Lead Agencies Must Acquire Appropriate Insurance Coverage
The Florida Legislature requires that lead agencies obtain a minimum of $1 million per claim and $10 million per incident in general liability coverage. Yet, many of the state’s lead agencies have not acquired appropriate amounts of coverage to protect children who are harmed while in their care.
Sadly, one West Palm Beach teen recently dealt with this issue when a now-defunct social service agency agreed to pay her to help overcome years of sexual abuse, but didn’t have enough insurance coverage to pay the claim. A lawsuit has been filed against the insurance company, claiming it did not make sure the agency had the proper coverage to compensate children who were victims of sexual abuse while in the care of the agency.
While millions of dollars of insurance coverage is required, the agency reportedly held only $250,000 in coverage.