Louisiana Business Insurance

General liability insurance in Louisiana is one of the most important forms of small business coverage because it helps protect your business from accusations of injury and property damage.

This coverage helps your company pay for expenses if someone says that your company’s actions caused injury or destroyed property. General liability insurance also assists with lawsuit costs if you are sued for damages, and many commercial landlords require that tenants carry this protection.

Here’s an example of how general liability insurance in Louisiana could help a small business:

A homeowner in New Orleans’ Garden District claims that an employee of a plumbing company damaged a hardwood floor while repairing a sink. General liability insurance in Louisiana helps the plumbing business reimburse the client to replace the floor up to the policy’s limits.

If you own a cleaning or construction company, business insurance in Louisiana might include tools and equipment coverage, which helps repair or replace work gear that is damaged, lost or stolen.

With a few exceptions, Louisiana requires businesses with employees to carry workers’ comp coverage.²

If an employee gets hurt on the job, workers’ compensation insurance in Louisiana helps the injured person cover medical expenses and recoup a portion of lost wages. A company risks a potential lawsuit if it fails to provide workers’ comp insurance in accordance with state law.

For instance, a worker at a Shreveport-based welding firm is hurt by a falling object at a job site and requires an ambulance and an overnight hospital stay. Workers’ comp coverage helps the employee cover these medical expenses, as well as some lost wages during recovery.

State law mandates all drivers in Louisiana to carry auto insurance that covers a minimum of $30,000 in damages.³

Personal auto insurance is unlikely to help pay for business-related accidents, which is why Next recommends that many business insurance bundles in Louisiana include commercial auto coverage. If someone at your company has an accident in a company-owned vehicle, commercial auto insurance will help cover injuries and property damage costs up to the policy limits.

For example, an employee of a pressure washing business in Lake Charles has an accident while commuting to a job in a company-owned truck and injures another driver. Commercial auto insurance helps the roofing business pay for the other driver’s medical bills and damages to the vehicles.

Small business owners might sometimes ask employees to drive their own vehicles for work or rent them. A commercial auto coverage upgrade called hired and non-owned auto insurance helps pay for accident damages in vehicles that aren’t titled to your business.

Allegations of work mistakes, missed deadlines and incomplete projects can disrupt normal business operations.

Professional liability coverage, which is also known as errors and omissions (E&O) insurance, helps your business deal with these sorts of claims, including some lawsuit costs.

For example, a client says that a self-employed IT consultant in Baton Rouge failed to properly configure a network, which caused a work delay that led to lost revenue. The client’s legal team threatens a lawsuit to recover the financial damages.

E&O coverage would help the consultant pay to settle the claim out of court. It would also help cover attorney fees, court costs and any settlements if the case ended up in front of a judge.