Public liability insurance is a type of insurance that protects you, as a business owner, against any damages or harm that might befall any members of the public whom you interact with when they are on your premises or using your equipment.
This is an important type of insurance, even for "one man band" types of businesses. Due to the fact that litigation is running rampant in the western world, and the fact that many lawyers are more than happy to take cases on contingency basis, you could be opening yourself up for a world of hurt if you are not covered.
You may think you don't have anything to worry about, but you might be surprised at the lengths people will go to in order to try and get money from a business due to injuries they supposedly suffer on a business's property.
Public liability insurance (public indemnity insurance), or professional indemnity insurance, will protect you if someone decides to trip over a piece of lint on the floor. Or, if they accidentally jam the end of a paperclip into their hand. Multiple times.
You may think you're safe, but what about if a wandering circus elephant decides to bumble onto your property and try to eat your fax machine? Or if someone chokes on one of the little mints you leave out? It could happen.
Professional indemnity insurance also covers those in other professions, such as contractors, doctors, plumbers, lawyers (yes, even them), and brokers. These individuals can be sued if they are found to be negligent in the advice they give, or perhaps fail to give. This is why this type of insurance is very important.
Just remember, people can and will sue for any number of reasons. If you are a plumber, you may have someone sue you because you forgot to tell them that they shouldn't flush twelve pounds of glue down the toilet. They probably won't win, but you never know. Stranger things have happened.
A contractor may have someone press litigation on them because they burned their house down after falling asleep with a cigarette burning but think that the fire was caused because you had the audacity to use wood beams for structural support.
While all of these scenarios may sound ridiculous, it is not too much to assume that there are members of the public who will go to any lengths to get money in unscrupulous ways. They do this by preying on business owners or professional folks if they think that they can get money from them, or if they think that they can do enough damage to make the person settle out of court to spare further expense or embarrassment. Often, these people are counting on the fact that you may find it less expensive to pay them to in effect go away.
So check into public liability insurance or professional indemnity insurance. Being covered could save you a lot of money and heartache in the long run.
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