Personal Injury
What is Personal Injury Coverage?
Personal Injury is a legal term that refers to inflicting harm on a person, including physical, mental, or emotional, caused intentionally or by the negligence of another person or entity. Most homeowners insurance policies already provide coverage for bodily injury under the policy’s liability portion. However, the liability coverage does not cover non-physical injuries such as slander, libel, etc. Today, with our new norms and online presence, personal injury is a very valuable endorsement to include on your homeowner’s insurance policy.
What Does a Personal Injury Endorsement Cover?
Personal injury can cover things that injure a business or person that you may post about on social media. For example, you had a bad experience at a restaurant. You felt that an employee was rude to you. Instead of telling the manager about the poor experience, you bash the business online. Maybe the person didn’t even work there. But now, since you’ve injured that business due to false allegations, you could be liable for damages, and they can sue you. That’s why it’s so important that if you ever write a poor review, you stick just to the facts and don’t insert your opinion. It’s best if you don’t leave negative remarks online, but that’s another story. Here is a story about a Dallas couple who had a falling out with a wedding photographer, People Magazine.
Personal injury can also cover you if you are speaking with someone inadvertently. For example, maybe you work at a doctor’s office, and after work, you’re talking with a friend about something that happened at work. Due to HIPPA, you never mention a name. But at the end of the day, your friend figures out who the person is and spreads that information. Now you’ve personally injured someone.
Another good example involves social media again. Maybe you’ve heard something in your community that’s flabbergasting, but you don’t know all the facts. If you go online and begin spreading that information, you harm an individual in your community based on hearsay. You can also be sued for that.
Hanby Helps
Personal injury is an endorsement. It’s not very expensive; it usually runs about $20-$30 per year. It’s added to your homeowner’s insurance policy and would cover you if you were ever sued for unintentionally sharing misinformation. If you ever intentionally share or post false things, there is no coverage for that. We think personal injury is a very good endorsement to have. It’s not very expensive; if anything ever comes up, it would help cover your legal fees and save your bacon. If you have any questions about this endorsement, please contact us. Hanby Helps!