Does My Business Need NJ 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 Jersey 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 Jersey 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 Jersey 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 Jersey General Liability Insurance Cost?
How much does New Jersey 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
- NJ business location
- Years in business
- Business experience
- Annual payroll
- Annual revenue
- History of claims
Further Reading On Commercial General Liability Insurance
NJ General Liability Insurance Quotes
Request a New Jersey General Liability Insurance quote in Atlantic City, Bayonne, Bergenfield, Bridgeton, Camden, Carteret, Cliffside Park, Clifton, Dover, East Orange, Egg Harbor, Elizabeth, Elmwood Park, Englewood, Fair Lawn, Fort Lee, Garfield, Glassboro, Hackensack, Hawthorne, Hoboken, Jersey City, Kearny, Linden, Lodi, Long Branch, Millville, Morristown, New Brunswick, Newark, North Plainfield, Palisades Park, Paramus, Passaic, Paterson, Perth Amboy, Plainfield, Pleasantville, Point Pleasant, Rahway, Ridgewood, Roselle, Sayreville, South Plainfield, Summit, Trenton, Union City, Vineland, West New York, Westfield and all other cities in NJ.
Insurance Regulations In New Jersey
There insurance regulations that govern both business and personal insurance in the state of NJ. There are certain regulations that you want to keep in mind whether you are getting insurance as a private party, or you may have a business and are concerned about the regulations and oversight of your business insurance.
New Jersey Commercial Insurance
The regulations governing business insurance start with general liability insurance. General liability insurance protects you from lawsuits from people that come on your property with a variety of coverages. For example, it may protect against bodily injury, it may also protect against property damage caused by your business - for example, if your sign falls on someone's car - or it may protect against advertising, false arrest and lots of other different things that can happen. However, keep in mind that general liability insurance is not required in the state of New Jersey.
There are certain types of insurance that are required by businesses in New Jersey though. One of the regulations governing business insurance in New Jersey requires that anyone who has a full-time or part-time employee carry Worker's Compensation insurance to cover that employee. Workers comp is sort of like health insurance for employees that get hurt on the job.
In addition, NJ law says that employers must provide employee disability coverage to provide income for employees who are injured on the job and have to take time off due to a temporary or permanent disability. Finally, businesses in New Jersey are required to carry commercial auto insurance for company vehicles.
NJ Personal Insurance
The first type of personal insurance that will be discussing is auto insurance. Personal auto insurance in New Jersey requires that the driver carry 15 000 USD per person and 30 000 USD per accident in liability coverage. In addition, there must be an additional 5000 USD for property damage.
As far as life insurance regulations, insurance companies must be regulated by the Department of Banking and Insurance which maintains all records of insurance companies that are licensed to do business in the state. In addition, residents have a 10 day free look period, a grace period of 30 days and insurance companies must make payments in a timely fashion; which is within two months of receiving proof of death from the beneficiary.