Disclaimers?

[Penguinsetpandas]

When doing freelance work do you add disclaimers to say not responsible for accuracy, not professional advice etc.

Doing some research for a company on whether its a good idea for them to open a London office. Can't see there being any issues but when I was employed we stuck disclaimers on everything. Thanks

you need legal terms and conditions and these should be setting out who takes responsibility for xyz

both sides should agree them before work starts

they should be written by a lawyer

lots of freelancers / companies don't bother, but when it goes wrong... oops!

Thanks very much.

OP, maybe have a think about indemnity insurance if you're providing advice.

You need a lawyer to write up terms and conditions to be accepted by both parties. I'm not sure you can unilaterally disclaim 'accuracy' otherwise you'd be at liberty to say anything without any form of fact checking.

And @ExCharlieBucket is right. Most companies won't engage unless you show them proof of professional indemnity insurance.

Thanks - normally I just write articles / research reports which are factual plus analysis so relatively safe but this one is inbetween research and advice. The research side I'm quite happy with and know what my advice would be but wary of putting that in writing. I'm going through a freelance platform so some protections are in place and can't see this going wrong but would prefer to vere on the side of caution. Only just started freelancing a few weeks ago and its a whole new world for me. Will look at insurance.

We had accuracy in the disclaimers were I worked before which legal department wrote - you do check everything though.