General liability is the policy a landlord, a city permit, or a general contractor asks to see. It responds to injury and property damage you cause to other people. It is not property insurance for your own building, and it is not workers' compensation.
What it covers
Bodily injury and property damage liability from your operations, your products, and your completed operations, as the form defines them. The defense of a covered claim. Personal and advertising injury, such as a covered libel claim, when that coverage is on the form. Medical payments for a small injury, at a small limit, on many forms. An additional insured endorsement when a contract requires it and the company will add it.
What it doesn't cover
Your employees' injuries. Your own tools, inventory, and building. Professional mistakes in advice, design, or medicine. Autos you own or use on the road. Intentional injury. Damage to your own work, in the way the faulty-workmanship exclusions describe. A contract that assumes someone else's sole negligence, unless the form and the endorsement allow it.
Florida specifics
Nothing in a Florida statute makes every business buy general liability. Contracts do. A Jacksonville storefront lease, a Clay County bid, and a homeowner hiring a remodeler all ask for a certificate. The limit on the contract is the limit we have to match. We do not invent a higher one, and we do not ignore a lower one the landlord wrote in.
Wind and flood are not general liability topics. If you also own the building, that is commercial property.
How we help
Bring the lease or the bid, the description of the work, and last year's sales if you know them. We shop general liability and, when the firm is small enough, a business owners policy that includes it. Start a business quote and check the liability coverage, or call either office. If someone is waiting on a certificate today, call. Do not email a job site and hope.