[OSGeo-Discuss] Insurance for contractors?

[Bob Basques]

Michael, 

I've run into this problem for years, and the simple answer is, if you can afford the bother and cost of getting insurance to cover your works and the resulting products, just get it, it really helps with everything across the whole project spectrum. 

Now, having said that, I've only recently gotten Insurance and this was from the bidders end, as in bidding on a project, the project dictated some fairly heavyhanded (IMO) insurance requirements that we needed to provide, and in the end, the cost was just charged back as a reduction in hours available for working.  There was really no way around it in the end. 

While I'm basically against adding in any unneeded extras, there are times when it's just easier to have the insurance available.   I won't lie to you though, it was a rather rigorous task to get the insurnce into place, but it's typically only a one time deal and it's all setup for the next time too. 

Anote here, there are also options for getting insurance on a project by project basis, but the bidder will need to have an insurance agent in their pocket to be able to execute something in short order when needed. 

bobb 



>>> "Michael P. Gerlek" <mpg at lizardtech.com> wrote:

In the past I've hired some people for contract or consultant work (both open source projects and more general stuff) -- generally these people have been independent, one-man shops found by word of mouth and reputation, as opposed to hiring someone from an agency.

I'm getting pushback now from the administrative side of my company saying that any contractor I hire needs to have proof of insurance.  I understand the legal reasons for this, but I'm wondering how many of you out there actually have business/contractors insurance?  Do companies you work for insist on it, or not?  And how many of you are formally set up as LLCs or sole proprietorships or such?

[while this is likely a US-centric issue from the hiring side, I'm interested in international responses too since I've hired some foreigners as well over the years]

-mpg

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