Public Liability Insurance - What is it and Who Needs it

If you are a business owner who likes to think ahead, you will want to be prepared for any eventuality, especially if your line of business requires you to deal with people on a daily basis. Accidents inevitably happen, and when they do, Public Liability insurance can be the only thing protecting you from the sometimes unbearable costs of legal claims against you.

Public liability is a type of business insurance designed to protect and cover businesses across industries should a client or member of the public claim to have been injured or had their property damaged because of your business activities. While public liability can arise from many circumstances, the main one is negligence. Say, for example, that you have a damaged step on your premises that you were planning on fixing soon and a customer trips on it - they can then sue you for their injury. If an electrician sets up a faulty wiring system in a house that causes damage to the neighbourhood electricity system, that is a public liability issue as well and if the electrician is not insured, there can be costly legal action filed against them.

In such cases, public liability insurance will cover claims made against your business by either clients, contractors or members of the public for any accidental injury or damage to their property. If your business is found responsible, your insurance policy will then cover legal fees, compensation payouts and other associated costs for you. If you are interested in purchasing a public liability insurance policy, you might want to consider how much it could actually cost to repair possible damages, as well as the extent of compensation claims may have. You also need to take into account how much you interact with the public and how risky your industry is, and then decide on your coverage level accordingly. 

So while public liability insurance is not obligatory for business owners, having comprehensive cover against any possible mishap can effectively ease your mind and better enable you to focus on the daily tasks you need to perform for your business to thrive.

 

Rozalina Georgiou,

August 9th, 2021

Limassol