Insurance against being sued for having content with bad advice

I don't expect this is a situation I'll ever face, but I feel it would be sensible to be insured against someone suing my company for having given bad/incorrect advice on a website. I already have professional liability insurance, but it does not cover this.

I've spent the last three months trying to convey to my insurance company what I want, but they don't really understand (publishing means magazines and books to them, they're not geared up for interwebpages ). For articles/content I have bought (such as from the B/S/T forum here), they want every writer I've ever used to sign a document saying they hand over copyright and the like, which is totally impractical as I've been doing this years and lost contact with many writers, plus don't want to hassle or scare off the current ones I use. I haven't even tried to describe user-generated content to them, but would want to be covered for this too.

Does anyone have an insurance policy to cover this, and if so, who is your insurer? Has anyone accidentally published something incorrect and faced legal action? I'm not talking about copyrighted content here, I mean like if your content said if you suffer with X use this Y product, then using Y product made their legs fall off.

 

what about a disclaimer or terms of use that prevent you from taking any blame from misguided advice
Make it clear that they must agree to the terms before viewing any pages on your site.

 

Thanks SBC, the sites already have terms and conditions link at the bottom with a disclaimer, but I don't know whether this has any real legal value or not.

An agree to terms checkbox is a good idea, but won't be workable in the context of these sites. Almost all traffic comes from search engines straight to the content pages, they're not going to be regular visitors, they're just looking to quickly find some information. If I forced them to register or agree to terms before viewing content, I'm sure most visitors would just close the browser window and move on to the next site.

 

just don't give advice on things related to medicine or herbs or things that people stick in their mouth that has potential to make them sick, crippled or die. and always stick at the bottom of every thing you write, blah blah blah that this is for entertainment only and you are not to be held liable for any opinions that you state. all that blah blah blah will help save you in court. who in their right mind believes anything they read on the web nowadays?

 

Not giving advice on certain topics isn't an option for sites with user generated content. Lets say I have a site about weight loss which has a forum. Someone posts saying eating a certain type of berry will help you lose weight. Then 5 years from now it turns out those berries cause cancer, there is a very small, but possible, chance, my company, as the publisher of the website, could be sued for giving someone who ate those berries cancer. I want insurance against that. If disclaimers and the like protect from that, surely an insurance company would be able to offer this on the condition that the sites have such disclaimers.

 

If you make it very clear on every page that:

A) The information displayed does not constitute medical advice and does not come from a doctor

B) The information is provided by members of the general public and you do not attempt to verify its accuracy

then I think it's highly unlikely anyone could make much of a case against you.

 

If it is about health, I agree completely with small potatoes. Make clear: -

1 That this does not consititute medical advice.

2 That it is not to be taken as a cure for any medical condition

3 That consumer should seek professional medical advice if in any doubt

4 Sources of information have been provided by public information, and can't be guaranteed as to it's accuracy

I would have a disclaimer on each page, but also a separate disclaimer page, with terms and conditions.

Hope this helps

 

Thanks SmallPotatoes and woodley for your input . The issue here though isn't taking action to reduce the chances of getting sued (I already have disclaimers like you have described), it's about getting insured. If anyone can advise of an insurance company that has specialist knowledge of the website publishing industry, I'd like to know .

 

Ask a specialist business insurer about professional indemnity or consultants liability insurance

 

Thanks magda, I already have professional indemnity insurance, which covers for me and my company's employees giving bad advice. Unfortunately it doesn't cover website content. Perhaps my current insurer isn't, as you say, specialist, and I need to find one that is.