People and operations
What does employment practices liability insurance cover? Coverage for claims brought by employees and applicants, including wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, and retaliation.
Employment practices liability insurance responds to the claims that come from the people who work for you rather than the people who buy from you. The core allegations are familiar: wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, failure to promote, and increasingly claims tied to hiring practices and workplace conduct. General liability policies do not cover these, and workers compensation covers injury rather than employment decisions.
Defense cost is the reason most businesses buy it. Even a claim that goes nowhere consumes attorney time, and employment matters have a way of lasting long enough to become a real number. Policies are usually written on a claims made basis, which means the coverage that matters is the one in force when the claim is made rather than when the conduct occurred, and that makes continuity and retroactive dates important during any change of carrier.
Exposure concentrates during change. Layoffs, restructurings, rapid growth, and management turnover are when documentation gets thin and process gets skipped, which is exactly when claims get filed. Clean, consistent, contemporaneous documentation is both good management and the best defense evidence there is.
Heard on the show. Jessica works through this one in How Leaders Turn Turbulent Layoffs Into Risk-Ready Strategy, with the full story and the transcript.
This page is education, not advice. Policy language varies by carrier, form, and state, so confirm how your own program is written with a licensed insurance professional.
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