Say nothing about fault. Everything else can wait until tomorrow.
In liability, the damage is usually done in the first conversation, by somebody being decent and apologetic to a person who has been hurt.
In orderDo not admit liability, agree fault or apologise for cause; tell the insurer at once, before you reply to anyone; forward any legal notice unanswered; preserve the evidence of what you actually did; identify and preserve the product or the site; write down the sequence while people remember it; do not negotiate or pay; check whether anyone else shares the liability.
- Do not admit liability, agree fault or apologise for causeYou can be humane without accepting blame: help the injured person, ask what they need, and say the matter is being looked into. Almost every liability policy makes admission a breach.Immediately
- Tell the insurer at once, before you reply to anyoneLiability cover is claims-made or occurrence-based depending on the wording, and both are sensitive to when you knew. Notify on the allegation, not on the lawsuit.Same day
- Forward any legal notice unansweredSend it to the insurer and do not reply to it yourself. Insurers usually have the right to conduct the defence and a reply sent without them can prejudice it.On receipt
- Preserve the evidence of what you actually didThe batch record, the QC report, the maintenance log, the delivery documents, the site register, the CCTV. Your defence is the record of a process being followed.Day 1
- Identify and preserve the product or the siteFor a product claim, quarantine the batch and retain samples. For a premises claim, photograph the location before anything is repaired -- including the thing that will obviously be fixed tomorrow.Day 1
- Write down the sequence while people remember itWho was present, what was said, what was done, at what time. Liability claims surface months or years later, and a contemporaneous note is worth far more than a recollection.Day 1
- Do not negotiate or payNot a settlement, and not a free replacement offered as an apology, without the insurer's written consent. Goodwill is the commonest way this cover is quietly breached.Throughout
- Check whether anyone else shares the liabilityContractor, supplier, transporter, principal. Contractual indemnities and the insurer's recovery rights both depend on this being identified early.Days 1 to 7
Cyber Incident Claim
Ransomware, business email compromise, data breach or a systems intrusion.
Employee Injury Claim
An employee, contractor or site worker injured or killed at work.
Where it comes up most: Engineering and Manufacturing · Construction · Hotels and Hospitality · IT and Professional Services. The letter that starts it: Intimation of loss.
Take this with you as a text file. It opens with no signal, prints on one page, and forwards to whoever is actually standing at the loss.
Notice in your hand right now and nobody to hand it to?
Whoever placed your policy, and whatever stage the claim has reached.
Liability Claim: The First Response, Claims Desk by RFS, https://claimsdesk.in/procedures/liability. Checked 13 September 2026.
Quote it, link to it, or reproduce it with the address attached. If you are writing about a claim and need the rule behind a line here, the desk will point you at the source: press and citation.
- Tell the insurer now, not after the assessment.
- Notice to anybody else responsible the carrier, the contractor, the police, within the time your policy sets.
- Every document within the time the insurer asks for it.