What is Public Liability Insurance for Nail Technicians?

Public liability insurance is one of the most important types of insurance that a nail technician should have to protect their business.

But, although many nail technicians know that they need public liability insurance, not many actually know what it covers. And even fewer know the difference between a standard public liability insurance policy and a public liability insurance policy that has been tailored for the specific needs of nail technicians.

So, what does public liability insurance cover, and how is public liability insurance for nail technicians different to a standard public liability insurance policy?

What public liability insurance covers

Public liability insurance protects the policyholder if a compensation claim is made against them because someone alleges that they have been injured or their property has been damaged as a result of something that the policyholder did or failed to do.

As well as paying any compensation awarded, it also covers any of the claimant’s associated expenses, such a taxi fares or equipment needed to make dealing with an injury easier. It also covers the claimant’s loss of income if they were unable to work as a result of an injury.

The public liability insurer should have a claims team that specialises in dealing with the complex legal arguments that compensation claims can involve, and this saves you having to try to deal with those legal arguments yourself. Public liability insurance also covers any legal fees that are incurred in handling a compensation claim.

What sort of claims are covered?

As mentioned, public liability insurance covers you if someone makes a compensation claim against you because they believe that something you have done, or failed to do, has resulted in them being injured or their property being damaged.

This could be something as simple as spilling nail varnish onto someone’s clothing or property. It’s easily done but when it happens, you’ll be required to either clean or replace the item that has been stained.

Perhaps you’ve left something in a walkway and someone has tripped over it. If that resulted in a broken wrist, the compensation claim could end up costing £20,000, plus any associated wages and other associated expenses, as well as the legal fees.

But it’s not just things that you have done that can lead to claims. If you’ve recently mopped the floor and haven’t put up a sign to warn people that the floor is still wet, it’s possible that someone could slip. If that resulted in a spinal injury, it’s possible that the compensation claim could cost over £250,000.

How is public liability insurance for nail technicians different?

There are a number of important differences between a bespoke nail technician’s public liability insurance policy and a standard public liability insurance policy. These differences are important because, without the policy extensions in a bespoke nail technician’s public liability insurance policy, nail technicians could find themselves uninsured in the event of a compensation claim being made against them.

The first extension is products liability insurance. Unlike public liability insurance, which covers you if something you have done or failed to due results in a compensation claim, products liability insurance covers compensation claims that arise as a result of a defect in a product that you have sold or supplied.

The second is the treatment risk cover extension. A standard public liability insurance policy excludes cover for compensation claims which arise out of professional activities. Because providing nail services is a professional activity, this means that without this extension, many potential claims would be uninsured.

The third is the financial loss cover extension. Standard public liability insurance policies only cover compensation claims involving injuries or property damage and exclude cover for compensation claims that only involve pure economic losses. The financial loss cover extension addresses this issue.