Liability insurance is a common part of many types of insurance coverage. For instance, your auto and homeowners policies both certainly include liability components. It is also a significant part of many business insurance plans to help protect companies from legal action. If you’re unfamiliar with this type of coverage, here’s what you need to know.

What Is Liability Insurance?

Liability insurance pays for repairs and medical bills if you should accidentally injure someone or damage their property. For example, if you are to blame in an automobile accident, your insurer must pay to repair any dents to the other driver's vehicle and cover any hospital bills if the driver or passengers suffered injuries.

Liability insurance also pays for any legal bills arising from the accident. These include lawyer fees, court costs, and judgment or settlement amounts. Your home insurance policy features similar coverage that pays for events like slip-and-fall accidents on your premises, dog bites, or damage your child causes by hitting a baseball through a neighbor's window.

What Types of Liability Insurance Are There?

As mentioned above, both home and auto insurance policies feature liability coverage. Car insurance typically breaks it down into two parts—bodily injury and property damage liability.

Business insurance also provides various types of liability coverage. For instance, general liability covers slip-and-fall accidents or damages you cause by backing a truck into a client's porch. Product liability coverage pays for damages or injuries caused by a defective product you have sold or manufactured.

Professional liability coverage—also called malpractice insurance—pays for financial losses your client or patient has suffered due to errors in your professional capacity as a doctor, lawyer, accountant, or business consultant.

To have a friendly, experienced agent help you design an insurance policy that meets your needs, contact Daniel Oliver Insurance Agency in Edina, MN. They have served Hennepin County and Greater Minneapolis for more than 30 years. In addition to liability insurance, they also specialize in auto, home, business, and life insurance. Follow their Facebook for updates and tips, call (952) 925-4454 to speak to an agent, or visit the website for a free quote.