General principles

This chapter considers professional liability from the perspective of library and information professionals. Although there hasn't been an instance of a UK librarian being successfully sued for negligence, that is no reason to become complacent.

Liability means having legal responsibility for one's acts, errors or omissions. It is the duty of care that one individual or organisation owes to another and it gives rise to the risk of being sued for damages if the individual or organisation fails in that duty. A librarian owes the user of an information service (the client) a duty to exercise reasonable care. This duty of care basically means that they should do the things that a prudent person would do in the circumstances and refrain from those things which they would not do.

Whilst there is no UK legislation which deals specifically with liability for information provision, librarians do need to be aware of the potential risk of facing a professional liability claim because they could potentially be held liable for their work either under contract law or the law of tort/delict.

Any organisation whose professional employees provide advice, expertise, information or a consultancy service may be legally liable for a claim of malpractice where a breach of professional duty occurs. If you work for an employer, your employer is vicariously liable for the torts/delicts of their employees, if they are committed in the course of employment. This only applies if the act was of the type that the employee might have been expected to carry out as part of their normal duties. The employer is likely to have insurance cover against any actions brought against the company – although it is well worth checking that this is the case. Self-employed information consultants and brokers should consider taking out professional indemnity insurance (see Section 13.7).

Even if you work for an employer, there are potential dangers involved in assuming that your firm's professional indemnity insurance will protect you if liability is established, as the case of Merrett v. Babb demonstrates. .