One Claim Should Not End Your Business

General liability insurance responds when a customer, vendor, or visitor holds your business responsible for bodily injury, property damage, or personal injury. MJM Global sizes your GL coverage to your real operational risk — not a template pulled from a shelf.

What Commercial General Liability Insurance Actually Covers

General liability insurance — often called GL or commercial general liability — is the foundational coverage that responds to third-party claims arising from your business operations, your premises, and the products or completed work you deliver. It is not a catch-all, but for most businesses it is the first line of defense against the claims most likely to reach them.

 

A standard commercial general liability policy typically addresses:

 

  • Bodily injury to a customer, visitor, or third party on your premises or as a result of your operations
  • Property damage caused to someone else's property during the course of your work
  • Personal and advertising injury, including claims of libel, slander, or copyright infringement in your marketing
  • Products and completed operations liability, covering claims that arise after a product is sold or a job is finished
  • Medical payments to injured third parties, regardless of fault, to resolve minor claims before they escalate
  • Legal defense costs, which are typically covered in addition to the policy limits rather than drawn from them

 

What GL does not cover is equally important to understand. It does not respond to claims between your business and your own employees, damage to your own property, or professional errors. Those exposures require separate coverage — workers' compensation, commercial property, and professional liability, respectively.

How GL Exposure Varies by Industry

General liability is not a uniform risk. A slip-and-fall claim at a restaurant looks nothing like a completed operations claim against a contractor or a product liability suit against a manufacturer. The coverage structure, the limits, and the endorsements that matter most shift considerably depending on what your business actually does.

 

At MJM Global, we work across a wide range of industries and we build GL programs around the exposures that are specific to each:

 

  • Restaurants and food service: premises liability, liquor liability exposure, and products liability for food-related claims
  • Real estate and property management: slip-and-fall exposure across multiple locations, tenant property damage, and advertising injury
  • Contractors and builders: completed operations coverage, additional insured requirements from general contractors, and project-specific limits
  • Staffing agencies: third-party liability tied to placed workers performing operations at client sites
  • Manufacturers and distributors: products liability, completed operations, and recall exposure across complex supply chains
  • Auto body shops: garage operations liability, customer vehicle damage, and environmental exposure from shop operations

 

If your business operates in one of these verticals, general liability coverage structured for your industry looks meaningfully different from a standard policy issued to a generic "business." We review your operations, your contracts, and your client requirements before recommending limits or structure.

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When a Business Owners Policy May Be the Right Starting Point

If your GL needs go beyond what a BOP can accommodate — higher limits, broader endorsements, industry-specific exclusions — we build a standalone commercial general liability program around your actual risk profile, not a packaged default.

Common Questions About General Liability Insurance

  • Does my business need general liability insurance?

    Most businesses do, and many are required to carry it. If you operate out of a leased space, work under client contracts, interact with the public, or hold any professional license or permit, general liability coverage is almost certainly a condition of one or more of those relationships. Beyond contractual requirements, any business that could face a claim from a customer, vendor, or third party has meaningful exposure that GL coverage is designed to address.

  • How much general liability insurance do I need?

    The right limit depends on your industry, your operations, the contracts you sign, and the requirements of your landlord or licensing authority. A $1 million per occurrence / $2 million aggregate policy satisfies many standard requirements, but businesses in construction, healthcare-adjacent services, government contracting, or high-traffic retail often need higher limits. MJM Global reviews your specific obligations and exposure before recommending a limit — not after.

  • What is the difference between general liability and professional liability?

    General liability responds to third-party claims involving bodily injury, property damage, and certain personal injury offenses tied to your operations or premises. Professional liability — also called errors and omissions insurance — responds to claims that your advice, service, or professional work caused a financial loss to a client. Many businesses need both, particularly those that provide a service or deliverable that clients rely on to make decisions.

  • What does "additional insured" mean, and why does it matter?

    An additional insured endorsement extends certain protections under your GL policy to another party — typically a landlord, general contractor, or client — named in a contract. When a third party requires additional insured status, they are asking to be covered under your policy if a claim arises from your operations. Failing to add a required additional insured can put you in breach of contract and leave a claim unresolved. MJM Global reviews additional insured requirements as part of every GL placement.

  • Is general liability insurance the same as commercial general liability?

    Yes. General liability insurance and commercial general liability insurance refer to the same coverage form. The full term — commercial general liability, or CGL — is the industry-standard policy language used by carriers. You will see both terms used interchangeably in contracts, certificates of insurance, and policy documents. What matters is that the policy form, limits, and endorsements are structured correctly for your specific business and its obligations.