Liability insurance protects you financially if someone sues for injuries or property damage you cause. It is typically included with auto and home policies, but is also available separately.

As soon as someone in your household begins driving, turns 16 or moves out, it is imperative that they inform their insurance provider. This will impact both rates and coverage options available.

Business Liability Insurance

Business liability insurance (also known as Commercial General Liability (CGL) or Business Owners Policy) protects small businesses against costly lawsuits. Should someone slip and fall in your store or allege that the products or services you sell have caused harm, this coverage helps cover legal fees, judgments or settlement costs up to your limit; limits can either be aggregate amounts or per-occurrence limits.

Property damage liability covers property damage to third-parties such as breaking windows at client homes while working there and personal injuries like slander and libel; it also extends to employee injuries covered by workers’ compensation insurance as well as your business property covered by commercial property insurance policies. It doesn’t however cover your employees or cover their injuries covered by workers’ comp insurance; nor can it provide coverage for your own business’s property insured with commercial property policies.

Certain clients and agencies may require you to have this type of coverage before working with them; your landlord might even require it if you lease office space. It’s usually tax-deductible, and can usually be obtained in conjunction with policies like commercial property and workers’ comp. You may also purchase it as an individual policy – though in such instances, it’s essential to understand aggregate and per-occurrence limits, otherwise your insurance company won’t cover additional claims even if they become more costly.

Auto Liability Insurance

Car liability insurance provides financial security when an accident caused by you injures someone else or damages their property, covering their medical bills, repairs or replacement costs and may even cover lost income if they cannot return to work after being hurt in an accident. Most states (but not all) require you to carry at least some form of auto liability coverage in order to legally drive.

Choose to purchase higher limits than required by your state – even though this will incur more cost, as purchasing maximum coverage could help safeguard you against costly financial loss.

Most auto liability policies include both bodily injury and property damage protections. Bodily injury coverage provides coverage for medical expenses, legal fees and lost wages associated with an accident; property damage covers repairs or replacement costs to other people’s cars or property such as fences, buildings and phone poles damaged as a result.

Some auto insurance providers provide uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage as an add-on to their standard liability coverage. These coverage options pay for your injuries and vehicle damages when hit by drivers without sufficient auto liability coverage, while also covering your deductible costs – often making this option cheaper than purchasing it separately.

Homeowners Liability Insurance

Homeowners liability or personal property coverage as it’s known in older policies (HO-1 and HO-2) covers damage done to other people’s property by you or members of your household, as well as legal costs incurred to defend a lawsuit and settlement agreements – this does not, however, cover medical bills of yourself or members of your household.

Personal liability coverage is typically included as part of any home or condo insurance policy, usually listed on the declarations page alongside your property coverage limit. Most policies typically offer up to $300,000.00 of bodily injury liability and up to $250,000 in property damage to other people, though higher limits can usually be added as an add-on.

Liability claims can arise from accidental accidents. For example, your child might throw a ball through your neighbor’s window or bite someone visiting from outside your home; liability coverage will cover any medical costs or repair or replacement costs up to the policy’s limit, states Hippo.

If an injured party decides to sue you for pain and suffering, homeowners liability insurance may cover legal fees and court costs up to your policy limit. With an umbrella policy covering excess of standard homeowners policies limits, this doesn’t need to be a worry.

Boat Liability Insurance

When purchasing boat insurance, it is essential to find an insurer with expertise in marine coverages who understands the specific risks associated with boats. Reach out to other boaters for recommendations before choosing an insurer; also assess how claims are managed at each company you consider.

Liability insurance for boats typically provides coverage against damages to other vessels or structures like docks and pilings as well as injuries to people on the water. Furthermore, most policies cover any cost incurred to clean up oil spills or other third-party environmental damages caused by an incident with your vessel.

Physical damage coverage protects your boat against events that could result in its loss or damage, such as fire, windstorm, theft and vandalism, explosions and falling trees and debris. It typically also provides collision coverage that pays to repair collisions between vessels or submerged objects like rocks and logs.

Some policies offer agreed value loss settlement, a method of insuring your boat at its actual cash value (ACV) rather than its replacement cost which takes depreciation into account. Medical payments coverage helps pay for first aid, ambulance and hospital costs in case of an accident regardless of fault; comprehensive coverage typically protects items like fishing equipment and personal belongings while onboard.