General
Liability Insurance

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General Liability Insurance from AmTrust: What It Is and What It Covers

AmTrust is a leader in small to mid-sized business solutions. Our agents have the experience, passion and industry knowledge to make the best small business insurance recommendations for your business’s needs. AmTrust agents and claims professionals ensure you can use and adjust your insurance policies as needed to get the most benefits from your coverage.

Small business owners can be exposed to many risks, from employee injuries to property damage to reputational harm. Liability claims, such as a customer slipping and falling in a local retail shop, can be very costly. To help cover the costs of these claims, small business owners should invest in general liability coverage.

What is General Liability Insurance?

General Liability Insurance, also called commercial general liability or business liability insurance, provides coverage to a business for bodily injury, personal injury and property damage caused by the business’s operations, products, or injury that occurs on the business’s premises. This type of business insurance offers coverage for third parties who experience harm to themselves or their property because of something you or your workers did or failed to do.

If a person is injured at your place of business, a general liability policy will cover their medical expenses. The policy also would cover:

• Employee damage to a third party’s property
• Libel
• Slander
• Reputational harm
• Copyright infringement damages

Commercial General Liability Insurance can be purchased as a monoline from some carriers or bundled as part of a businessowners policy. A businessowners policy, sometimes referred to as a BOP, is a type of commercial insurance that combines coverages you'd normally buy separately into one bundle. The standard combination is general liability, business interruption and property insurance. However, other policies can be added to the BOP package, including Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI) or Cyber Liability Insurance.
 

Who Needs General Liability Insurance?

General Liability Insurance is not required by law, but if a small business does not have this insurance, they could have to pay expensive liability claims out of their own pocket, causing some companies to go ultimately out of business.

Small business owners should consider purchasing general liability coverage if they fall under the following situations:

• Have a store, office or building open to the public
• Work with clients face-to-face
• Work on or with another’s (client’s or business’s) property
• Use a third-party location for any business-related activity
• Represent clients to other businesses
• Create marketing materials for your business
• Use social media to promote your business

What Does General Liability Insurance Cover?

General Liability Insurance covers a variety of exposures that a small business could face. The insurance coverage helps pay for medical or legal costs of an incident that took place at your business that leads to a lawsuit. General Liability Insurance covers the costs related to these types of business claims:

• Costs for bodily injury or property damage claims against your business
• Medical expenses if someone gets injured at your office or worksite
• Advertising injury claims, such as copyright infringements against your business
• Reputational harm due to slander, libel, wrongful eviction, violation of the right of privacy and more
• Court costs, judgments and settlements for covered claims

General Liability insurance does not cover the following situations; however, the claims that result from these incidents can be covered by other small business insurance solutions:

• Damage to your own business property (Commercial Property Insurance)
• Employee injury claims (Workers’ Compensation Insurance)
• Auto accidents caused by you or your employee while driving for work (Commercial Auto Insurance)
• Illegal or malicious acts done on purpose

Benefits for Agents

AmTrust appointed agents can offer small business owners a variety of customized coverage options designed to meet their specific needs. Learn more about our Businessowners Policy (BOP) by downloading our BOP sell sheet.