General Liability Insurance

What is General Liability Insurance Coverage?

General liability insurance coverage helps protect your business from property damage claims, bodily injury claims and personal and advertising injury claims that could put your business assets at risk.

Commercial general liability insurance, also known as business liability insurance or general liability insurance provides coverage for customer injuries, damage to others' property, lawsuits. It can help pay for medical expenses as well as legal cost if an incident leads to a lawsuit.

 

What Does Commercial General Liability Insurance Cover?

Commercial general liability insurance helps protect businesses and their employees from the risk of lawsuits involving claims of bodily injury, property damage, libel, slander and more.

For example, commercial liability insurance coverage can help cover the cost related to claims of:

 

• Bodily injury or property damage - for claims that your business caused someone bodily harm or damaged someone's property.
• Reputational harm - for claims of malicious prosecution, libel, slander, wrongful eviction, violation of the right of privacy and more.
• Advertising errors - for claims of copyright infringement in your advertisements.
• Medical payments - to help cover medical costs if someone sustains an injury at your business.
• Damage to leased property - if property you rent is damaged by fire, lightning or explosion.
  
  

General liability can be included in a Business Owner's Policy (BOP) or it is also available as stand-alone coverage.

 

Why Do You Need General Liability Insurance?

Many business owners wonder why they need general liability insurance and the answer is simple; you need GL insurance to help protect your business from potentially devastating costs of liability claims that may arise from even the most common business situations. These include: if you or your employees represent your client's business, meet with clients face-to-face, work on or with other's property, or use third-party locations for business activities. You'll also want GL if you need protection for advertising injury lawsuits or have clients or customers who require proof of insurance before signing into a contract.

 

How Much Does General liability Insurance Cost?

The cost of a general liability policy premium varies widely depending on the business. Several factors are considered in the calculations that ultimately determine a business's general liability premium. These factors include the type of business - as you would imagine, companies in higher risk industries, like construction for example, are charged higher premiums that lower risk businesses, like consulting companies.

Other factors that figure into a premium rate calculation include the years of business experience in the industry, where more experience may equate to lower rates; and the location, size and condition of your business premises. Sometimes your insurance claims history can also be a factor.

Then there are policy specific details that also affect your rate such as coverage limits - higher coverage limits cost more. On the other hand, electing higher deductibles can help lower your premium cost.  

To learn more about what a general liability insurance policy with cost your business; request a free General Liability Quote online.