Professional liability (errors & omissions) in Spokane
Covers claims that your professional advice, design or service caused a client a financial loss.
General liability covers physical harm. Professional liability covers the harm done by work that was wrong, late or incomplete. If clients pay you for expertise — consulting, design, accounting, IT, engineering, real estate, therapy — this is the policy that matters most.
Claims-made, not occurrence
This is the detail that catches people out. Most E&O policies are claims-made: they respond to claims reported while the policy is active, not to work performed while it was active. Let the policy lapse and the coverage for everything you have ever done lapses with it, unless you buy tail coverage. If you are switching carriers, the retroactive date on the new policy is the single most important number on it.
Who needs it in practice
Anyone whose deliverable is advice or a document. In Spokane that means a long list: accountants, architects and engineers, IT consultants and MSPs, marketing agencies, insurance and real estate brokers, management consultants, counsellors and allied health practices, and increasingly any contractor doing design-build work.
Contracts that require it
Public-sector work, hospital systems, and most larger corporate clients will specify E&O limits in the master services agreement, often $1M or $2M. The requirement usually appears late in procurement, when there is no time left to shop. Having the policy in place before you bid is the cheaper path.
What Professional Liability (E&O) covers
- Claims of negligence, error or omission in your work
- Legal defence even when the allegation is unfounded
- Missed deadlines and failure to deliver
- Breach of professional duty claims
A bookkeeping error means a client files late and takes a five-figure penalty. They come after you for the loss. E&O pays the defence costs and the settlement — a claim general liability would decline, because nobody was physically hurt.
Questions
Professional Liability (E&O) FAQs
General liability responds to bodily injury and property damage. Professional liability responds to financial loss caused by your work. They cover entirely different claims, and most professional firms need both.
It is the date from which your claims-made policy will cover past work. A policy with a retroactive date of today covers nothing you did yesterday. When you change carriers, carrying the original retroactive date forward preserves years of coverage — losing it throws it away.
A limitation-of-liability clause helps, but it does not stop a client filing, and it does not pay your defence lawyer. Courts also decline to enforce these clauses more often than people expect.
Usually written alongside
Coverage that works with this one
Workers' Compensation
Required in Washington for nearly every employer. Covers medical care and lost wages when someone gets hurt on the job.
Read moreGeneral Liability
The baseline policy. Covers injuries to other people and damage to their property arising out of your business.
Read moreBusiness Owner's Policy (BOP)
General liability and commercial property bundled into one policy, usually for less than buying them separately.
Read moreStart with your trade. We will take it from there.
Tell us what the business does and we will pre-select the coverage it normally needs, then compare carriers for you. About two minutes, no obligation.
Prefer to talk it through? Call (509) 944-0847.