General Liability Insurance

Last reviewed September 15, 2026

Pays when your business is blamed for injuring someone or damaging their property, and pays the lawyer whether or not the claim has merit. It is the policy landlords, general contractors and clients ask to see a certificate for before they let you on site or sign the lease.

General liability is the base layer of commercial insurance: it responds when someone outside the business claims you caused them bodily injury or property damage, or harmed them through your advertising or by injuring their reputation. A customer who trips on a cord in your shop, a plumber who floods the unit below the one being worked on, a landscaper whose mower throws a stone through a window: each is a general liability claim. The policy pays the injured party what you legally owe, up to the limit, and pays your defence costs on top of the limit under most forms.

Nobody is made to carry it by statute in the four states, and almost everyone is made to carry it by contract. Commercial leases, general contractors' subcontract agreements, municipal permits, vendor agreements with larger companies and event venues all require it and name the limits they want, and they ask for a certificate of insurance proving it before the work starts or the keys are handed over.

The premium is rated on what the business does, measured by payroll, sales or square footage depending on the class, plus the limits chosen and the claims history. A consultant working from a home office and a roofing contractor are both general liability risks and are priced a long way apart. The analysis reads the contracts you are being asked to satisfy, checks the limits and endorsements they require against your policy, and tells you which requirements you already meet.

Covered and not covered

Covered

Injuries to customers, visitors and other members of the public on your premises
Damage you cause to a client's property while working there
Injury or damage caused by your product or completed work after delivery
Defence costs, including for claims that go nowhere
Libel, slander and copyright infringement in your advertising
Small medical bills for a member of the public injured on site, without proof of fault
Fire damage to a rented premises, up to a separate sub-limit

Not covered

Injuries to your own employees, which belong to workers' compensation
Your professional advice or a mistake in the work product itself, which belong to professional liability
Vehicles while driven on the road, which belong to commercial auto
Damage to your own property, tools and stock
Faulty workmanship itself, as opposed to damage the faulty work causes
Pollution, asbestos and liquor liability without an endorsement
Intentional acts and claims you knew about before the policy started
Data breaches and cyber events

What general liability insurance does

Bodily injury and property damage

Coverage A pays sums you become legally obligated to pay for injury to a person or damage to property that happens during the policy period and arises from your premises, your operations, your products or your completed work. The trigger is an occurrence, an accident, including continuous exposure to the same harmful condition. Injury to your own employees is excluded here; that belongs to workers' compensation. Damage to property you own, rent or are working on is excluded too, which is why contractors carry separate coverage for the thing they are building.

Products and completed operations

Once you have handed over the work or the product, a claim that it later caused injury or damage falls under products-completed operations. A deck that collapses a year after the carpenter finished, a bakery's product that sickens a customer, an electrician's wiring that causes a fire: all are completed operations claims, and they are the ones that follow a contractor for years after the job. Some carriers exclude or restrict this coverage for certain trades, and a general contractor's certificate request will usually ask for it by name.

Personal and advertising injury

Coverage B pays for offences rather than accidents: libel, slander, wrongful eviction, invasion of privacy, misuse of another company's advertising idea, and infringing a copyright or slogan in your own advertising. It is the part of the policy that responds to a defamation claim over a social media post or a dispute with a former tenant, subject to exclusions for knowing falsehood and for businesses in advertising, publishing and web design, which need a media policy instead.

Medical payments

Coverage C pays small medical bills for a member of the public injured on your premises or by your operations without anyone having to prove you were at fault. It is a goodwill coverage with a low limit per person, meant to settle a sprained ankle before it becomes a lawsuit; it does not apply to employees or to your own household.

Limits, aggregates and certificates

The policy carries a per-occurrence limit and an annual general aggregate that caps everything the policy pays in a year, with a separate aggregate for products-completed operations. Contracts ask for both, and they often ask for endorsements: additional insured status for the landlord or general contractor, a waiver of subrogation, and primary and non-contributory wording that puts your policy ahead of theirs. A certificate of insurance is a one-page summary the agency issues to a third party showing your limits and endorsements; it does not change the policy, and we issue them at no charge for the businesses we insure.

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Related lines

Business Owners Policy (BOP)One policy that packages the building and contents, general liability and lost income for a small business that fits a carrier's eligibility rules. It costs less than the same parts bought separately, and the eligibility test, not the price, decides whether it is the right form.
Workers' Compensation InsurancePays an employee's medical bills and part of their wages when they are hurt at work, whoever was at fault, and in return the employee generally cannot sue you. Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Idaho each require it at their own employee threshold and run the system differently.
Commercial Umbrella InsuranceA second layer of liability limit above your general liability, commercial auto and employers liability policies that pays once one of them is exhausted by a claim. Bought in round increments, priced on the exposures underneath it, and often demanded by contracts before work can start.
Contractors InsuranceThe policies a trade or general contractor needs to hold a license, sign a subcontract and get on a job site: general liability with completed operations, tools and equipment, commercial auto, workers compensation and the license bond, matched to what the board and the GC ask for.
Professional Liability (E&O) InsurancePays when a client says your advice, design or service cost them money, and pays the lawyer to answer the claim. General liability covers the ladder that falls on a visitor; this covers the drawing, the spreadsheet or the recommendation that turned out to be wrong.