Commercial Insurance Business Owners Policy (BOP) Commercial Auto Commercial Flood Commercial Property Commercial Umbrella Data Breach Directors & Officers (D&O) Employment Practices Liability Environmental - Pollution Liability General Liability Product Liability Professional Liability (E&O) Workers Comp Personal Insurance

California General Liability Insurance (QUOTES, COST & COVERAGE)

Get California general liability insurance quotes, cost & coverage fast. Commercial general liability protects your CA business from another person’s or entity’s claims involving bodily injury or property damage.

California General Liability Insurance

It may be hard for you to imagine how your business could cause another person serious harm or even death. But if you are ever found liable for someone harm or injury, general liability insurance can provide financial protection.

A business that purchases commercial California general liability insurance, is covered for the cost of defending and settling real or fraudulent claims pertaining to bodily injury, that may be faced by a customer at the place of business or injuries sustained by employees at the client’s workplace; property damages; personal injury as a result of defamation; operations liability and advertising injury up to a maximum amount as stated in the contract.

California general liability insurance is the most foundational business insurance. It covers non-professional negligent acts.

Does My Business Need CA 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 California general liability insurance policy would provide defense costs for a covered claim and pay damages if the business is found legally liable.

What Does California 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 California 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 California General Liability Insurance Cost?

How much does California 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
  • CA business location
  • Years in business
  • Business experience
  • Annual payroll
  • Annual revenue
  • History of claims

Further Reading On Commercial General Liability Insurance

CA General Liability Insurance Quotes

California Insurance

Request a California General Liability Insurance quote in Anaheim, Bakersfield, Chula Vista, Concord, Corona, Elk Grove, Escondido, Fontana, Fremont, Fresno, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Glendale, Hayward, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Lancaster, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Modesto, Moreno Valley, Oakland, Oceanside, Ontario, Orange, Oxnard, Palmdale, Pasadena, Pomona, Rancho Cucamonga, Riverside, Roseville, Sacramento, Salinas, San Bernardino, San DiegoSan Francisco, San Jose, Santa Ana, Santa Clara, Santa Clarita, Santa Rosa, Simi Valley, Stockton, Sunnyvale, Thousand Oaks, Torrance, Vallejo, Victorville, Visalia and all other cities in CA.

The California Department of Insurance

The CA Dept. of Insurance is the regulatory agency behind the insurance rules for the state of California. If you want to understand these rules, then this is definitely the agency that you need to focus on. Let’s start with limits within the state.

California Minimum Insurance Limits
  • For auto insurance, California requires $15,000 per person and $30,000 per accident.
  • For life insurance, there are certain regulations in place to determine how someone is able to get or offer life insurance, but there are no limits listed.
  • For commercial insurance, insurance agents may offer broker or casualty insurance as well as covered property insurance, covered causes of loss, specified perils and open perils along with a number of coverage forms like builder’s risk, legal liability, building ordinance, glass, peak season, inflation guard and peak element.
CA Insurance Regulations

As for regular insurance regulations there are a lot of things that California provides that you can look up. For example, there are deadlines for the insurer to pay the claim or deny it, deadlines for submitting paperwork to prove a loss for insurance reimbursement, specific information your insurance company is required to give you and regulations on what information you have to provide to your insurance company.

One of the California regulations calls for you to be treated by your insurance company in good faith. This means that your insurer must be considered of your needs and must communicate completely and honestly with you about your policy and everything that you need to know about it in order to make a good decision. In turn, you are legally obligated to be honest and cooperative with your insurance company when it comes to your claim.

You should also be aware that your insurance company is required to offer prompt, honest and complete communications. The company and all of its representatives must respond to your communications within 15 calendar days with a complete response based upon the facts that are known.

Finally, be aware that your insurance company is required to have a fair claims process. Unless it is specified in your policy, you do not have to use the forms that are provided to you by your insurance provider in order to make a claim. You can create a list of losses on your own if you need to. In addition, insurers are not able to ask for unreasonable proof of loss. If you provide photographic evidence or video of items that you lost, insurers are not able to ask you to provide additional information.

Scroll to Top