But now that contractors have taken responsibility for this part of the construction process, new coverage is needed. A contractors design liability policy now is available. We spoke to Jim Canavan, vice president-architects, engineers and design professional liability at CNA, about this new coverage. The owners have been the real drivers creating the need for this coverage. The owners and developers demanded one point of responsibility and now we're starting to see governmental agencies looking for the same level of responsibility from contractors.
Some contractors still farm out the design, but still have liability for what happens.
Our Contractors Design Liability Insurance Program provides coverage whether they have a design facility in house or if they farm it out. But it became evident at our meetings with contracting groups that this wasn't sufficient. They're our built-in focus groups. They told us that they needed this coverage. We put together a team and came up with this program.