You run a childcare facility and you know that childcare facilities can be sued for a variety of reasons. To protect your interests you buy liability insurance policy, but insurance policies are often difficult to understand, so do you really know what is covered and what is not?
Generally, if you have a general liability insurance policy, your insurance company will defend you if you are sued and will pay some or all of the damages awarded against you. However, every insurance policy has exclusions. Exclusions are reasons why your insurance company can deny your claim and refuse to pay. If an exclusion applies, the insured, the owners or the directors (depending on the type of business entity) may be liable to pay damages awarded to the suing party. Therefore, it is very important that you understand what is covered and what is excluded. Aside from reading and understanding the policy yourself, the best source of information is your insurance agent or the insurance company itself.
What are the policy exclusions?
Every policy has exclusions. “This policy does not cover injuries caused by employees who are not properly licensed” is a typical exclusion. If your policy has such an exclusion and an unlicensed employee causes an injury to a child, the child’s claim will not be covered.
Is my policy a General Liability Policy or a Professional Liability Policy, and what is the difference in the coverage?
A General Liability Policy will usually suffice if it does not have too many exclusions, but a Professional Liability Policy often has broader coverage. If your business is one requires that you to have a license, such as a childcare facility, you may prefer a Professional Liability Policy.
This blog post was archived on March 17, 2017 and is only available for Enterprise clients