It’s a Matter of Copyright

Architectural drawings are without a doubt copyrighted material; no matter whether there is a copyright stamp or not. Whereas the origin of the plans may not be apparent, one detail is clear: If the work is not of your original design and you work off them, you may well be positioning yourself for a copyright infringement claim in federal court.

Property & Casualty Insurance Coverage

A well designed PC coverage package for an A/E firms has a number of features, including:
• Blanket Waiver of Subrogation
• Blanket Additional Insureds with primary/noncontributory status
• Per Project Aggregates extend the GL limit to apply separately to each insured project
• Enhanced limits and features on property coverage – particularly for equipment used off premises

Katie Morris joined Hall & Company in 2011 with over 10 years Property & Casualty insurance experience, please contact her at (800) 597-2612 for more information.

Professional Liability Insurance Coverage

Travelers Insurance Company has designated Hall & Company

as the wholesale agent for Property & Casualty insurance coverage for any and all agencies that do not have a direct appointment with their company. As such we are the wholesale agent for about fifty retail agencies nationwide for the Traveler’s program.

Why One Broker

As specialists in providing professional liability insurance to architects, engineers, land surveyors, and environmental consultants, a good number of our 3,000 customers purchase their PC coverages through their local agent or continue to purchase this coverage through the agent they had for their PLI coverage before they switched to us. We encourage our customers to let us quote their PC coverages concurrent with their PLI insurance renewal for a number of reasons, including:
• It allows a single point in time each year to make insurance purchase decisions.
• It allows us to issue one comprehensive certificate of insurance each year at renewal to all of your clients that require a current certificate on file with them.
• Only one certificate is needed to represent all of your coverages on new project contracts that you enter into throughout the year.
• It allows us to provide more comprehensive contract reviews for our clients and verify that all of the project’s required coverages for both PC and PLI are in place.
• Some insurance companies offer discounts for having both their PL and PC coverage with them in-turn saving our clients even more on their insurance premiums.
Also our expertise as A/E insurance specialists provides us the experience to know the proper coverages and limits for our clients. We are able to write insurance in all 50 states (limited in Alaska and Hawaii). We have in-house underwriting authority so your quote turnaround time is quick. Architects, engineers, surveyors, and environmental consultants have unique requirements for PC coverages and we offer a number of companies with well designed coverage programs and competitive rates.
A well designed PC coverage package for an A/E firms has a number of features, including:
• Blanket Waiver of Subrogation
• Blanket Additional Insureds with primary/noncontributory status
• Per Project Aggregates extend the GL limit to apply separately to each insured project
• Enhanced limits and features on property coverage – particularly for equipment used off premises
Let us show you what we can do for you and how much easier it is to have your PLI and PC coverages with a firm that specializes in insuring design firms.

It’s almost time!

In order to present the most current information in our presentation, we are inviting all Design Professionals to take part in a brief survey. The results of this survey will be presented during our presentation on Tuesday, June 14th. If you have not signed up for the webinar please do so now. This webinar is approved for CE Credit from AIA!

Take this survey now!

Professional Liability Insurance for Land Surveyors

Professional liability insurance (E&O Insurance) for Land Surveyors is the most important coverage a surveyor can purchase. Liability is as high as it has ever been, and the best surveys can have errors. There is also the risk that the client will disagree with you and you could end up having a judge decide your fate. A judge could side with the client; this is
where you will be very fortunate to have your professional liability insurance in place. Some of the many types of Survey work that needs professional liability insurance:

■ Boundary Surveys
■ Elevation or Floodplain Surveys
■ Geodetic Surveys
■ GIS and LIS Surveying and Mapping
■ Hydrographic and Underwater Surveys
■ Construction Staking
■ Mining and other Subsurface Surveys
■ Topographic Surveys
■ Subdivision Surveys
■ Route Surveys
■ Registered Land Surveys
■ Record or As-Built Surveys
■ Quantity Surveys
■ Site Plan Surveys

Always consult an expert before deciding what type and level of coverage is right for your firm.

Do You Need Professional Liability Insurance

Professional liability insurance covers errors and omissions made or alleged in your practice of professional services. Professional liability insurance is a must for all types of design firms, including engineers, architects, environmental consultants, land surveyors, construction managers and design build/firms. To read the details of Understanding Professional Liability Insurance please go to Hall & Company’s publication section.

Contract Clauses for Design Professionals

Hall & Company invites you and your staff to participate in an online presentation: The Bright Gray Line: "Yes", "Never", and "Maybe" Contract Clauses for Design Professionals (and how to find the difference). Presented by David Ericksen, President of Severson & Werson, this presentation will highlight the most challenging contract clauses and our approach to evaluating, negotiating, and managing those clauses for successful projects. Specifically, we will apply our time-tested negotiation and management model to some of the most challenging clauses such as indemnity, the standard of care, code compliance, document ownership, and others.