Professional Liability Insurance for Faculty

[spork]

Besides indemnifying one against potential grade lawsuits, and some of the other related issues that have been mentioned here, what if any other reasons might there be for a humanities prof to wish to acquire such insurance?

Faculty member suing faculty member over actions, real or imagined, that occurred in the workplace.

an umbrella policy is likely to cover you, and not just from the issues discussed above

Would umbrella insurance cover this kind of thing?

[. . .]

 it is not included in my umbrella policy. 

[Cheerful]

Given what is now happening with the econ department at James Madison U., I think it's only a matter of time before individual faculty members are sued over grades.

Wow, thanks for mentioning this, spork.  Just looked up the story in the Chronicle.  This news item deserves its own thread for discussion.

A google search indicates that the mainstream media has not picked up this story yet.  They should.  People need to know what's happening.

[kaysixteen]

Yes, faculty members could sue each other.    So could WM cashiers.  How often are any such suits successful, or even get into a court for adjudication?

[spork]

Yes, faculty members could sue each other.    So could WM cashiers.  How often are any such suits successful, or even get into a court for adjudication?

Doesn't matter if attorney's fees are coming out of your pocket.



Looks like folks here don't have much of an understanding of insurance or legal processes. I'll try elsewhere.

[Hibush]

Yes, faculty members could sue each other.    So could WM cashiers.  How often are any such suits successful, or even get into a court for adjudication?

Doesn't matter if attorney's fees are coming out of your pocket.

There is an alterantive for that, prepaid legal service. I can get one through my school: https://www.araglegal.com. There are other providers. The cost was pretty low, but I have not gotten it. Could be an alternative, depending on what one is at risk for.

[Caracal]

Given what is now happening with the econ department at James Madison U., I think it's only a matter of time before individual faculty members are sued over grades.

Wow, thanks for mentioning this, spork.  Just looked up the story in the Chronicle.  This news item deserves its own thread for discussion.

A google search indicates that the mainstream media has not picked up this story yet.  They should.  People need to know what's happening.

What is happening? Not blaming spork or anyone else for wanting to explore the coverage or acquire it, but I just tried googling for "professor sued by student" and there are very, very few hits. Of the handful of examples I found, almost all involved professors doing things that could not reasonably be construed as their job. There's sexual harassment, of course, but also things like a professor who recruited students from their class to erase anti abortion messages in a space designated for free speech. The only case I found involving a grade was ten years ago. In that case, the professor was sued alongside the school and it appears that she was eventually dropped as a defendant. At any rate, there was no separate trial and no separate lawyers as far as I could tell. The judge ruled against the student on the grounds that there was no evidence that the grade was applied based on anything other than the professional judgement of the instructor and that the case law was clear that courts shouldn't become involved in assessing those professional judgement. While that probably wasn't a pleasant experience for the instructor, it doesn't seem like she was on the hook for any legal fees.

[AmLitHist]

This article in IHE today reminded me of this thread--and over the years, I've heard of faculty being sued (or having to spend a lot of time with U counsel to avoid being sued or settle) in most of these situations.

Having the $1M liability insurance, along with access to union lawyers, is what's kept me paying union dues for 20 years (though now that I think of it, that $1M wouldn't go very far today). Still, better to have it and not need it, etc.