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Why Hiring Freelancers without Insurance is Risky

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Many producers hire video freelancers without checking whether they have proper liability insurance or workers’ compensation. This can be extremely risky, and here’s why.

Liability insurance

Imagine that something goes wrong on a shoot, and the crew you hired ends up causing some damage. If your crew doesn’t have liability insurance or deep pockets, then chances are the party that suffered the damage will work its way up the “insurance ladder” and come after you to cover it. If you don’t have deep pockets or liability insurance, they’ll keep working their way up the ladder and go after your client.

We carry general liability insurance, which is designed to reduce this financial risk to you and your clients. (It only covers damage arising from the actions of our employees and subcontractors, and is not designed to cover the actions of others on set.)

You could be liable if your crew gets injured

If you hire a freelancer who gets injured on the job, you can be liable for their medical expenses and lost wages. Our workers’ compensation policy helps shield you from this financial liability.

Many people think that because they hire a freelancer as a 1099 subcontractor, they aren’t responsible for workers’ compensation benefits if that person gets hurt on the job. This is NOT true. You can still be considered the “statutory employer” of a freelancer, and be responsible for their workers’ compensation benefits.

We’re not lawyers, and this isn’t legal advice. Every situation is different, and every state takes a slightly different view of subcontractors. But here is how Virginia’s employer guidance on workers’ compensation described it when we first wrote this article:

Employees of independent contractors are often eligible for workers’ compensation. The employees of an independent contractor are entitled to workers’ compensation benefits… if the employee is considered a “statutory employee,” as explained below.

“Statutory Employer” – Same Trade or Business: When a subcontractor contracts to perform work or provide services that are part of the same trade, business, or occupation of the employer contractor, the contract[or] becomes the statutory employer of the employees of the subcontractor.

What does this mean? If you are in the video production business, you can be held liable for workers’ compensation benefits if one of your subcontractors or their employees is injured.

“Statutory Employer” – Fulfillment of a Contract: When a contractor hires a subcontractor to perform work in order to fulfill a contract, then the contractor is the statutory employer of the employees of the subcontractor – even when the contractor does not normally perform that type of work through his direct employees.

What does that mean? Even if you’re not in the video production business, if you contract a freelancer or production company to do a shoot for you and someone on the crew is injured, you (as the contractor) can be held liable for that person’s workers’ compensation benefits.

Hiring a freelancer as a 1099 does NOT relieve you of this liability. Only a valid workers’ compensation policy can do that.

Again, we’re not lawyers and we’re not offering specific legal advice: each situation and every state is different.

So, what should you do?

  1. Make sure that every subcontractor and production company you hire has workers’ compensation that covers all of their employees AND subcontractors. Our policy covers all of our employees and subcontractors.
  2. Check with your own workers’ compensation carrier whether it can cover subcontractors who don’t have workers’ compensation.
  3. Ask for certificates of insurance. If you need a copy of ours, for liability or workers’ compensation, just ask us. We include our general certificate in our new-client onboarding packet; a certificate made out specifically to your company takes a few extra days.

For more information

First published October 7, 2013. Links updated October 2026.