General Liability Insurance
General liability covers third-party bodily injury and property damage claims — a visitor injured at your office, or damage you cause to a client's property on-site. The baseline coverage most coworking spaces and client contracts require.
General Liability for Software Firms
General liability is the everyday business-premises coverage. It responds to third-party bodily injury and property damage — a client or delivery person who slips and falls at your office, or damage you accidentally cause at a client's site during an on-site engagement. It also covers personal and advertising injury like libel or slander in limited forms.
While software work is low-hazard compared with the trades, GL is still important: coworking spaces, office landlords, and many client contracts require it, often with a $1M/$2M limit and additional-insured status. It's also inexpensive for a tech firm and is commonly bundled with property into a Business Owner's Policy.
What GL Does Not Cover
Critically, general liability excludes the professional and technology services that are your actual business. A bug, a failed project, or a data breach is not a GL claim — those require technology E&O and cyber liability. Think of GL as covering the physical, in-person risks of running a business, while tech E&O covers the work itself. Most firms need both.
What's Covered
Frequently Asked Questions
Often yes — even remote developers meet clients, attend events, or work from coworking spaces that require it, and homeowner's policies exclude business activity. GL is inexpensive and frequently required by contracts and office leases, so most firms carry it.
No. GL covers physical injury and property damage, not the financial harm from your software or services. A bug, outage, or failed project is covered by technology E&O / professional liability — not general liability. You need both coverages.