An Overview of Secondary Professional Liability Insurance

Secondary Professional Liability Insurance (SPLI) is a unique program that protects members in good standing at participating regulators. It ensures that you, the public, and the reputation of the engineering profession stay protected in numerous cases involving professional services:

• Whistleblowing: You “blow the whistle” on an employer due to illegal or unsafe practices and, as a result, face legal costs and/or professional repercussions.
• Incidental professional consulting services: You consult informally with someone in your community, including friends and neighbours, and they bring a claim against you.
• Worldwide: You are  working in the United States and are found liable for work you’ve done.
• Prior acts: You have a claim brought against you for work you’ve done for a previous employer.
• Pollution: You are accused of polluting.
• Intellectual Property: You are accused of copyright or patent infringement.
• Estate: Your estate comes under threat as a result of a posthumous claim made against you.
• Retirement: You require coverage for an incident that happened prior to retirement.
• Mentoring: Your mentee is the subject of a claim.
• Libel and slander: You are accused of slander or libel.
• Cyber network security: You cause unauthorized access to a third-party computer network, resulting in data loss or other damage.
• Disciplinary actions: You have administrative or disciplinary action brought against you and incur legal costs.
• Loss of documents: You incur expenses to replace lost or damaged documents.
• Crisis event and reputation management: You need to hire a public relations firm to manage a crisis situation.

Note: The examples in this list are not exhaustive. The policy wording prevails for all coverage interpretations.

Beyond personal protection for professional services, Secondary Professional Liability Insurance plays an important role in ensuring that engineers feel comfortable in situations involving professional risk. Whether it’s whistleblowing, mentoring, or working abroad, SPLI allows you to more securely take actions that promote the overall health and reputation of the engineering profession.

Who is covered

All members in good standing with the provincial and territorial professional associations participating in this program: 

• Engineers and Geoscientists BC
• Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta
• Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan
• Engineers Geoscientists Manitoba
• Engineers and Geoscientists New Brunswick
• Engineers Nova Scotia
• Engineers PEI
• Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Newfoundland and Labrador
• Northwest Territories and Nunavut Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists
• Engineers Yukon
• Association of Professional Geoscientists of Ontario
• Ordre des Géologues du Québec
• Geoscientists Nova Scotia

Coverage limits

• Coverage per member:  $250,000 per claim, plus defence costs for claims made in Canada
• Aggregate per project:  $500,000
• Legal advice related to whistleblowing: $75,000
• Loss of income related to whistleblowing: $75,000
• Outplacement services related to whistleblowing: $10,000
• Legal expenses for disciplinary hearing, regulatory or administrative actions:  $30,000
• Loss of documents:  $5,000
• Crisis event and reputation management: $15,000
• Deductible per claim:  None

Claims

Making a claim

• Please consult your provincial or territorial regulator’s website for specific policy information.
• A claim must be reported in the policy period that it is first received (March 31 – March 31), although there is a 60-day grace period for claims overlapping the end date for a period.
• For additional information, contact the program hotline at 877-245-3820 or consult our frequently asked questions.

 Please consult your provincial or territorial regulator’s website for specific policy information. The policy wording prevails for all coverage interpretations.

 For additional information, contact the program hotline at 877-245-3820.

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