On October 1, 1999, the US Government passed a law that will require employees to refund the government half of damages paid. This could be thousands of dollars and would easily deplete the income of a federal employee.

For this reasons, Professional Liability Insurance have been used by federal employees to protect themselves from any future lawsuits which could end up requiring them to reimburse the government spent on that lawsuit.

Most of the federal employees who take this type of insurance usually work for law enforcement. Since they are usually dealing with people who may end up getting hurt, they are always at danger to be accused of brutality and other physical offenses.

With Professional Liability Insurance, law enforcement officers will be provided with legal representation as well as coverage for the damages that the law enforcement officer will have to pay or reimburse the federal government.

However, Professional Liability Insurance for federal employees is usually limited. This type of insurance will only help federal employees who may have caused injury because they were doing their duty or job description.

When this happens, the person who was accused to be responsible will not only be given with a lawsuit but also the federal government. The person responsible was only doing the work he was told to do and because of that, the federal government is partly responsible that may happen to the offended person.

Professional Liability Insurance on the other hand, will not protect federal employees for the acts that they have done outside their job responsibility. For example, you insulted someone who came to the office. Although you are working in the office, your actions are not part of the job descriptions. You might be persecuted administratively but the government and the Professional Liability Insurance will not provide you with a lawyer.

As the name of the insurance suggests, they will only help you during your “professional liability” which means the liability that you may have incurred during your professional function will be covered by the insurance company. Anything that is outside of your professional function will be at your own risk. If it is administrative, you will have to get your own lawyer and if proven guilty, you will have to reimburse the federal government 50% of the claims provided.

Some will see this as a necessity especially for law enforcement officers. While others do not seem to find the importance of this type of insurance since they do not find themselves in contact with civilians. This is a little bit unfortunate for those who find themselves needing Professional Liability Insurance since they would have to pay a premium. The federal government understands this situation. Although this type of insurance is just optional, the federal employee will be reimbursed or will cover 50% of the premium.

If you are a federal employee considering Professional Liability Insurance, inform your supervisors as soon as possible so that your supervisors could set you up for 50% of coverage. Although it covers a limited amount of liability, you will be protected in anything that you do while on duty as a government employee.