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 Virginia, 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 Virginia business, the CGL policy may cover the medical expenses. It also extends to reputational harm, such as slander or libel, and advertising injuries like copyright or trademark infringement. Additionally, CGL policies in Virginia 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 from injuries occurring on business premises, damage to rented property, and repair costs from accidental damage caused by employees. Legal defense costs, judgments, and settlements from lawsuits are also typically included in the coverage. It's important for Virginia businesses to review their CGL policies carefully to understand the specific coverages, exclusions, and limits, and to ensure that their policy complies with any applicable Virginia state statutes and federal laws.