The times, They Are A-Changin’
There was a time around these parts – and not so long ago – where business owners only needed General Liability Insurance to cover the most extreme of workplace mishaps. Your business would have to be blatantly responsible for practically maiming one your customers before you had to worry about getting sued! If there was no blood or broken bones, there was no worry. And if a client slipped on the snow in your parking lot? Hey, that’s just part of wintertime in New Brunswick.
Things are a little different nowadays. Blame it the American influence or the , but suing companies of any and all sizes is now big business in New Brunswick. Just count how many lawyers’ ads you come across in the course of a week with “INJURED?” splashed across in big bold font?
Business Liability Insurance Explained
General Liability Insurance (or a “CGL Policy”, as it’s know in our line of work), is the foundation of any good commercial insurance program. It’s essential purpose – in a nutshell – is to protect your business from the financial hardship that often results from being sued for causing accidental injury, property damage, or other financial loss to individuals coming in contact with your business. Although it is quite broad in it’s protection, it does have certain exclusions that should be reviewed with your broker. It is also not the intent of CGL policies to cover more “specialized” liability exposures such as Professional Liability or Director and Officers Liability. And of course, any commercial automobile liability exposure is not picked up by your CGL policy, and instead requires a separate commercial auto insurance policy.
What About My Employees? Are They Covered?
The answer to this question is “yes”, and “no”. Your staff is covered same as the company owners would be if they were to cause accidental harm to outside persons or their property, but only while acting in their capacity as your employee. Your Business Liability Insurance obviously doesn’t follow your employee home to protect him in his personal life!
Another misconception that we sometimes encounter is the idea that a CGL policy will somehow pick up injuries that are sustained by employees themselves while on the job. This is unfortunately not the case, and falls under Workers Compensation coverage or Group Benefits Insurance.
Business Liability Insurance is often considered one of the complex insurance products out there, but to our group of experts it’s like Grade 3 gym class — Fun and relatively painless! Contact us today for a painless revision of your commercial insurance needs!
