General Liability Insurance

General liability (GL) is foundational business coverage that protects your company against third-party claims for bodily injury, property damage, and personal and advertising injury. Examples of what GL pays for:

• A customer slips and falls in your office or storefront
• Your delivery van scratches a client’s parked car (note: vehicle-related coverage is usually under commercial auto, but GL covers the resulting bodily-injury or property-damage exposure off the road)
• A subcontractor working on your behalf damages a client’s property
• Your business is sued for libel, slander, or copyright infringement in an advertisement
• Defense costs — usually paid in addition to the policy limit on most modern GL policies

GL does not cover damage to your own property (that’s commercial property), professional advice or service errors (that’s professional liability / E&O), employee injuries (that’s workers’ comp), or auto accidents (that’s commercial auto). Most businesses need GL plus 2–3 of those other coverages depending on operations.

In all three jurisdictions, general liability is rarely required by state law for most businesses — but it’s commonly required by:

• Commercial leases — virtually every commercial landlord in the DC metro requires tenants to carry GL at a $1M/$2M minimum, name the landlord as an additional insured, and provide a certificate of insurance.
• Client contracts — corporate, government, and institutional clients typically require vendors and contractors to carry GL.
• Professional and trade licenses — Maryland, DC, and Virginia each require GL for licensed contractors (home improvement, electrical, plumbing, HVAC) and certain other licensed trades. Coverage amounts vary by license class.
• Subcontractor agreements — general contractors typically require subs to carry GL before stepping onto the job site.
• Industry-specific licensing — daycare operators, certain healthcare providers, some retail and hospitality licenses condition issuance on GL coverage.

We pull your industry’s specific requirements and quote coverage that satisfies them.

Standard limits for small businesses in the DC metro:

• $1,000,000 per occurrence / $2,000,000 aggregate — the most common configuration. Pays up to $1M for any single claim and up to $2M total in a policy year.
• $2M / $4M — for higher-exposure businesses (construction, hospitality, real estate, anyone with significant foot traffic or premises exposure).
• Commercial umbrella — an additional $1M–$10M layer above your GL and commercial auto limits. Often inexpensive (a few hundred to low thousands per year) and the single best dollar-for-dollar protection upgrade most businesses can buy.

Many contracts and leases now require $1M/$2M GL plus $1M+ umbrella as a standard floor. We model your exposure (revenue, headcount, premises, contracts in force) and quote limits that fit.

These are two different coverages that protect against two different types of claims:

• General liability covers bodily injury and property damage to third parties caused by your operations, premises, or products. Example: a client trips over a power cord at your office and breaks a wrist.
• Professional liability (errors & omissions / E&O) covers financial harm caused by your professional advice, services, or work product. Example: an accountant misfiles a tax return, a designer’s website crashes a client’s e-commerce store, a consultant gives advice that costs a client a contract.

Service businesses (consultants, agencies, IT, financial professionals, healthcare providers) typically need both — GL for the slip-and-fall and the client-laptop-damage scenarios, E&O for the bad-advice scenarios. We bundle both when it makes sense and quote each separately when carriers price them better apart.

No. GL covers claims by *third parties* against your business — it does not pay for damage to your own building, inventory, equipment, computers, furniture, or business property. That’s commercial property insurance (separate coverage), often packaged with GL into a Business Owner’s Policy (BOP) for small businesses.

GL also doesn’t cover:

• Business income loss if you have to close after a covered event (business interruption — usually part of commercial property)
• Employee injuries (workers’ compensation)
• Auto accidents in business-owned or hired vehicles (commercial auto)
• Cyber attacks, ransomware, data breach (cyber liability)
• Professional service errors (professional liability / E&O)

We help you map which coverages your specific operation actually needs and avoid paying for what you don’t.

Yes. Most small businesses benefit from a Business Owner’s Policy (BOP) — a packaged policy that combines:

• General liability
• Commercial property (building, contents, equipment)
• Business income / business interruption
• Optional add-ons: cyber liability, employment practices liability, equipment breakdown

BOPs are usually 10–20% less expensive than buying each coverage separately and are eligible for most service, retail, office, and light-industrial businesses with under $5M in revenue. Larger or more complex operations move to a Commercial Package Policy (CPP) with more customization. Because we’re independent, we compare BOP quotes across multiple A-rated carriers — typically $750–$3,500/year for a small office or service business, depending on revenue, headcount, and operations.

Call us at 301.468.9600 for a side-by-side comparison.