As a business owner, you are responsible for ensuring a successful work environment and maintaining smooth operations. You want a safe, honest and secure business, but dissatisfied customers are going to come around from time to time. Sometimes, they could even take legal action against your business. As such, it’s crucial to know how you can respond to these incidents. The answer might be to turn to your commercial general liability insurance—also known as your CGL policy. Here’s how this form of coverage works. 

CGL insurance includes benefits that can offer assistance if your business is found responsible for harming others or their property. However, CGL policies do include limitations. With this in mind, it’s important to know when you might need to expand your standard benefits.

CGL Policies as Part of BOPs 

Many small business owners get their CGL insurance through business owners policies—also called BOPs. Generally speaking, BOPs contain many of the most essential types of insurance that businesses need. Since a CGL policy is among these vital forms of coverage, it is likely included in your BOP.

What Does a CGL Policy Cover? 

Most BOPs that offer CGL insurance include a few basic types of protection. Though all policies differ, the most well-known coverage includes:

• Property damage coverage—If you accidentally cause harm to someone else’s belongings, this coverage can help you pay for the cost of those losses. 
• Bodily injury coverage—Should someone get hurt on your commercial property, then this coverage can compensate them for their recovery costs. This insurance is sometimes called slip-and-fall coverage, seeing as it can protect you if someone falls and hurts themselves at your business. 
• Legal assistance coverage—If you harm someone and they sue you, this coverage can help cover the costs of a lawyer and other related legal fees. 
• Products/completed operations coverage—If you sell products or provide services, this coverage can supply protection if these offerings end up causing harm to others. 
• Medical payments coverage—Someone could get hurt at your business, but it might not be your fault. Regardless, this coverage can help compensate the injured party. This type of insurance might even help you avoid a lawsuit. 
• Personal injury coverage—Someone else might accuse you of committing libel, slander, advertising injury, copyright infringement or other similar misconduct. This coverage can help you respond to such an event. 

Call us today at (915) 599-2900 or visit www.MtFranklin.com to see how we can help you.