Employers Liability Insurance – Covers both Employer and Employee

All businesses are required to have employers liability (EL) insurance. This particular business insurance covers compensation costs and any legal fees incurred if an employee falls ill or gets injured at their place of work. Furthermore, employer liability insurance will also protect the employer if the employee dies at their place of work. There are few exceptions when it comes to obtaining this type of insurance; one employee operations (sole proprietor) and businesses that employ immediate families are not obligated to secure this type of liability insurance. However, if you employ anyone other yourself or immediate family members, it is mandatory for you purchase employers liability insurance by law.

Employers liability insurance is a legal obligation in many countries of the world, such as the USA, Britain and many others.

The protection employers liability insurance offers is great. In the event of an accident, and your employee(s) decide to sue you, the legal and medical fee will be covered by your insurance provider.

When covered by an employers liability insurance, part or whole of the costs of a claim may be covered for you. This depends upon the factor as to who was responsible for the accident in the first place. If it was your employee himself, you don't have to worry about the costs any further.

Note again that employers liability insurance is a legal obligation. If you did not get it, you can be punished under the law and may have to pay a fine for each day that your employee(s) were not covered. In fact, a health and safety agency may even shut down your business.

In addition, your liability insurance certificate has to be displayed and accessible in your place of business. Your employees have to able to see it and access it. Some other highly visible places to display a copy of your certificate is the information board of your building, or have an electronic scan of the certificate on your website.

EL insurance does not cover public. It only covers your employees. In the event a customer or third party is injured on your premises, your commercial/public liability coverage will cover the costs if legal action is taken.

Furthermore, EL insurance does not protect your from discrimination claims, wrongful terminations claims, harassment claims, etc.

The insurance provider you get insurance coverage from must be authorized. Otherwise, you are breaching the law anyway. Make sure you take out the time to compare the costs of various insurance providers before signing up with any particular one.

The beauty of EL insurance is that it protects you from having to directly pay costs in the event an employee is injured on the job. It protects both you, by being able to cover any costs without going out of business, and the employee, who may be unable to work temporarily.

About the author: Ben Ashfalk knows a lot about employer liability insurance and liability insurance coverage.