General Liability Insurance

What is commercial general liability insurance?

General liability insurance – sometimes called commercial general liability insurance – provides coverage for two key areas of damages: (1) damage to a client’s property and (2) injuries caused on the client’s property during a job. General liability insurance covers all lawsuits related to these two areas.

As the service vendor whose work causes such an accident, you are responsible for these damages and your general liability insurance covers them.

When is a general liability policy needed?

As the owner of a small business that provides services to various clients every day, you should not delay getting a general liability policy. Not only does its coverage have numerous benefits that we discuss below, you will need it to get access to other business related opportunities, such as signing a lease for new property, securing a new project, avoid filing for bankruptcyetc.

For these reasons, most small businesses – manufacturers and service providers – get general liability coverage right after they open a new business.

Incidentally, some characteristics of businesses that go for general liability insurance include the following:

They have a business space open to public.
They work on client sites and have interaction with people other than their teams.
Their work includes handling client property.
They operate on leased/rented property.

Key benefits of general liability insurance

You get to protect your business assets from bankruptcy.
You get help for paying penalties stipulated in lawsuits related to on-site accidents.
You can secure big contracts with confidence because you can compensate clients for damages.
Your prospective clients trust you easily and give you work.
You can pursue a property lease for business expansion.

General liability insurance coverage

The matter of insurance coverage in general liability insurance is complex, as this kind of policy is built around the specific needs of the policy buyer. If you manufacture equipment for disabled individuals, your general liability policy should provide product liability coverage to compensate for costs of possible lawsuits that your customers file after getting hurt by your equipment.

Therefore, you can only trust a general liability broker that demonstrates the will to develop a personalized policy for your business based on your industry, field of work, and any other important factors that make commercial general liability insurance important for your business practices.

To get more information about what your general liability insurance policy should look like, contact one of our agents right now.

What Does General Liability Insurance Cover?

What does general liability insurance cover?

General Liability Insurance covers a number of primary insurance areas that virtually all types of businesses would require. As a whole, it covers all claims made by a third party for injury, harm or damage your business/brand/employees/property caused them in any number of ways discussed below.

While these injury claims may be for seemingly minor incidents, such as a visitor slipping on the floor of your business facility, they could each lead to payment demands of several thousand dollars, which is not something a small business can afford to pay frequently.

Typical areas of general liability coverage

Here is a short but comprehensive list of claims often included in general liability coverage offered by major insurance carriers in the country:

Costs of claims made against your business for damage to third-party property
Costs of claims made against your business for personal injury caused to a third party
Costs of claims for advertising injury
Costs related to legal services, such as attorney fees, to settle claims covered in your policy
Costs related to administration of claims covered in your policy
Costs related to courts in handling of claims covered in your policy
Costs and payments involved in judgments and settlements of claims covered in your policy

General liability injury, harm and damage claims made by third parties

Reputation Harm Claims made by businesses whose reputation your advertisements allegedly harm usually by making their products/services look inferior
Advertising Injury Claims made by third parties who claim your advertisements used contents whose copyrights you do not own
Personal Injury Claims made by a person – or persons – who allegedly endure bodily harm on your property
Property Damage Claims made against your business for damaging the property of a third party

Claims that general liability insurance does not cover

Costs involved in damage caused to your own property or inventory
Costs involved in personal injury claims your employees file against your business
Costs involved in automotive accidents business employees cause during work related traveling
Costs involved in deliberately unlawful or malicious activities

Choose the right general liability coverage

The price of not having the right general liability coverage for your business is very high, since third-party general liability claims can cost you big time. Similarly, attorney fees can run into a hundreds of thousands for a moderately long trial.

Your defense against these problems is a general liability policy that covers the specific risks your business type is open to. You cannot go and purchase a general liability policy that uses vague terms so that the carrier can use the same policy for as many customers as possible.

Instead, you should get professional assistance from an insurance brokerage that holds your interests dear and lands you a liability coverage policy that comprehensively covers the risks for which your business is vulnerable.