WHAT TYPES OF LIABILITY IS A BUSINESS VULNERABLE TO?

In America, there are two types of laws. Criminal laws punish the guilty with jail terms and sometimes even execution, depending on the state. But for breaches of law that aren’t considered criminal acts, civil cases are resolved through lawsuits.

For businesses, this means they are vulnerable to liability, which is always a risk and is made even more uncertain with additional concerns, like the ongoing global pandemic. Liability is the legal term for the possible risks businesses face from lawsuits, but a company may be exposed to different kinds of liability.

Premises or Third Party Liability

This is where a visitor to a business is injured while on the property, and there is an indication the property owners may be at fault. Someone injured while riding an amusement park attraction, for example, may sue for premises liability if it is shown that the attraction needed repairs that were neglected to avoid repair expenses.

Copyright Liability

This is an easy mistake to make, and it’s not unusual for people to break copyright laws. However, when those laws are broken in such a way as to make a profit, it’s now a liability issue. For example, if a business decides to create a new print advertising campaign and one of the designers incorporates another artist’s work without notification or permission, this leaves the company open to “advertising injury.” This is similar to using a song without consent or other forms of copyright infringement.

Reputational Liability

It’s not just actions that can cause harm, but words as well. If an employee, document, or work of advertising from your company makes an untrue claim about another company or individual with a negative impact, that may be considered slander or libel, depending on how the message was delivered.

So if an employee of your company tells people that a competitor is about to go out of business due to criminal dealings, such as pedophilia, when none of this is true, that company would be able to undertake a lawsuit.

Get Protection

General liability can come in many different forms, but fortunately, there are insurance policies available for companies that can help to mitigate the considerable expenses—and often unexpected—costs that can arise from a sudden liability lawsuit.

Contact us

If you run a business and you’d like to have some peace of mind against liability contingencies, we can help. Contact Panorama, and we can look at your operations and determine what kind of general liability insurance will give you the protection you need.