What Is General Liability Insurance?

General liability insurance (GL) covers claims brought by third parties (customers, vendors, the public) for bodily injury, property damage, and personal or advertising injury connected to your business. If a customer slips in your shop, or your work damages a client's property, GL is the coverage that responds. It's the foundation of most commercial insurance programs.

What general liability covers

• Bodily injury to a third party, for example a visitor hurt on your premises.
• Property damage you cause to someone else's property.
• Personal and advertising injury: claims like libel, slander, or copyright infringement in advertising.
• Defense costs: the insurer generally covers the cost of defending covered claims, often in addition to the limits.

How limits work

GL limits are typically written as two numbers: a per-occurrence limit (the most the policy pays for a single claim) and an aggregate limit (the most it pays over the whole policy period). A common small-business example is $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate, but the right limits depend on your risk and any contractual requirements.

What general liability does not cover

GL is broad but not universal. It doesn't cover your own property (that's commercial property insurance), your employees' work injuries (workers' compensation), damage to your vehicles or auto liability (commercial auto), or claims that your professional advice caused a financial loss (professional liability). Those gaps are why a program is a set of policies, not one.

Recording GL in your program

Because GL is so commonly required, its limits show up in contracts, leases, and the certificates you collect from vendors. Recording your GL policy, with carrier, limits, and dates, and the GL limits your contracts require lets you see whether your coverage still meets them. Atlasafe keeps that record and flags when a required limit isn't met; whether a given limit is adequate for your risk is a judgment for you and your broker.