What Sort of Claims Are Covered by Public Liability Insurance?

Firstly, It’s important to know what sort of claims are covered under Public Liability (PL) insurance.

Why? Well, it may help you to understand if your particular business may need PL insurance. Perhaps, it may need more than just PL insurance. However, it can be tricky to determine because every business is unique. Not to worry. In this blog, we will set out a few claim examples that establish what may be covered under Public Liability Insurance.

The following examples are likely to suggest a PL insurance claim:

1. Customer slips and falls

After mopping the floor in your shop, a customer slips and falls. They injure themselves. A claim of this nature is likely to fall under Public Liability (if you pardon the pun). Basically, a member of the public has suffered injury on your business premises. Our advice, purchase ‘wet floor’ signs if you own a store.

2. Customer is injured from a product defect

Naturally, this relates to the product. You import and sell a product that you don’t realise is defective. A customer gets injured as a result of the defect. For example, you import and sell outdoor chairs. A customer purchases a chair who later falls from it due to the chair leg collapsing. This results in the customer injuring their back and having to take time off work and also incurring medical costs.

3. Accidental breaks of a client’s property

If your business involves being around client’s property, watch your surroundings. A claim could occur from taking that one physical step too far. For instance, your job is to clean a house and you accidentally break a client’s vase. Better get the dustpan and brush. Public Liability insurance claims may seem to cover a wide range of scenarios. However, there may be claim scenarios that may not be classed as a Public Liability.

Claim examples that aren’t covered

For example, an employee falls off a ladder in your warehouse breaking their shoulder. You, as employer, would be required to take out a workers compensation policy. Why?

In order to cover the medical costs. Similarly, Professional Indemnity insurance may not cover you if you ever provide professional advice that later may cause damage or loss. An example being an architect. They may offer structural advice that’s misleading to a builder resulting in damage to a building later on.

In short, the solution to these two examples would be to obtain workers compensation insurance and professional indemnity insurance. More can be found by reading our blog things public liability doesn’t cover .

Summary

Overall, many claims may fall under Public Liability. However, there are many factors to think about. The list can be long. Ultimately, it depends on your business. Some businesses might want to invest more on professional indemnity policy. Or workers compensation on top of a Public Liability policy. Above all, seek professional insurance advice.

FD Beck has a free online insurance quoting tool tailored for contractors, consultants or freelance professionals. In fact, our online calculator has almost 150 professional occupations to choose from. FD Beck’s online PL insurance calculator offers limits options of $5,000,000, $10,000,000, and $20,000,000. Better still, our online calculator includes other products such as PI and Cyber Insurance. That’s just to name a few.

For over 100 years, FD Beck has protected Australians. Rest assured, we have the knowledge and expertise to handle every aspect of your insurance needs.

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