Risk and liability
Liability cap
The ceiling on what you can be made to pay if something goes wrong. No cap, paired with a broad indemnity, means unlimited exposure.
What it means
A liability cap is the maximum amount you can be made to pay if a claim arises from your work. It is the clause that decides how bad the worst case can get. Without one, especially when paired with a broad indemnity, a small project can carry open-ended financial exposure.
Why it matters
Uncapped liability is rarely a deliberate demand; it is usually just the absence of a cap in a template. But the effect is real: a four-figure project can, on paper, expose you to damages many times larger than the fee if a third party raises an infringement or damages claim and the indemnity makes you cover the client's losses and legal costs.
What fair looks like
- Liability capped at the fees paid under the contract (sometimes a small multiple).
- Indirect and consequential damages excluded: no liability for lost profits, lost data, or downstream reputational harm.
- Discipline-specific carve-outs where they apply: for writing, exclude claims from client edits made after delivery; for video, assign location and talent-release risk to whoever controlled it; for brand deals, the brand indemnifies you for its own product claims.
Related reading
See the guide to uncapped liability in freelance contracts, the indemnity definition, and the liability-cap benchmarks.