Rancho Mesa's Alyssa Burley and Rory Anderson, Partner and Account Executive of the Tree Care Group discuss professional liability for tree care companies.

Show Notes: ⁠⁠Subscribe to Rancho Mesa's Newsletter⁠⁠.

Director: ⁠⁠Alyssa Burley⁠⁠

Host: Alyssa Burley⁠⁠

Guest: ⁠⁠Rory Anderson⁠⁠

Producer/Editor: Megan Lockhart

Music: "Home" by JHS Pedals, “News Room News” by Spence

© Copyright 2024. Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

Transcript

Alyssa Burley: Hi, this is Alyssa Burley with Rancho Mesa's Media Communications and Client Services Department. Thank you for listening to today's top Rancho Mesa news brought to you by our Safety and Risk Management Network, StudioOne™.

Welcome back, everyone. My guest is Rory Anderson, Partner with Rancho Mesa. He specializes in commercial insurance for the tree care industry. And today, we’re going to talk about professional liability for tree care companies.

Rory, welcome to the show.

Rory Anderson: Alyssa, good morning. Thank you for having me.

AB: Or course, we're happy to have you. Now, you specifically focus on the tree care industry. And we usually discuss the risk associated with working at height or the specialty equipment used by the industry. But, there are other types risk that tree care businesses need to be aware of like professional liability.

So, do all tree care companies need to worry about professional liability claims or just those who are offering consulting services?

RA: It's a great question and you know I do get asked that question often and the short answer is everybody needs it, Alyssa. So, whether you have a consulting arborist on staff or not, every tree care company has a professional liability exposure and general liability policy is going to exclude professional liability claims.

So, a misdiagnosis of a tree disease damaged to property or even bodily injury resulting from an error or some type of miscalculation can be extremely costly and challenging for your business. So, it's important as a tree care company really for you to understand the risk and then make a decision on whether or not you'd like to transfer that risk by purchasing a professional liability policy.

AB: Okay, so why do tree care companies need to protect themselves specifically from professional liability claims?  

RA: Yeah, so we can start off by identifying the most prominent need, which would be tree care companies who do have those certified arborists on staff that offer consulting and expert advice related to the health of the tree, the safety of the tree, and obviously that type of work has the highest need for professional liability insurance to cover any errors or any type of incorrect advice that leads to financial loss, property damage, or bodily injury, like I was mentioning. A professional liability insurance policy would help protect that arborist by covering legal defense costs, settlements, or judgments that are awarded against the arborist if they are found liable for errors or omissions related to their consulting work.

AB: So, just like professionals in other industries like insurance, medicine, and engineering, they'll want a policy to protect themselves if they make an honest mistake. So, do they really need this coverage if they don't have a certified arborist providing consultation services on staff, and maybe they just have a general liability policy?

RA: Yeah, you know, and that, again, going back to the beginning, that's a question that I get a lot. It's, hey, we just perform tree work. We don't have certified arborists making recommendations and offering reports and things like that. And the bottom line is yes, you still do need to have this or consider this type of policy because even if you don't have a certified arborist on staff and you're simply just performing tree care contracting work, you still have this exposure. And, the reason is general liability policies are in place to cover third-party property damage and bodily injury that occurs as a result of your work. Right? They do not however cover your work itself and it's very explicitly named that your work is excluded in a GL policy. So, if your tree care business removes the wrong tree or a tree dies from your pruning and your client decides to sue you for the cost of the tree. We've seen emotional distress thrown in there. You would need faulty workmanship coverage to cover your work and that faulty workmanship coverage is offered through the professional liability policy.

So, for many of these instances as a tree care business owner, you might be thinking, you know what, man, we can absorb these costs internally, we can replace the tree and things like that. But if the mistake was made on a mature or maybe a rare tree, paying out a pocket may severely impact your balance sheet.

AB: All right, so what do you recommend business owners do to protect themselves?

RA: Talk with your agent about purchasing a professional liability policy to transfer your risk and give yourself peace of mine knowing that you are covered for any unexpected or unpleasant surprises.

AB: Alright Rory, if listeners have questions about managing their professional liability, what's the best way to get in touch with you?

RA: I can be reached at (619) 486-6437 or you can email me at randerson@ranchomesa.com.

AB: Rory, thanks for joining me in StudioOne™.  

RA: Thanks.

AB: This is Alyssa Burley with Rancho Mesa. Thanks for tuning in to our latest episode produced by StudioOne. For more information, visit us at RanchoMesa.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter.