cheaper cost company that doesn't necessarily have all the coverages to fully cover people for their needs.

There are special event insurance companies online that you can get coverage from also. Just search for "special event insurance coverage", a lot of wedding venues require the bride/groom to carry liability insurance for their weddings to be held on their property. Just be sure and take note of any "exclusions" that would be listed on the policy so you are aware, sometimes relatives to you are not covered if they get injured...I know that sounds stupid but it is a reality.

Good luck :)

It is part of doing business. PPA had good group insurance for event photographer. If you do not charge enough to protect yourself just consider being the guest like all your other friends do.

Katie, just to throw this out there... (My bad if anyone else has mentioned this and I skipped past)

Are they going to require EVERYONE that shows up with a camera, perhaps camera bags, tripods, flash units and multiple lenses to carry liability insurance? After all, everyone on earth is now a photographer per say......SIC

As you mentioned, and I quote "All I have is my camera"..

Mark Tisdale brought up a list of "several good reasons" one may need to have liability insurance for. However, this is a wedding, correct? Just to be sure...A wedding with alcohol being served, perhaps some dancing to Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock & Roll"...Maybe the bride will throw her bouquet and 14 drunk off their ass single gals will resemble the Super Brawl at the end of Super Bowl 49 fighting for the prize?

K, I'm bringing a tad of humor into this however I just wanted to bring up a few common sense points here.

Will Bob Seger be sued if someone gets hurt dancing, or will the DJ or band for playing it? Perhaps the electric company for supplying the electric?

Is it possible they are only requesting that you have your equipment insured? I would be more inclined to think this is what they are implying if you have been singled out as the primary "event photographer"..

At any rate, if you read this far I found an article that may help you conclude if you want/need to follow up with this. Apparently, some venues require the "Professional Wedding Photographer" to carry liability.

http://www.themoderntog.com/photography-business-insurance

I talked with the wedding coordinator today of the facility...they actually just want the liability in case something happens to me or my equipment that I wont hold them liable. She said I could just sign a waiver and that would be ok