General Liability Insurance Coverage for Small Business
 

General Liability and Property Package coverage is the most basic type of commercial insurance and is limited to liability claims of bodily injury or property damage.  Coverage is provided for accidents on your premises or at your customer’s location. You and your employees are covered if, for example, you physically damage a client’s server. Some client contracts also refer to these policies as Comprehensive Commercial Liability. It is important to remember that these policies exclude errors and omissions type claims related to the delivery of your professional services.

All tech companies without exception should carry general liability insurance coverage for small business because it is not only needed, but is usually very affordable. General Liability coverage protects against covered lawsuits alleging "bodily injury", "property damage", "personal injury" (defamation of character such as slander and libel), "advertising injury" and "damage to leased premises."(Note: "personal injury" and "advertising injury" coverages are not provided for tech companies in the business of advertising, publishing, or broadcasting).

Please note that the General Liability coverage does not protect against the types of lawsuits that are covered by a Professional Liability policy (Errors & Omissions). It is absolutely essential that all tech companies carry Professional Liability insurance in addition to General Liability.
 
Potentially general liability coverage claims for a tech company include:

• A customer has a slip and fall accident on your premises and sues you for negligence
• You throw a cigarette in a trash can that starts a fire that causes $100,000 of damage to the landlord’s building
• Your programming or code that controls a machine malfunctions resulting in bodily injury or property damage to a third party
• You make a disparaging remark about a competitor and you are sued for slander