Errors and Omission Insurance

I'm occasionally asked about insurance coverage, and I suppose it's a way to weed out the non-professional. Certainly there are contract engineers out there that are doing a bit of SolidWorks stuff as a sideline, and they typically are not set up as legitimate business entities. Having a real business, I suppose, means filing with your state government, keeping track of your finances, and carrying insurance.

Professional liability, or an errors and omissions policy, is something that may set the professional apart from the part-timer. It's an expensive coverage and supplements the terms and conditions of a professional contract for services. As a contractor who is establishing a long-term growing business, it makes good business sense to maintain such coverage. The range of projects I see is vast, and the eventual use of whatever design files are created is outside of my control. The alternative might be to enter into projects that seem "safe", but that's still no guarantee that a design won't end up far removed from its original intent, and an intentional omission that was made under the original parameters suddenly spells trouble in some new application.

There is definitely justification for carrying the insurance, and whatever contractor you do business with should be asked about their coverage.