“The Need For EPLI Coverage Has Never Been Greater!”

It doesn’t matter if it’s television coverage, newspaper coverage, or any one of a hundred different websites reporting, some of the most followed stories in the past six months or so have been stories of harassment in the work place. There probably have been more reports of this nature in the past year, than there have been in the last forty years. With all the emphasis that has been placed on this, if your company has employees, it would be financially reckless not to have an Orange County Employment Practices Liability Insurance Policy in force to protect your company should a claim be filed against your business.

In presenting this type of insurance coverage, explaining that having an Employment Practices Liability Insurance Policy can provide protection for their business, often our clients and prospects seem to have difficulty in understanding just how valuable this coverage can be to their company’s overall insurance program.

What Is Employment Practices Liability Insurance And What Is It For?

CA Employment Practices Liability Insurance, or as we refer to it as “EPLI”, is professional liability insurance that covers certain employment related claims made by employees. Often, company owners view this particular insurance coverage as an unwanted expense and not important in their overall insurance plan to protect their assets and company. Considering the amounts that have been paid out with these types of claims this past year, and with the average settlement amount rising, they couldn’t be more wrong.

Considering just how litigious the environment can be these days, acquiring an Employment Practices Liability Insurance Policy should be an important part of your overall insurance program. Just stop and consider what would happen if a disgruntled employee filed what you would consider a meritless claim, how much the attorney’s fees could be just to settle this dispute? It could easily run in the thousands, if not well over a hundred thousand dollars, depending on the case. We understand that, as a business, your policy is to be as fair and non-discriminatory as humanly possible, but age gaps and gender, along with some old bad habits that refuse to die, could lead to miscommunications, and having an EPLI Policy can serve as a first and last line of defense against employment claims.

What Kind Of Incidents Can An Employment Practices Liability Insurance Cover?

An Employment Practices Liability Insurance near Mission Viejo Policy may cover such incidents as emotional distress, workplace discrimination, hostile work environment, wrongful workplace harassment, or wrongful termination of an employee. When talking with business owners on why acquiring this type of insurance coverage would greatly benefit them, here are a couple of examples: One of your managers harasses or discriminates against one of your employees for one of many reasons; this happens every day. Or your worst nightmare, the manager sexually harasses either an employee or a client.

What Is Included In A Labor Practices Liability Insurance?

In looking back over the past few years, these types of lawsuits have been steadily on the rise; and considering what is happening in the country regarding harassment these days, having this type of insurance coverage makes good business sense. Also, the average payout for these types of claims are rising and now are over six figures. In determining the insurance premium for Employment Practices Liability Insurance, there are numerous factors that go into what the final premium will be including what it is your company does, the total number of employees you have, and, extremely important, whether your business has ever been sued before over employment practices in the past and whether any claims were paid out.

Having no claims will definitely help in keeping your premium at an affordable price. Generally speaking, Employment Practices Liability Insurance policies will reimburse your company against the costs of defending a lawsuit in court and for settlements and judgments depending on what the state laws allow. This type of insurance policy can cover legal costs whether your business wins or loses the lawsuit that was filed against it. One area that you should be aware of, is that Employment Practices Liability Insurance policies generally do not pay for punitive damages (unless where allowable by law) or civil or criminal fines. Other liabilities covered by additional insurance policies, such as workers’ compensation, are excluded from Employment Practices Liability Insurance Policies.

We trust that your company already has guidelines in place to handle reports of any kind of harassment should a complaint come forward. It’s important to have these guidelines in place, but also to make sure that there are follow-up procedures, as well. Here is a scenario you don’t want to happen to your company: An employee feels they have a legitimate complaint. They follow the guidelines, first, reporting it to their immediate supervisor, then following up with Human Resources, and if the guidelines call for it, with senior management. Now this employee did everything they were supposed to do, so now the ball is in the company’s court, so to speak. Now if your company doesn’t do the proper follow-up and deal with the complaint in a timely manner, you could find yourself facing a top law firm demanding potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars, and due to your failure to respond, it could mean a huge loss for your company. That is why it is imperative, in this new environment we work in, to have the proper procedures in place to, hopefully, prevent the situation getting out of control.

Even if every procedure is followed, there is always a chance of it ending in a claim, but considering the high cost of legal fees, it would be in your company’s best interest to have Employment Practices Liability Insurance in place.

At PJO Insurance Brokerage, the experienced and professional brokers have access to various Employment Practices Liability Insurance carriers who can provide coverage for your company’s employment situation. We look forward to working with your company in the near future.

Written By:

PJO Insurance Brokerage – Patrick O’ Neill

107 Via Estrada, Unit A
Laguna Woods, California 92637

Office: 949-236-0971
Email: Patrick@PJOBrokerage.com
Website: https://pjobrokerage.com/california/