Commercial general liability (CGL) insurance—also known as general liability insurance (GLI) or business liability insurance—helps protect your business from claims of bodily injury and property damage.

What Does Commercial General Liability Insurance Cover?

Commercial general liability insurance helps cover your costs to respond to a claim that your business caused property damage or bodily injury. It can help pay for:

• A customer or client’s medical expenses if they slip and fall in your business.

• Reputational harm resulting from malicious prosecution, slander, libel, wrongful eviction, or violating a person’s privacy.

• Advertising injuries, such as copyright infringement from your business’ advertisements or social media activity, or trademark infringement when marketing your business’ products or services.

• False arrest or imprisonment if your business wrongfully detains a person suspected of shoplifting, for example.

• Medical costs if your customer or client hurts themselves while visiting your business.

• Damage to rented property caused by a covered loss such as fire, lightning, or explosion.

• Repair costs to fix a wall that your employee accidentally damaged while working at a customer’s home or bodily injuries to a child caused by a harmful substance your employee did not properly dispose of.

• Legal costs to defend your business in a lawsuit.

• Judgments and settlements from a customer or client’s lawsuit.

In North Carolina, Commercial General Liability (CGL) insurance is designed to protect businesses from financial losses due to claims of bodily injury, property damage, and various other risks that can arise from business operations. This type of insurance typically covers medical expenses for injuries occurring on business premises, such as a customer slipping and falling. It also provides coverage for reputational harm, including slander and libel, as well as advertising injuries like copyright or trademark infringement. CGL policies in North Carolina may cover incidents of false arrest or imprisonment related to the business, such as a wrongful shoplifting accusation. Additionally, the insurance can help with medical costs for customer injuries, damage to rented property due to covered events, repair costs for accidental property damage by employees, and legal defense costs in lawsuits. It also covers judgments and settlements resulting from such lawsuits. It's important for businesses to review their CGL policies to understand the specific coverages, limits, and exclusions, and to ensure they comply with any applicable North Carolina state statutes and federal laws.