My Insurance Insider and Finance Blog

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeI was somewhat afraid reading an article “Blogs Can Get Insurance Clients ‘SLAPP’ed!” by Christopher J. Boggs where he had noted that a Florida based real estate developer filed a $25 million law-suit against a real estate blogger alleging defamation on the blogger’s opinion published solely on his blog. I don’t want to set a new debate off over a blogger’s legal liability for an alleged personal defamation or injury arising from the contents of a blog. With concerning numbers of blog-related law-suits, I am very much worried(being a blogger) about the pecuniary protection for the bloggers around the web.

In his article, Christopher expressed “Protecting Free Speech Rights Requires A Responsible Blogger”. Being a responsible blogger I am somewhat agreed with his view point that bloggers, like journalists should maintain due diligence in the gathering and reporting of “factual” information and giving his opinions, based on his/her experiences/expertise. Its also true that an opinion may not be based on factual information.

Whether you accept it or not, being a responsible blogger you’ve got to be a good human being not to hurt another’s feelings(personal, religious or racial feelings) and need to set out self-made code of conducts or risk management for yourselves as pointed out in Christopher’s article.

Another aspect I would recommend you (being a insurance guy) to consider is to look for an affordable insurance coverage such as publisher or professional liability insurance coverage for bloggers in case any legal suit file against you.

It’s a fact that these days many homeowner policy holders are blogging and insurance companies have come under new risk exposures. In some cases your homeowners insurance policies may include some liability coverage that could apply to blog-related litigation. Some underwriters are now actively considering to explicitly exclude losses related to blogging. So you are to explore better options to adequately cover your blogging career as you’re under any kind of risk exposure related to your blog.

The main drawback here is that your insurer may not cover punitive damages and they are void if the bloggers make any money like Google Ad Sense from their blog. Most of the damages in cases like defamation or copyright are punitive damages so these policies do not cover the biggest costs. These policies may not cover legal expenses defending against a lawsuit.

Here the big problem is that almost every day bloggers are somehow getting into trouble over their blogs. The problem is going to get worse not better. Its true that publishers, without having sufficient financial/legal resources to defend themselves would finally find themselves unable to continue publishing. So you realize it or not you need to have liability insurance coverage.

Here the good news is that the most basic and cheapest coverage for a solo blogger making revenue less than $10,000 a year provides for $100,000 coverage per incident or up to 3 incidents per year ($300,000 annual cap) with a $2,500 deductible at a cost of $540 for bloggers who completes an online course successfully. Blogs that prone to litigation such as pharmaceutical companies, or blogs on investigative reporting might be charged higher premiums based on various risk factors.