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 Pennsylvania, Commercial General Liability (CGL) insurance is designed to protect businesses from a wide range of potential liability exposures. This type of insurance typically covers the costs associated with bodily injury and property damage claims that arise from the business's operations, products, or on its premises. For instance, if a customer slips and falls in a store, the medical expenses could be covered by CGL insurance. It also extends to reputational harm, such as slander or libel, and advertising injuries like copyright or trademark infringement. Additionally, CGL policies in PA may cover incidents of false arrest or imprisonment related to the business's activities, such as a wrongful shoplifting accusation. The policy can also help with medical costs if a client is injured on the business premises, damages to rented property due to covered perils, and repair costs for accidental damage caused by employees. Legal defense costs, judgments, and settlements from lawsuits are also typically included in the coverage. It's important for businesses to review their policies carefully to understand the specific coverage and exclusions, and to ensure that their policy limits are adequate to protect against potential claims.