Is your photographer leaving you financially liable?

As budgets get squeezed, companies often look at ways to try and save money. With regards to commissioning photography, this can often mean letting that friend’s son/daughter who’s studying photography shoot a project for you, or trialling that new backpacking photographer who just emailed you with remarkably low rates. But is saving a few dollars, potentially leaving you open to a huge compensation claim if something goes wrong?

Let’s imagine for a second a couple of scenarios:

Scenario one – you’ve commissioned a photographer to photograph a building for you. They set up, camera bag on the floor next to their tripod. Along comes an office worker, headphones on, checking their emails on their phone and they don’t see the bag. They trip over and injure themselves. They subsequently decide to sue for damages. Surely, you the Client are not liable? 

Scenario two – you’ve commissioned a photographer to photograph a newly completed space. The photographer turns around quickly with their tripod and knocks over and breaks an expensive piece of artwork. Who’s paying for the damage?

I put the question of liability to Steven Da Silva of Austbrokers SPT, an insurance broker who specialises in company liability insurance and this is what he said:

“When you engage a contractor to do work for, you hope it all goes okay and they do the job properly. This is not always the case.

Without being specific on the work undertaken, all contractors should be responsible for the work they perform and all loss or damage and any injury to you, your staff and the public arising out of the work. Trying to get them to sign or provide a contract for the work they do can be difficult and without one, sorting out who is responsible if something goes wrong can be messy, very time consuming and costly. Such events are usually sorted out in court but as the claim is against the person wanting the work done (you), it can be expensive and sometimes futile to pass the costs to the contractor if they do not have any assets or insurance.

At the very least, we recommend you obtain the latest copy of their Public Liability and Workers Compensation (if they are a Pty Ltd company) issued by their insurer. If they do not, or not want to, provide these basic documents, you should question how they will handle any injury, loss or damage they cause without insurance to protect you and them.

Consult with your Insurance Broker on the best way to manage this risk.”

Steven Da Silva – Austbrokers SPT

So, in a nutshell, before simply looking at the cost of service, you should also make sure that the contractors you engage, including photographers, are adequately insured. 

At Burrough Photography, I pride myself on not only maintaining safe working practices (high vis vests in public spaces, use of cones in high traffic areas, constant awareness of surroundings and location of all my equipment), but I also have $20m public liability insurance, making sure that my clients have peace of mind knowing that they are completely covered and in safe hands.