Interpreting · sworn status · confidentiality
Professional indemnity insurance (BAV) for an interpreter
An interpreter works in real time and can take nothing back. A word that comes across wrongly in a police interview or a consulting room carries through into someone else's decision.
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The calculator and the quote form below are in Dutch. Prefer to do this in English? Email info@finassverzekert. nl or call 072 - 509 24 56 and we will take it from there.
Work out for yourself what it would cost.
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- An adviser checks whether the cover suits your activities
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A premium indication, not personal advice. Prefer to talk it through? Call 072 - 509 24 56.
In brief
The loss an interpreter causes is almost never tangible. A denial that drops out of a statement, an amount conveyed incorrectly or a deadline given as a date, a medical instruction that lands slightly differently: the result is a decision based on incorrect information. A hearing that has to be held again, an application that is refused, a treatment that is postponed. That is pure financial loss, and that is precisely what public and employers' liability insurance (AVB) does not cover.
For work with the police, the courts and the immigration service, registration is required in the register of the Dutch Sworn Interpreters and Translators Act (Wet beëdigde tolken en vertalers), sometimes with a specific language and level. If you accept an assignment for which you do not hold the required registration, that affects more than the assignment itself: the description of business activity on your policy schedule determines what you are insured for.
Your conduct is judged against Article 7:401 of the Dutch Civil Code: did you act as a reasonably competent and reasonably acting professional in your field. Not every dissatisfaction with an interpretation is a professional error. What does count is whether you should have accepted the assignment, whether you asked for clarification and whether you reported a conflict of interest. For damage to property on site, for example equipment in an interpreting booth, you need a public and employers' liability insurance needed.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare professional indemnity insurance (BAV).
What to look out for
Four points that decide, in interpreting work, whether a complaint is also an insured claim.
Your business activity on the policy schedule
Interpreting, written translation, subtitling and teaching are different professions with different risks. If your policy names only interpreting, a mistake in a written translation is not covered. If you do both, have that expressly recorded. It makes little difference to the premium, but it makes all the difference between payment and refusal.
Real-time work leaves few traces
There is rarely a transcript with which you can show what you said. So record for each assignment the language and variant, the setting, who was present and what was agreed about breaks and working in pairs. At long hearings, working with two interpreters is the professional standard; departing from it will be used against you if a complaint follows.
Confidentiality and privilege
Everything you hear falls under your duty of confidentiality. Claims for breach of confidentiality are excluded on some policies and covered on others only where the breach was unintentional. Deliberately passing information on falls outside the cover in any event under Article 7:952 of the Dutch Civil Code.
What is excluded
Not covered are disciplinary measures such as a warning or removal from the register, fines and penalty payments, repayment of your own fee, and loss caused by your failing to attend or attending late. Liability for a colleague you refer on as a stand-in also falls outside the cover if that person is not co-insured.
What does your premium depend on?
- Annual turnover: the usual basis for self-employed professionals
- Field of work: justice and healthcare weigh more heavily than business meetings
- Sworn status and registration: determines which assignments you may accept
- Simultaneous or consecutive work: conference interpreting has a different error profile
- Area of cover: assignments and clients outside Europe are assessed separately
- Sum insured and excess: per claim and capped per insurance year
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
What is covered
| Situation | AVB | BAV |
|---|---|---|
| A denial drops out of your interpretation and your client's application is refused | No | Yes |
| An amount stated incorrectly in a notarial deed has to be put right at a cost | No | Yes |
| A patient takes too high a dose because you conveyed the medication instruction incorrectly | No | Provided that |
| In the interpreting booth you knock the organiser's microphone off the table | Yes | No |
| A client withholds your invoice because he is dissatisfied with the interpreting | No | No |
| A conference lasting several days is cancelled and you lose the income | No | No |
If the consequence of an interpreting error turns into physical injury, whether that is still included depends on the form of the policy.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
Am I liable if a judge reads my interpretation differently?
Not as a matter of course. Interpretation and nuance are part of the work, and a different reading is not yet a professional error. What matters is whether your rendering falls within the range a fellow professional would have chosen in the same circumstances. If you noted at the time that an expression could not be translated one to one, that considerably strengthens your position.
Is a breach of my duty of confidentiality insured?
Only if it happened unintentionally and the policy does not exclude such claims. Think of a file that goes into the wrong envelope or a conversation overheard in a waiting area. A deliberate breach is excluded. Read the conditions word for word on this point, because the differences between insurers are considerable here.
Does my policy also cover the translation work I do alongside interpreting?
Only if translating is included in your stated capacity. The risk differs: a written translation is copied, signed or printed, which often makes the loss larger. See also the page on professional indemnity insurance for a translator for the points that arise specifically there.
A complaint comes years after the assignment. Am I still covered?
Under a claims-made policy it is the moment of notification that counts, not the moment of the interpreting. If the policy has ended, there is no cover, even though you were insured at the time. Arrange run-off cover before you stop. Report a threatened complaint at once; Article 7:941 of the Dutch Civil Code obliges you to report as soon as you are reasonably aware.
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