The Lawsuit That Has Nothing to Do With a Slip and Fall
Most Greenwood business owners have a pretty good handle on general liability insurance. Someone trips in your store, your policy has you covered. But there’s a whole category of risk that catches employers off guard because it doesn’t involve a customer at all, it involves their own employees.
American Business Insurance fields this question more than you’d expect: “Wait, my general liability policy doesn’t cover that?” No, it doesn’t. And that gap has a name.
What Employment Practices Liability Actually Is
Employment practices liability insurance, EPLI for short, covers claims that come from your own workforce. Think wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, retaliation. These aren’t hypothetical scenarios dreamed up by insurance companies looking to sell another policy. They’re the kinds of disputes that pop up in businesses of every size, every single year, across Indiana.
“But We’re a Small Business, Surely This Doesn’t Apply to Us”
This is the exact assumption that gets small business owners into trouble. Larger corporations have HR departments, documented procedures, layers of review before any termination decision gets made. Smaller Greenwood businesses often don’t have that same infrastructure, which honestly makes an employment-related claim more likely, not less.
A few scenarios worth thinking about:
- A former employee claims they were let go because of their age, not their performance
- An employee alleges a coworker’s behavior created a hostile environment
- Someone claims they were passed over for a promotion unfairly
- A disciplinary action gets challenged as retaliation for a complaint
None of these require a big company or a dramatic villain. They just require two people who see the same situation completely differently, and a lawyer willing to take the case.
Why the Legal Bill Alone Can Hurt
Here’s the part that surprises people most: even when a business wins, or the claim gets dropped entirely, the legal defense costs are already spent. That’s money out of pocket regardless of outcome, and for a small operation, that alone can be a serious hit.
Worth a Conversation
If you’re running a business in Greenwood, IN and you’ve never actually asked whether your coverage includes this, it’s worth fifteen minutes to find out. American Business Insurance can walk you through what’s currently in your policy and where the gaps might be. Check out our commercial insurance page or give us a call to get the conversation started.
