As a New Jersey business owner, you may be confused by the numerous and varied types of insurance available to your company and wonder which are vital to keeping your business well-protected. Many business owners are unclear about what coverage Personal and Advertising Injury Insurance provides and whether they need it if they already have General Liability Insurance and/or Errors and Omissions Insurance. If you’re one of them, contacting Blue Lion Insurance Advisors, LLC is the right move.
Because we are brokers rather than representatives of any particular insurance company, we have the freedom to focus on getting you the right policies at the right price no matter which company provides them. Our only goal is to make sure that your business insurance coverage is
Blue Lion Strong™. Our well-respected insurance advisors can be reached at (732) 649-1600 or contacted online.
What is Personal and Advertising Injury Insurance?
Some insurance policies are designed to protect your company from loss of concrete items, such as furnishings, equipment, vehicles, and inventory. Others, like Personal and Advertising Injury Insurance, are meant to protect you from intangibles, such as errors in judgment or mistaken actions.
Personal injury in this context includes:
- False arrest, detention, or imprisonment (deprivation of freedom without cause)
- Malicious prosecution (legal action without cause)
- Invasion of privacy
- Wrongful eviction
Advertising injury, on the other hand, includes:
- Infringing on another’s copyrights, advertising designs, slogans, or intellectual property
- Defamation through slander (oral) or libel (written) channels
- Disparagement of goods (false statements about products or services)
No matter what the size or type of your business, you don’t want to be liable for either of these kinds of errors without sufficient insurance. If you are held legally accountable for losses due to any of these actions, you may be on the hook for damages so substantial that they threaten your company’s financial stability, not to mention its reputation.
Examples of Personal and Advertising Injury Claims
To illustrate the risk of personal and advertising injury claims, let’s take a look at some examples:
- Retail Store Theft in which an innocent shopper is erroneously apprehended for shoplifting and held until police arrive, and perhaps even arrested
- Commercial Landlord Eviction in which a commercial tenant is falsely accused of causing damage to the property and becomes the victim of a wrongful eviction process
- Copyright Infringement in which your business unwittingly uses copyrighted words or images on its website
In any of these cases, Personal and Advertising Injury Insurance will keep your company from suffering serious financial consequences by paying not only for any damages you are required to pay if the verdict goes against you, but also attorneys’ fees for your defense team.
Exclusions from Personal and Advertising Injury Insurance Policies
It is important to be aware that Personal and Advertising Injury Insurance policies, like all types of insurance policies, have exclusionary provisions. In other words, no insurance policy offers limitless coverage. Common exclusions from Personal and Advertising Injury Insurance policies are purposeful violations of the rights of others, such as:
- Deliberately participating in a false arrest
- Knowingly published false material that is slanderous or disparaging
- Engaging in an illegal or criminal act
Also excluded from Personal and Advertising Injury Insurance policies are:
- Materials published prior to the effective date of the policy
- Accidental false or inaccurate advertising — e.g printed pricing errors, exaggeration of equipment performance
It should also be noted that if your business is part of the media/internet industry, or operates an electronic chat room or bulletin board, you will require a policy specially tailored to your level of exposure.
Contact New Jersey’s Experienced Insurance Advisors Now
Don’t take unnecessary risks when it comes to the business you have worked so hard to build. Get in touch with our highly capable professionals today to make sure your business has all the insurance it needs to be fully protected from internal as well as external dangers.