capacity from other sureties, finding more business that does not require bonds and posting other forms of collateral for project performance, such as letters of credit or cash. We may be unable to secure these alternatives in a timely manner, on acceptable terms, or at all. Accordingly, if we were to experience an interruption or reduction in the availability of bonding capacity, we may be unable to compete for, or work on certain projects.
Our bonding requirements may limit our ability to incur indebtedness, which would limit our ability to refinance our existing credit facilities or to execute our business plan.
Our ability to obtain surety bonds depends upon various factors including our capitalization, working capital, tangible net worth and amount of our indebtedness. In order to obtain required bonds, we may be limited in our ability to incur additional indebtedness that may be needed to refinance our existing credit facilities upon maturity, to complete acquisitions, and to otherwise execute our business plans.
We may be unable to win some new contracts if we cannot provide clients with letters of credit.
For many of our clients surety bonds provide an adequate form of security, but for some clients security in the form of a letter of credit may be required. While we have capacity for letters of credit under our credit facility, the amount required by a client may be in excess of our credit limit. Any such amount would be issued at the sole discretion of our lenders. Failure to provide a letter of credit when required by a client may result in our inability to compete for, win, or retain a project.
During the ordinary course of our business, we may become subject to material lawsuits or indemnity claims.
We have in the past been, and may in the future be, named as a defendant in lawsuits, claims and other legal proceedings during the ordinary course of our business. These actions may seek, among other things, compensation for alleged personal injury, workers’ compensation, employment discrimination, breach of contract, cyber-security and related incidents, property damage, punitive damages, and civil penalties, or other losses or injunctive or declaratory relief. In addition, we generally indemnify our customers for claims related to the services we provide and actions we take under our contracts with them, and, in some instances, we may be allocated risk through our contract terms for actions by our customers, or other third parties. Because our services in certain instances may be integral to the operation and performance of our customers’ infrastructure, we may become subject to lawsuits or claims for any failure of the systems on which we work, even if our services are not the cause of such failures, and we could be subject to civil and criminal liabilities to the extent that our services contributed to any property damage, personal injury or system failure. The outcome of any of these lawsuits, claims or legal proceedings could result in significant costs and diversion of management’s attention from the business. Payments of significant amounts, even if reserved, could adversely affect our reputation, our cash flows, and our business.
We are self-insured up to certain limits.
Although we maintain insurance policies with respect to employer’s liability, general liability, auto and workers compensation claims, those policies are subject to deductibles or self-insured retention amounts up to $1,000,000 per occurrence. In addition, for our employees not part of a collective bargaining agreement, we provide employee health care benefit plans. Our primary health insurance plan is subject to a deductible of $425,000 per individual claim per year.
Our insurance policies include various coverage requirements, including the requirement to give appropriate notice. If we fail to comply with these requirements, our coverage could be denied.
Losses under our insurance programs are accrued based upon our estimates of the ultimate liability for claims reported and an estimate of claims incurred but not reported, with assistance from third-party actuaries. Insurance liabilities are difficult to assess and estimate due to unknown factors, including the severity of an injury, the extent of damage, the determination of our liability in proportion to other parties and the number of incidents not reported. The accruals are based upon known facts and historical trends.
We renew our insurance policies on an annual basis, and therefore deductibles and levels of insurance coverage may change in future periods. In addition, insurers may cancel our coverage or determine to exclude certain items from coverage, or we may elect not to obtain certain types or incremental levels of insurance based on the potential benefits