General Liability Archives - Page 3 of 3 - Citizens General Insurance

Craft brewers, graphic designers, ecommerce entrepreneurs, retail shop and food truck owners … you may be in different industries and have vastly different business models, but you all have one thing in common: a desire to protect your business.

There’s an easy way to protect your business from the threats you’re most likely to face as a business owner, no matter what your niche may be.

General Liability Insurance to the Rescue

Commercial general liability (CGL) insurance addresses the most common risks which could threaten your business. It’s the one insurance policy that just about every business owner can benefit from.

CGL protects you from the likelihood of a costly lawsuit or claim in the event of injury or damage to another person or their property.

Not sure if you could benefit from that sort of coverage for your business? Here are ten times general liability coverage would likely save the day (and your business).

1. Clumsy Clients

Do you regularly have clients visit your office? Whether they’re walking through the door to sign papers, or cruising in for a sandwich on their lunch break, every client who comes to your office or shop is a potential liability.

Imagine if a client came in to your office and tripped over a loose bit of carpet. If the client’s fall resulted in an injury, you could be responsible for the cost of the injuries.

2. Dangerous Floors

Keeping the floors of your store clean is a risk-reducing safety measure. But what if you had to mop the floors during business hours? If a customer slipped on a wet floor and broke a leg, your business could be liable for medical bills and more.

3. Home Based Mis-steps

Got a home-based business? Even if you don’t have customers or clients coming to your home office, you could still be responsible if someone was injured because of your business activities.

For example, if a delivery person was carrying a large box of supplies for your home based business and tripped on your doorstep, their injuries could be your problem.

4. Customers Who Can’t Handle the Heat

If you’ve finally realized your dream of owning a food truck, you may have more to consider than just your seasonal menu items. Imagine a crisp, fall day and a long line of customers waiting to try your new five-alarm chili.

But if you serve up a smoking bowl of too-hot-to-handle beans to a customer who burns their mouth on your offering, you could be liable for the injury.

5. Fired Up Landlords

Renting an office space has a lot of perks when you’re running a business. But it also comes with a certain amount of responsibility, as well. And if your laptop overheats in the middle of the night and causes a fire in the office, you may be responsible for the damage to your landlord’s property.

6. Soggy Neighbors

Let’s say you’ve just finished putting the finishing touches in a yard that you’ve been hired to landscape. You instruct your employee to give the freshly planted shrubs a good watering, and you head out to meet with your next client.

Your employee turns the water on, packs up his tools and equipment, and drives away without realizing the water is still running. In fact, no one notices the water is still running until the next day when the next door neighbor’s basement begins to take on water. One small mistake by your business could mean one big bill for cleanup and damage.

7. Music You Love (But Didn’t Buy)

You’re branching out and trying new things to market your business – like using Facebook ads and even putting videos on YouTube.

Your amateur video skills are commendable, but you didn’t realize that you could get in trouble for using unlicensed music. So you are completely surprised when you are facing a lawsuit for copyright infringement for using a popular song by a trending music artist.

8. Branding That’s Too Close for Comfort

You may have heard the saying “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” Imitation may be flattering to some, but if you’ve branded your business a bit too similar to your competition’s, imitation may land you in hot water.

If another business feels your logo, website, or branding is a bit too close to the same look and feel as theirs, you could be faced with a copyright

infringement lawsuit — and the high price tag that it brings.

9. Swiped Photos vs Stock Photos

The risks of marketing your business are everywhere, right down to the posts you write for your business blog. You know that images are an important part of your blog. But you don’t have the budget to spend on stock photos or the time (and equipment) to go out and take your own.

If you’ve made the mistake of using images you’ve found on the internet to liven up your blog— beware. Using unlicensed images without permission is one more way you can end up on the wrong end of a copyright infringement lawsuit.

10. Unfavorable Tweets

You know that you provide a superior service for your customers. In fact, you’ve heard so many horror stories about your competitor down the street — it seems like the whole town knows he’s a hack.

