Does My Business Need NY General Liability Insurance?
One of the most trying situations a business owner can face is liability claims for injury or damages to third party. Any business is exposed to bodily injury and property damage claims and the resulting litigation from the your business operations.
Legal fees and judgements can put small companies out of business. A New York general liability insurance policy would provide defense costs for a covered claim and pay damages if the business is found legally liable.
What Does New York General Liability Insurance Cover?
General liability is commercial coverage that is designed to provide financial protection for businesses from many types of risk exposures. A General liability insurance policy has 3 main parts of coverage; Bodily Injury and Property Damage Liability (Coverage A), Personal and Advertising Injury (Coverage B) and Medical Payments (Coverage C). Following are some of the most important coverages:
- The cost of medical care claimed by the injured party. For example, if a customer slips and falls on your premises and requires medical treatment, your policy would cover the costs.
- Restitution for death and loss of services.
- Compensation for physical damage to other people’s property and loss of use of the same. Even if you’re careful it’s still a possibility that something your business does, or doesn’t do, could cause damage another person’s or businesses property.
- Compensation to consumers for loss on account of using company manufactured products and retribution for loss due to services rendered by the company. So if something your business manufactures or a service your company provides causes an injury, your policy can pay for any resulting damages including legal expenses.
- Contractual liability coverage for any liability is assumed by entering into contracts like lease agreements for the building, elevator maintenance agreements or indemnity agreements.
- Coverage for hired and non-owned autos. Hired would be liability coverage for rented vehicles and non-owned is if employees use their personal auto on company business – like running to the bank or office store for supplies.
- Liquor liability if you do not sell, serve, furnish, manufacture or distribute, alcoholic beverages , your general liability insurance policy will cover you if are held liable for a liquor-related incident.
- The costs of legal defense. These costs commonly include compensatory damages, nonmonetary losses suffered by the injured party, and punitive damages.
- Coverage for advertising injuries as a result of publishing inaccurate information.
- Protection for violation of someone’s right to privacy and infringing on another company’s copyright, title or slogan.
What New York General Liability Insurance Doesn’t Cover
General liability typically does not cover:
- Professional mistakes – Only professional liability insurance (E&O) can cover lawsuits due to negligence and professional mistakes.
- Damage to your property – General liability only covers third-party property damage. You need business property cover yours.
- Employee injuries – CGL only covers non-employee bodily injuries. You will need workers compensation to cover employee injuries
- Employment disputes – Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI), not general liability, covers lawsuits if an employee sues over harassment, wrongful termination, discrimination, and similar issues.
- Damage to your vehicles – Commercial auto will cover damages to your vehicles.
Claims-Made vs Occurrence
When buying commercial general liability it’s important know the difference between a claims-made or occurrence policy:
Claims-Made – Provides coverage over a specific time period, and only covers claims that are made during that time period – even if the claim happened at a different time. So if you had a policy that cancelled on January 1, 2020 – then a claim was filed on February 1, 2020 for an injury that happened on December 1st 2019 – you WOULD NOT have coverage.
Occurrence – This policy is different because it covers claims that occurred during a specified time period, and will not cover claims that occurred before the policy was effective. So if you had a policy that cancelled on January 1, 2020 – then a claim was filed on February 1, 2020 for an injury that happened on December 1st 2019 – you WOULD have coverage (if it wasn’t exlcuded from the policy).
How Much Does New York General Liability Insurance Cost?
How much does New York general liability insurance cost? The premiums vary depending on the amount of risk exposure, and it depends on the endorsements and deductible selected. Following are some of the main factors that go into the price of a policy:
- Type of business (contracting, service, retail etc.)
- General liability classification code
- NY business location
- Years in business
- Business experience
- Annual payroll
- Annual revenue
- History of claims
Further Reading On Commercial General Liability Insurance
NY General Liability Insurance Quotes
Request a New York General Liability Insurance quote in Albany, Amherst, Auburn, Babylon, Binghamton, Bronx, Brookhaven, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Clarkstown, Clay, Colonie, Elmira, Glen Cove, Greenburgh, Hamburg, Hempstead, Huntington, Islip, Ithaca, Jamaica, Jamestown, Long Beach, Manhattan, Middletown, Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, Newburgh, Niagara Falls, Orangetown, Oyster Bay, Perinton, Poughkeepsie, Queens, Rochester, Rome, Rye, Schenectady, Smithtown, Southampton, Staten Island, Syracuse, Tonawanda, Troy, Union, Utica, Watertown, West Seneca, White Plains, Yonkers and all other cities in NY.
New York Insurance Rules & Regulations
In the state of New York, there are a couple of different types of insurance that are regulated by the state that you should be aware of - as well as the regulations behind them. Understanding what is required for business and personal insurance will help you make sure that you have the right insurance if you ever decide to open a business or even if you are simply looking for information on what kinds of personal insurance you need and what sort of oversight there is for them. Let's take a closer look at personal and business insurance in NY State.
NY Commercial Insurance
The first type of insurance is general liability insurance. Although general liability insurance is not required by law for New York businesses, it is a good thing to have. General liability protects companies from lawsuits that stem from slips and falls, damage to property while they are on the premises and a variety of other potential incidents that customers may file a lawsuit for. General liability simply keeps you safe in case something happens to someone on your property and they decide to bring a lawsuit against you.
In addition, businesses in New York must carry specific types of insurance such as Worker's Compensation insurance when they have at least one full or part-time employee. This does not apply to independent contractors and subcontractors. The only other regulation in New York is that commercial vehicles that are operating as part of a business must carry commercial auto insurance.
New York Personal Insurance
Now, we move onto personal insurance starting with auto insurance. New York State requires that anyone operating a motor vehicle carry liability insurance with 25 000 USD for bodily injury to one person and 50 000 USD total for a single accident. In addition, motorists must carry 10 000 USD for property damage as well.
There are also some regulations governing life insurance. In Article 32 of the New York Consolidated Law it says that residents have a free look period that is limited to 10 days, as well as a grace period of 31 days and then insurance companies must make timely payments within 30 days of receiving notification of the death. If the insurance company does not make these payments on time, then interest can be added to the amount owed. You can find out more about this life insurance information as well as information on the New York state guaranty that ensures that you will receive a payment even if your life insurance company goes out of business.