The short answer: general liability responds when someone outside your business is hurt, or their property is damaged, because of your operations, your premises or the products you sell, including the cost of defending the claim. It does not cover your own employees' injuries, your own property, mistakes in your professional advice or data breaches. Those belong on other policies.
What general liability covers
- Injuries to people outside your business. Someone outside your business, like a customer who comes through your door, gets hurt because of your premises, your operations or the products you sell.
- Damage to other people's property. When your operations or your products damage something that belongs to someone else.
- The cost of defending the claim. Even a claim you would win costs money to answer. General liability includes that defense.
- The certificate people ask for. It is the policy most landlords, clients and vendors ask to see a certificate for before they will sign a lease or a contract.
What it does not cover
- Your own employees' injuries. That is workers' comp.
- Your own property. Your contents, inventory and equipment are commercial property coverage.
- Mistakes in your professional advice. When a client says your advice, design or work was wrong and it cost them money, that is professional liability (E&O).
- Data breaches. That is cyber liability.
General liability can also come inside a business owner's policy (BOP), which bundles general liability and commercial property, and usually business interruption, into one policy. Not every business qualifies, and an advisor confirms whether a BOP fits. Our Liability & Property page walks through all six coverages side by side.
About limits
A limit is how much a policy will pay for one claim, and for all claims in a policy year. Limits are ceilings, not a price. Leases and contracts often name the limits they want to see, and sometimes ask to be named as additional insured. We read the paper and set the policy to match it.
Working from home?
Your homeowners policy generally excludes business activity. If customers, clients or their property ever touch your work, even from home, general liability is the coverage that responds when someone says you caused harm.
Picture it
You finally find the right space for your shop. The lease is ready, and one line says the tenant must carry commercial general liability and name the landlord as additional insured. No certificate, no keys. You call around that week, explaining your business from scratch to people who have never heard of you, while the landlord waits and another tenant asks about the space.
Now picture the other version. The policy was already in place, written for what your business actually does. When the landlord asked, you sent over the lease, we matched the policy to it and issued the certificate, usually the same day. Months later, a customer slips on a just-mopped floor by the door, and a letter from a lawyer arrives. The claim and its defense go to the policy, not to your bank account.
What to have ready for a quote
Blanks are fine on our discovery sheet, but the more you can tell us, the closer the first quote lands:
- What your business does. The work you do is what carriers rate: a bakery and a bike shop are different risks.
- How many employees, and how long you have been in business. Headcount shapes liability exposure, and new and long-running businesses are underwritten differently.
- Your premises. Whether you rent, own, work from home, work from a vehicle or have more than one location.
- Customer foot traffic. Whether employees are on-site with customers.
- Any lease or contract that requires insurance. Have it handy: it names the limits and endorsements the certificate has to show.
- A rough yearly revenue band. It is one of the sizing inputs carriers use. It does not set your rate on its own.
- What you have today, and your claims history. Claims or lawsuits in the last five years are asked on every application, so knowing up front avoids surprises.
- When you need it. If a lease or contract is waiting, we move on it first.
This is general education, not a guarantee of coverage. Whether a policy responds depends on its terms, limits, endorsements and the facts of a claim. Coverages, availability and rates vary by carrier and state, and can change at any time.