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What is the Public Liability Insurance Market?

Keith Koons
Keith Koons

The public liability insurance market is a group of bankers that provides accident insurance for businesses. These types of policies are in place in order to protect a business from legal action that could result from any type of injury to another person or entity. This would not only include obvious cases like when a customer becomes injured while inside the business, but it would also cover instances where someone suffered from the company's products or services. Most businesses around the globe are required to carry some type of accident coverage, which is why the public liability insurance market is so diverse.

When the public liability insurance market analyzes a business in order to determine what liabilities may exist, a comprehensive study is undertaken that could require several weeks to complete. Many products available to consumers could pose various types of health risks, and even when printed warnings are in place, the business is normally held responsible. Once each and every factor is considered, the public liability insurance market would place a value on the coverage. The business can then accept the coverage or contact another company.

Businesswoman talking on a mobile phone
Businesswoman talking on a mobile phone

In many industries, a business is not allowed to even open its doors to the public without contacting the public liability insurance market and enrolling for coverage. Manufacturers in particular are forced to pay enormous premiums because automated machinery poses such a risk to employees. Businesses that carry food products or any type of chemicals also carry a high liability since they could unintentionally make a customer ill. Since a single occurrence could result in hundreds of thousands of US Dollars (USD) in medical bills, this is normally a substantial operating expense for small businesses.

A public liability insurance market policy is well worth the investment in most cases. For example, an operator of a storage facility would not appear to have serious liabilities since he only rents empty spaces. If the property were to catch on fire or become burglarized, however, that owner would be responsible for reimbursing each renter for the value of his lost property. Since these costs could easily exceed what the business is actually worth, the public liability insurance market adds a layer of financial security.

Other types of claims against the public liability insurance market could involve actual injuries to shoppers while they are on the business's property. If a customer tripped and fell in a parking lot, in most regions, the business is 100-percent liable for that person's medical expenses. The same would be true for anything that happened once the consumer was inside the store, even if the incident had nothing to do with the business in question.

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      Businesswoman talking on a mobile phone