What sort of insurance coverage does the CBA have in place to cover the activities of active CBA Section members? What do you need to know about the steps to be followed to make certain coverage is in place?

The main area of concern is speaking publicly on behalf of the Canadian Bar Association or any of its constituent groups, such as a Section or Forum, and making sure the appropriate steps have been taken.

If you are speaking on behalf of the Canadian Bar Association, or a Branch, Section, or Committee, you must make sure your comments are consistent with National, Branch, Section policy. Please ensure that you and anyone else speaking on behalf of your Section are familiar with and understand the need to comply with the Public Spokesperson Policy. This is not meant to be complex or difficult. If there is no resolution of National Council and if you are speaking out on behalf of your Section and the Section has agreed to a position, you can appropriately speak to the issue.

One area of particular caution is where you may be asked to serve on a coalition of groups and represent the CBA. It is essential to get the appropriate approvals before participating and before agreeing that the CBA name can be attached to the statements or press releases of any coalition. Please see the Coalitions Policy in this regard.

If an individual speaking on behalf of the CBA has not followed the appropriate guidelines, the insurance coverage protecting the individual from any actions brought as a result of any statements made by the individual may not apply.

Set out below is the definition of an insured and insured person in our Current Liability Policy:

Insured, either in the singular or plural, means Organization or any Insured Person.

Insured Person means any natural person who has been, now is or shall become a duly elected director or trustee, duly elected or appointed officer, employee or committee member (whether or not salaried) of an Organization, and any natural person acting in a voluntary capacity on behalf of an Organization and at the specific direction of such Organization.

The insurance policy we have is a claims made policy and therefore all known instances for claims must be reported prior to the expiration date of the policy in order to have coverage. Therefore it is important to immediately provide any details of any potential claim so that the insurer can assess the risk and so that we are complying with our duty of disclosure of all material matters relating to the risk.

Questions? Please contact the CBA's Senior Director Carol Stevenson at carols@cba.org