Society has been a litigious place for decades now, and so as a business owner it is imperative to be covered by an appropriate public liability insurance policy, should a claim be made against you or your company. You only need to look at the world of car insurance to understand how much flux there is, in terms of how much you pay for cover, and how much protection certain policies provide you and your business with. In order to know how much you should be paying for cover, you first need to understand the various facets of public liability insurance.
Public liability insurance protects you and your business against any damage to property or injury to people that is caused through the functioning of your business. With an adequate policy you are covered against the cost of any legal fees associated with someone suing you. Without public liability insurance, such costs would have to be met by the money that you have in your business – out of your own pocket.
Whilst there is no law that says you have to have public liability insurance, it is the foolhardy businessperson who fails to secure appropriate cover. The cost of defending your business against a claim can easily cause your business to fold. Another factor making public liability insurance a necessity is that in some business sectors, companies have a policy that prohibits them from working with any other companies that do not cover themselves with an appropriate level of public liability insurance.
It makes total business sense to have a policy in place, and it reflects good business practice. Indeed, as a business that provides products and services to the public, it is your duty to provide protection to the public that you serve. If you are not adequately protected and your company cannot cover the costs of any damage you cause, or injury you bring about, then it is left up to the individual or the state to foot the bill. Therefore, public liability insurance becomes an ethical matter.
Whilst a business never endeavours to cause damage to another’s property, or to injure someone, accidents are sometimes unavoidable. Your business can take all the care in the world to ensure that nothing goes wrong, but it is inevitable that one day some paint is going to get spilt over a client’s expensive carpet, or, at risk of sounding cynical, someone’s going to blame your business for having tripped over something that just happened to be there as they were walking past.
