Had a lawyer friend look at my standard freelance agreement and he laughed at the indemnity clause

I had a clause that said I'd cover all legal costs if the client got sued over anything I worked on, which basically made me an unlimited insurance policy. Switched it to only cover claims from my own negligence and capped it at the project fee - did I miss anything else obvious?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_daniel6d ago

Cap that liability at your fee amount, that's the standard move that works.

rosepark6d ago

Wait, wouldn't capping it at your fee amount just leave you eating the cost if the project goes way over budget or something worse happens? @the_daniel that seems like a solid baseline for smaller jobs but it feels risky on bigger stuff where the client could still come after you for way more than you charged. My buddy did this on a renovation and ended up paying out of pocket because the liability was capped too low.

parker_webb6d ago

Read a thing from a construction lawyer once who said the key is to cap it at your fee but also exclude certain big ticket risks like structural damage. @rosepark your buddy probably needed a higher cap plus an exclusion list for the big stuff.

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