Employment Practice Liability Insurance (EPLI)

Employment practices liability insurance (EPLI), an add-on to general liability insurance, can help cover costs if your business is sued by a customer or an employee for things such as sexual harassment, discrimination or wrongful termination.

An EPLI policy could help cover your legal fees if an employee (or several employees) accuses you of unfairly terminating them, or if a customer accuses you of violating their rights.

Employment practices insurance can also help pay for legal expenses associated with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance complaints. For example, if a claim is filed that you don’t have proper wheelchair access to your front door, EPLI could help.

An EPLI policy can help to protect your small businesses from the costs of lawsuits involving:

• Harassment

• Discrimination

• Wrongful termination

• Breach of employment contract

• Negligent evaluation

• Failure to hire or promote

• Wrongful discipline

• Deprivation of career opportunity

• Wrongful infliction of emotional distress

• Mismanagement of benefits

• Wrongful discipline or demotion

• Privacy invasion

Small businesses may be more vulnerable to harassment or discrimination claims because they don’t usually have a human resource department, legal staff or employee handbook.

If your small business is sued by a customer, employee or former employee, employment liability coverage is a type of liability insurance that could help cover your legal defense costs, and the costs of a settlement or judgement.

Some of the more common kinds of claims covered under an EPLI policy include:

• Sexual harassment

• Wrongful termination

• Discrimination

EPLI can cover business owners, managers and employees. It’s an optional add-on to your NEXT general liability policy.

You need to have an active policy at the time the incident occurred, and when the claim is filed.

EPLI can help with legal costs around some lawsuits that affect your business, but it does not cover all types of incidents, including:

• Physical injuries (bodily injury)
• Property damage
• Intentional or criminal acts
• Contractors or 1099 employees
• Wage and hour claims
• Equity compensation

EPLI will also not cover claims if you don’t have an active policy when you receive notice of a claim — even if you had EPLI when the incident occurred.

To have coverage, your policy must be in effect when the claim is made and the incident must occur after the retroactive date in the policy. You’ll also need to notify NEXT within the reporting period.

EPLI policies often don’t cover punitive damages or civil or criminal fines.

What you’ll spend on EPLI coverage depends on a variety of factors, such as:

• The type of work you do

• Number of employees

• Your claims history

• Your work experience

• The limits you choose

• The state where you work

And if you bundle EPLI and general liability insurance with an additional policy, such as workers’ compensation insurance, you could save up to 10%.

Get a free quote for EPLI online to see specific costs for your business.

Workers’ comp insurance can help protect your employees from work-related injuries and illnesses such as medical costs, job retraining, physical disabilities and more.

EPLI can help you pay legal fees for professional discrimination claims against your business. It can help to protect your business from employee accusations of unfair treatment — which is not covered by workers’ comp.

Compare EPLI with workers’ compensation insurance.

NEXT has EPLI as an add-on for general liability insurance.

You can buy NEXT EPLI insurance with general liability coverage 100% online in about 10 minutes.

Simply start a free quote to see options for your business. We’ll ask you a few questions and recommend coverage options.

If you like what you see, you can adjust the package limits and buy online. You’re insured immediately after payment, and you’ll have access to your certificate of insurance at no extra cost.

Start a free EPLI quote with NEXT.