It is amazing how often people sign things without reading them, only for this document to be relied on later for protection from something that has gone wrong. The big problem with this is that you don’t know your rights or responsibilities.
We see it all the time with businesses signing something then passing onto us to make sure they have the correct insurance requirements, only to find out that they have agreed to take on all the risk of the other company, irrespective if our client has anything to do with the issues.
We appreciate the fact that we don’t always see the complete commercial picture of the contract like you do, but it is important to get these agreements checked by your lawyer and also pass on to your insurance broker before you sign. From an insurance brokers point of view this is for two reasons.
Firstly, to enable us to make sure the correct covers are in place for you to satisfy this contract.
Secondly, to discuss any unfair, illegal or crazy requirements with transfer of risk, and how this could effect your covers you have in place.
Further to this, with new cyber reporting legislation being finalised, it is important to look at your contracts with third parties especially in relation to the privacy and data security clauses in these contracts, to understand whether they support compliance with these new obligations and who should be allocated responsibility for the assessment and notification steps in any situation.
This can be done using your legal adviser and your insurance broker should be able to make sure you are protected as well.
