Highland insurance broker hopes to reassure crofters and farmers with solutions to ‘what if’ questions
Insurance broker, Caledonia Dallas, hopes to reassure crofters and farmers with a solution to many of the ‘what if’ questions they face in the day to day running of their businesses.
Account Executive, Chris Smith, is based at the firm’s Inverness office.
He said: “If the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) came knocking on your door, animal rights activists target you, or there’s been a fatal accident on your premises, or any other situation where you require legal assistance, you would hope that your Legal Expenses insurance policy would cover you. However, Legal Expenses cover isn’t always that simple.”
Many crofters and farmers insure tangible things because they don't want to be affected by their loss, but often it’s the intangible things, such as legal matters, that can have far more life-changing consequences if not prevented or handled correctly.
Chris explained: “That’s why it’s important to ensure that you have the best assistance and protection in place to cover you in these situations.”
Rural Protect is an insurance product that covers more than Legal Expenses Insurance and is a must-have for anyone involved in the crofting and farming sector.
It is what is known as a Management Liability insurance policy that protects all individuals in the business and automatically covers the Personal Liability, Company Legal Liability and Directors Family Legal Expenses with the option to include cover for Employment disputes.
Chris added: “Rural Protect provides proactive tools to help avoid the situations above, but should the worst happen, it also gives you access to rradar, a specialist litigation and commercial law firm that can provide advice and support on a wide range of matters, and ultimately legal defence in the event of a covered claim.”
Chris added: “One example of where Rural Protect helped was when a fatal accident occurred on a farm due to a worker falling in front of a moving tractor, a prosecution case was brought forward by the HSE under Section 2 of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974.
“The owner of the farm was insured by Rural Protect, meaning rradar acted as their defence team. There was a prosecution, as the farmer was at fault, costs and fees were more than £43,000 which included £6,050 in relation to the HSE’s Fee For Intervention (FFI) - a charge that is not covered by Employers’ Liability insurance. All of this was met by Rural Protect, but more importantly, the farmer had instant legal representation from the moment the tragic incident occurred.
“It’s also just as important to ensure you are protected in the event of any mismanagement in the running of your business,” explained Chris.
