General Liability Insurance, also called Commercial General Liability Insurance (CGL), protects you from a variety of threats, including bodily injury or accidents that occur on your property. Note that this typically only applies to injuries of non-employees. If an employee of yours is injured on the job site, this is generally covered by worker’s compensation. It also covers some, but not all, forms of property damage.

Another major benefit of having CGL is that it protects you against copyright infringement lawsuits. For example, if you’re running an ad campaign for your retail business, and another business decides that ads look too similar to theirs, they may try to file a lawsuit by claiming copyright infringement. As with most lawsuits, this can be a major headache for you, even if you’ve done nothing wrong. It can also put a huge financial strain on you just to fight the case, even if the judgment ultimately ends up in your favour.

It’s also important to remember that judges and lawyers are fallible, just like everyone else. So even if you haven’t done anything intentionally wrong, there’s no guarantee the courts will rule in your favour. Fortunately, if you have the foresight to obtain CGL coverage, accusations of copyright infringement won’t leave your fate up to the whims of the judicial system.

Last but not least, CGL can protect you from lawsuits based on reputation damage. For example, you might make a comment that is less than flattering about one of your competitors. Maybe you didn’t make the comment with malicious intent, but you were a little too careless about who you shared your opinion with. Maybe the comment ends up being published in the local newspaper or recorded and posted on YouTube by someone unbeknownst to you. The next thing you know, you’ve opened yourself up to a lawsuit by the competitor. Having general liability insurance can protect you in this type of situation.