General Liability Insurance Complete Guide
General liability insurance (GLI), sometimes called business liability insurance and commercial general liability insurance, helps protect your practices from claims of bodily injury and property damage. These kinds of claims can come up during normal practice operations.
What Does General Liability Insurance Cover?
General liability insurance helps cover your costs to respond to a claim that your business caused property damage or bodily injury. It can help pay for:
- A customer or client’s medical expenses if they slip and fall in your office
- Legal costs to defend your business in a lawsuit
- Bodily injury or property damage that your business causes
- Reputational harm resulting from malicious prosecution, slander, libel, violating a person’s privacy and more
- Advertising injuries, such as copyright right infringement from your business’ ads
- Medical costs if your customer or client hurts themselves while visiting your office
- Damage to rented property caused by a covered loss such as fire, lightning or explosion
Who Needs General Liability Insurance?
Claims range from unexpected incidents, like a burglary, to unforeseen accidents, such as a customer getting injured after slipping and falling.
The most common property and general liability claims for small businesses are:
- Buglary and theft
- Damage from water and freezing
- Damage from wind and hail
- FIre damage
- Customer slip and fall
The most costly property and general liability claims for small businesses are:
- Reputational harm
- Fire damage
- Customer injury or damage
How Much Does General Liability Insurance Cost?
General liability insurance cost depends on several factors.
One factor is the practice's specialty. Practices in higher risk specialities pay a higher cost compared to lower risk specialities. Other factors that can affect the cost of general liability insurance are:
- Years of experience
- Location
- Size
- Building condition
- Coverage limits and deductibles
- Insurance claims history