General Liability Insurance in Houston Texas
General Liability insurance pays losses arising from real or alleged bodily injury, property damage, or personal injury on your business premises or arising from your operations. If you have a personal umbrella liability policy, there's generally an exclusion for business-related liability. Make sure you have sufficient liability coverage.
Unfortunately for every business owner, the chances of getting sued have dramatically increased in the last decade. General Liability insurance policy can prevent a legal suit from turning into a financial disaster by providing financial protection in case your business is ever sued or held legally responsible for some injuries or damage to others.
Business General Liability insurance policy covers claims of:
Bodily injury: If you’re legally liable, general liability insurance covers claims by third parties for bodily injury. For example, your client slips and falls in your office (or you cause an accident at a client’s premises). If they sustain an injury, and you’re liable, we’ll cover the subsequent bodily injury claim.
Property damage: small business general liability insurance covers the costs of damage to a third-party’s property caused by you or your employee and for which you are legally liable.
Personal injury: General liability insurance coverage protects you against claims of libel or slander for which you are legally liable.
Advertising injury: Protects you against the unintentional use of a third party’s advertising idea if it is used as part of your advertising. We’ll also protect you if your advertisement or marketing materials infringe a third party’s copyright or trade slogan.
Electronic data liability: Added for consultants and technology service providers;- if an employee damages a client’s property (e.g., a server) and the client’s electronic data is damaged, will cover any damages up to your limits of insurance for which you are legally liable.
Medical expenses: If an accident occurs and someone other than your employee is injured, your Hiscox business general liability insurance policy also covers any associated medical expenses for each injured person, up to $5,000.
Worldwide insurance coverage: We cover damage that occurs in the United States, its territories, and Canada. We also offer coverage for short periods of travel outside these areas.
Defense costs: If you are sued, Hiscox will appoint a lawyer, if necessary, even if the lawsuit is groundless. We’ll pay these costs on your behalf and they will not reduce your limit of liability.
Actions of your full-time employees and temporary staff: Provides general liability insurance coverage for business-related actions of your full-time employees and temporary staff.
Supplemental Coverages: Covers the following expenses if incurred:
- Legal defense costs.
- Up to $250 a day for loss of earnings and reasonable expenses you may incur as a result of assisting us in the investigation of the claim against you.
- Interest on damage awards.
- Policies issued by different insurance companies have different exclusions and some items are not covered, check policy for more details.
General Liability Insurance Protection Includes:
- Bodily Injury, including the cost of care, the loss of services, and the restitution for any death that results from injury
- Property Damage coverage for the physical damage to property of others or the loss of use of that property
- Products-Completed Operations provides liability protection (damages and legal expenses up to your policy's limit) if an injury ever resulted from something your company made or service your company provided
- Products Liability is a more specialized product liability insurance that protects your company against lawsuits from product-related injury or accidents
- Contractual Liability extends to any liability you may assume by entering into a variety of contracts
- Other coverage includes: Reasonable Use of Force; Borrowed Equipment; Liquor Liability; Non-Owned Vehicles (such as aircraft and watercraft); Fire, Lightning or Explosion Damage; Water Damage Liability Protection; Legal Defense Costs; Medical Payments; Personal Injury; Advertising Injury; and specialized liability protection for specific business types.
Texas General Liability Insurance can be issued as a mono - line or as part of the Business Owner’s Policy Package. It provides an insured
protection for legal liability which arises from injuries or damages sustained by a third party. This is commonly referred to as trip and fall insurance in the public which is clearly slowing. Types of injuries or damages covered by general liability insurance include bodily injury, property damage, personal injury and advertising liability.
General liability insurance protects the assets of a business when it is sued for something it is liable for by causing an injury or property damage. Covered general liability claims can include bodily injury, property damage, personal injury, and advertising injury (damage from slander or false advertising). The insurance company can cover compensatory and general damages as well. Punitive damages aren't covered because they're considered to be punishment for intentional acts. Transferring risk is what it's all about ! For many businesses, this is one of the largest exposures. Texas General Liability insurance comes in many different "shapes and sizes", we can tailor a program specific to your needs and risk tolerance. Price, coverage and your company's specific requirements help us develop an attractive insurance program designed just for your needs ! Many of the public and product liability risks are often covered together under a general liability policy. These risks may include bodily injury or property damage caused by direct or indirect actions of the insured.
In the United States, general liability insurance coverage most often appears in the Commercial General Liability policies obtained by businesses, and in homeowners' insurance policies obtained by individual homeowners.
What Texas General Liability Insurance Provides?
Liability insurers have two (or three, in some jurisdictions) major duties: 1) the duty to defend, 2) the duty to indemnify and (in some jurisdictions), 3) the duty to settle a reasonably clear claim.
The duty to defend is triggered when the insured is sued and in turn "tenders" defense of the claim to its liability insurer. Usually this is done by sending a copy of the complaint along with a cover letter referencing the relevant insurance policy or policies and demanding an immediate defense. At this point, the insurer has three options, to: (1) seek a declaratory judgment of no coverage; (2) defend; or (3) refuse either to defend or to seek a declaratory judgment.
If a declaratory judgment is sought, the issue of the insurer's duty to defend will be resolved.
If the insurer decides to defend, it has thus either waived its defense of no coverage (later estopped), or it must defend under a reservation of rights. The latter means that the insurer reserves the right to withdraw from defending in the event that it turns out the claim is not covered, and to recover from the insured any funds expended to date.
If the insurer chooses to defend, it may either defend the claim with its own in-house lawyers (where allowed), or give the claim to an outside law firm on a "panel" of preferred firms which have negotiated a standard fee schedule with the insurer in exchange for a regular flow of work. The decision to defend under a reservation of rights must be undertaken with extreme caution in jurisdictions where the insured has a right to Cumis counsel.
The choice to do nothing can be very risky because a later determination that the duty applied often leads to the tort of bad faith. (So, insurers often prefer to defend under a reservation of rights rather than simply do nothing.)
The duty to indemnify means the duty to pay "all sums" for which the insured is held liable, up to a set policy limit.
- To settle reasonable claims In some jurisdictions
There is a third duty, the duty to settle a reasonably clear claim against the insured. The duty is of greatest import during situations in which the settlement demand equals or exceeds the policy limits. In that case, the insurer has an incentive not to settle, since if it settles, it will certainly pay the policy limit. But this interest is at odds with the interest of its insured. The company has incentives not to settle since if the case goes to trial, there are only two possibilities: its insured loses and insurer pays the policy limits (nothing gained nothing lost), or its insured wins, leaving the insurer with no liability. But, if the insurer refuses to settle, and the case goes to trial, the insured might be held liable for a sum far exceeding the settlement offer. In turn, the plaintiff might then attempt to recover the difference between the policy limits and the actual judgment by obtaining writs of attachment or execution against the insured's assets.
Texas General Liability Rate Samples:
1- Texas General Liability Insurance Starting from $59/Month
2- $1,000,000 General Liability Insurance for an Ultra Sound Lab is $650/year
3- $1,000,000 General Liability, $60,000 Content for a Resturant In Houston, TX Estimated rate $1680/year
4- Worker’s compensation for a Cable Installer company is Estimated at $1965/year
5- $1,000,000 General Liability/ $1.435,000 Bldg/ $1,225,000 Content. For manufacturing Co. Estimated rate of $32,379/year
6- $100,000 Auto Dealer Garage Liability/ $150,000 DOL/ $100,000 Building is Estimated rate at $4430/year
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