General liability insurance can provide protection against the resulting expenses if your business is held responsible for injuring a third party or damaging their property. When you buy a general liability insurance policy, you expect it to give you a wide range of protection. But where does it actually protect you? Here's what you can expect.

At Your Place Of Business

Your place of business is the most obvious place you'll have coverage. It's the address you put on your policy and where most of your business happens. This applies whether you own the building, rent the building, or are in a shared office space. If you have multiple locations, your policy will usually apply at each location. However, you should always double check your policy, as you may need to name your other permanent business locations in your policy.

At Client Sites

If you travel to your clients, you'll usually be covered when you're at their location as well. Most insurance companies customize their general liability insurance policies to your type of business. If you're in a traveling business—such as a contractor—you should automatically be covered when you're at each job site.

During Travel

If you need to travel, your coverage typically follows you wherever you need to go. This might include hotels, convention centers, and other meeting locations that don't belong to either you or your client. As long as you're engaged in business activities, your commercial general liability policy should cover most claims. Yet, take note that general liability insurance generally excludes incidents that occur on the road. To protect your business against liability concerns behind the wheel, it’s important to secure commercial auto insurance.

Check Your Policy

Keep in mind that your general liability insurance policy may have restrictions that limit your coverage. For example, it might exclude anything that happens in another country or state. You may only have coverage for a certain number of days at a specific location—after which you'd need to add it to your policy. Or, your policy may not explicitly exclude off-site work, but it may exclude the specific activity you're doing.

In any case, always carefully read your policy to know what particular coverage you have. For more information on general liability insurance, consult your trusted insurance agent.