Public Liability Insurance

Which businesses require PLI?

Injuries and accidents can occur when you least expect them when you are working. Sometimes they occur as a direct result of your work, but more often than not, members of the public simply fall victim to the circumstances in which you work.

If there’s a chance that you could hurt a member of the public whilst working for a client, you should consider seeking public liability insurance.

Public liability risk

Public liability insurance will cover you if someone is injured or suffers an accident as an indirect result of your work. A child who injures him or herself sneaking on to a building site at night is an obvious example.

If members of the public are often visiting your place of work, you could face public liability if you are in charge of the premises. This could account for anything – if you own a pub, club, or shop, it’s natural that you would frequently have members of the public on your premises. Any of those customers could slip or trip over, and sue you for causing them an injury.

There are other business owners that could face public liability that they would not expect. Someone running a hair salon might be more worried about professional indemnity than public liability, being sued for damaging a customer’s hair or injuring them with some of the more dangerous instruments in a hairdresser’s arsenal.

However, you could be cutting a customer’s hair when her young son trips over a piece of equipment in the salon and breaks his elbow. The salon owner could be held accountable for public liability, even if he or she wasn’t in the salon at the time.

Public liability out and about

For a self-employed individual who doesn’t operate on public premises, there are still a number of risks that could be covered by a public liability insurance policy.

A photographer is a good example of an individual who might find him or herself publically liable. A member of the public could trip over a photographer’s equipment, or the photographer could knock a member of the public over while completely focused on a shot.

Tradesmen are frequently at risk of public liability claims – if a plumber were to accidently cause a leak, they would be held liable if water leaks and damages the customer’s carpet or destroys their computer. A tradesman could just knock over something valuable while they are moving or setting up their equipment, and public liability insurance would cover them.

Not covered by public liability

Public liability insurance will not pay out to cover any criminal charges brought against a claimant, nor will it cover the insured against a claim for a defective product or an injury to an employee.

Product liability insurance and employer’s liability insurance can guard against the latter types of liability claim. However, public liability will protect against plenty of other difficulties that you or your business could face.

Get advice from a qualified independent advisor on public liability insurance

The implications of business bankruptcy

Business bankruptcy is usually considered only as a last resort for companies who have no other option but to liquidate their business.

A guide to commercial banking

Commercial banking is an important part of the UK economy, and promotes economic growth and development in a number of key ways.

The central role of business contracts

Business contracts are essential to all business transactions to ensure that both parties are aware of their rights and responsibilities.