General liability insurance

[KevinD]

It was brought to my attention today that my policy was for:
300,000 each occurrence with a 1,000,000 aggregate

What is the norm for today's sue happy society?
300K, 1M
500K, 1M
1M, 2M

 

[J Scott W]

If you do much commercial work, especially for any nation chains or franchises, they will likely require 1M, 2M.

For residential work, your coverage seems OK.

Scott Warrington

 

[Rex Tyus]

The higher your "coverage" the more likely you are to get sued. Most ambulance chasers work for a percentage of the scam (award settlement). They are not as eager to go after an O/O's assets as they are an insurance company. They will do it if the case is strong enough and the assets are valuable enough. But the risk of lawsuit is higher with the more coverage you have. It can be tricky selecting enough coverage to protect yourself without having so much as to invite trouble.

 

[bubba]

I carry 5 million coverage, also includes excess liability, income protection, freezing, theft, blow ups and my deductible is only $100.00. Never once have I had to use it, but having good insurance is good financial planning.

I also carry comm. auto insurance instead of personal.

Also, on your auto & liability policies, make sure you have the max. amount for Medical Payments.

Example of how great this is...

I was rear ended in May 2007 by a drunk driver. I was in my truck pulling one of my cargo trailers. I carry full coverage. I had right at 5k in medical bills. My Comm auto medical payments kicked in and paid the first $5k in bills. My Liability policy kicked in and paid another $5k directly to me and then my personal auto policy medical payments kicked in and paid $5k directly to me. Then when I settled the claim, I collected more money. This is why it's important to have a Commercial auto policy and a personal policy.

On a business policy 5k is usually the max for medical payments.
On business liability common is 10k.
On personal I carry 250k Medical payments.

Insurance is the best investment you can make.

 

[Outnumbered]

So who is a good company and what are the typical premiums?

Thanks

 

[breathe72]

You'd have to hit up one of your local contractors/small biz owners/CC'ers to see whos using who, etc They can usually point you in the right direction to an AGENT, who will then set you up with the policy you'd need.

We did a hotel last summer (I was not on the job) and a 91 yr old woman slipped on our wet carpet and fell down the stairs, sustaining injuries to her hip back & shoulder. She was carted off in an ambulance. No wet floor signs were used by my guys. It didn't help that they were double-stroking everything at 600 psi, with no dry-passes, and were too lazy to drag out the air movers...

Nothing came of it. She was traveling and went back home.

Then, out of nowhere, last week I get put on notice that she has 14K of medical expenses, and is being represented by an attorney, and they are pinning it on my company. 6 months after the fact.


This is why I carry insurance.

Oh and now the wet-floor signs come out of our van BEFORE any other tool.

 

[TimP]

I carry 300 k since I do residential mostly. I don't see how I could ever cause more damage than that while working in a customers home. Or even a business, it's not expensive to go up if needed and would to get a job if the need should arise. However if I was to get sued there is nothing above the insurance since I'm in debt up to my eyeballs. I would suggest keeping more than what you feel is enough if you aren't broke. I keep insurance to be legitimate but nobody is going to scam me since I'm broke. I carry .5 mil on my vehicle but the lease company requires it.

 

[The Preacher]

1 mill/2mill here , it's only $865yr through Auto Owners ins.

 

[Fon Johnson]

I have a 1mil/2mil aggregate through Erie. Erie does a lot of commercial policies like this. The local broker I use can write policies for most states. If anyone is interested, pleas PM me and I can give you the contact information. These folks are GREAT to work with (saved my butt more than once when i forget a bill or don't get one) and Erie is a good company. The best thing is that their rates are really reasonable.

 

[Outnumbered]

Thanks for the help. When I get this thing off the ground I'll be calling and getting some quotes.

 

[Mountain View Carpet Care]

I have a one million for $35 a month.