Taking to Twitter to let the world know that you’re in a class above “that guy” in 140-characters (or less!) seems like no big deal. But if your competition feels like you’re damaging his reputation, look out. Defending yourself against a libel suit can be a serious (and expensive) fight in court.

How Commercial General Liability Can Cover ALL These Things – and More

Customer injuries, client accidents, damage to your landlords (or someone else’s) property, and even lawsuits for copyright infringement and reputation damage can cost your business big time.

From medical bills to repairs and the high price tag of defending yourself in court, these types of scenarios can be devastating to your business. Luckily, these are just the types of things generally covered by a CGL policy. You work hard to build your business. Liability insurance works hard to protect it.

It’s one thing to be told that general liability insurance can protect you from the most common risks you face as a trade or general contractor, such as third-party injuries or damage to someone else’s property. It’s quite another thing to hear it direct from the contractors who have been in those exact scenarios themselves.

If you’re not sure if you need liability insurance for your contractor, construction, or handyman business…keep reading. The best advice comes from someone who has faced a lawsuit firsthand, and seen the saving grace in having general liability insurance.

Here are the tales of three real-life contractors just like you, and their brushes with construction disaster.

#1. The Case of the Curious Visitor

Sometimes the biggest liability on a project is the one thing you can’t control or manage: an on-site visitor. This is something one general contractor, John, learned the hard way.

John was hard at work on a residential remodel project when the homeowner brought a friend over to check out the progress. The curious visitor was admiring John’s work when he was suddenly struck in the head by a ladder that had been propped up against a wall.

The homeowner sued John for his friend’s injury, expecting the contractor to pay the price for medical and other expenses from the accident.

Luckily, John had general liability insurance. His policy covered the costs of defending himself against the lawsuit, which included attorneys’ fees, court costs, and a settlement.

#2: A Soggy Tale of Water and Woe

Miguel, an experienced drywall contractor with 15 years in the trade, was working on a basement drywall repair project that should have been pretty cut and dry. In order to reach the damaged area, his employees disconnected the home’s sump pump.

After the job was done, neither Miguel or his employee remembered to reconnect the small pump.

Instead of re-routing ground water away from the home, the sump pump sat unoperational. After the drywall contractor and his team left, the basement flooded and the home suffered from extensive water damage.

Miguel’s general liability policy covered the costs of repair for the property damage that resulted from the incident. The water damage could have cost Miguel a huge bill for repairs, but thanks to his general liability insurance it only cost him a deductible.

#3: All it Takes is One Mistake

With more than thirty years in the business and a perfect track record, Tony was an electrical contractor in high demand. When a local commercial project was being built, Tony was their first pick to install lighting throughout the building.

Unfortunately, Tony’s 30-year track record went up in smoke when an electrical fire decimated the commercial building. A fire that ultimately led back to Tony’s completed work.

Tony’s bad luck didn’t stop with the first mistake made in his life-long career, either.

Because he had gone so long without an accident, injury, or claim to his name, Tony had decided to save some cash earlier that year and let his general liability policy lapse. He had no coverage for the incident, and had to pay for the property damage and lawsuit that followed out of his own pocket.

The Moral of the Story

Two out of three of our tales concluded with a happy ending. The contractors filed a claim with us, and we were able to cover the incident. The cost to each was only a fraction of what it could have been. The contractors paid their deductible and went on their way.

But not every story ends so well, and for one of our contractors, one small mistake resulted in a major financial setback.

General liability insurance provides a safety net to protect your business in the event of an unforeseen incident. Like most of your safety equipment, there’s a chance that may never need it to kick in and do its job. But the one time something does go wrong, you’re going to be very glad you’ve got all your protective measures in place.

Construction is a high-risk industry, and there’s always a chance a job could result in accident, injury, or property damage to a third-party. If you have general liability insurance, then your story could be one more that ends happily ever after.

10 Times Your General Liability Insurance Could Save The Day