Straight From The Source Blog by Higginbotham Insurance

Dealing with contracts and insurance requirements can be tricky business. Things can get especially dicey when dealing with contractual liability exclusions, additional insureds, “insured contracts” and other intricacies of the contract process.

Liquor is big business – but it can also be a big liability. According to The Drinks Business, U.S. alcohol sales reached $253.8 billion in 2018. At the same time, alcohol is associated with health problems, drunk driving and other serious risks – and businesses that sell alcohol may be held liable.

There’s no question that eventually, a disaster will strike your business. The real question is whether you’ll be prepared. According to FEMA, 40 to 60 percent of small businesses never reopen after a disaster. Don’t be part of this statistic. Take the following four steps now to make sure you’re prepared for potential disasters and to manage whatever crises develop in the aftermath.

Every year, fire consumes thousands of businesses. Some never recover. In 2018, fire departments in the U.S. responded to approximately 1,313,500 fires resulting in $25.6 billion in direct property loss, according to the National Fire Protection Association.  

Insurance rates are rising across most lines of business. This means that your company’s insurance rates may be going up – even if your claims are low. Or, you may find that there are exclusions in your commercial insurance coverage that are important to have covered. You may also see that deductibles are increasing while your premiums are also increasing. If you’re finding yourself in this situation, you may be looking for a new strategy that will help you keep your insurance costs contained and improve your overall risk management program. That strategy might be captive insurance. 

At least 11 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws allowing recreational marijuana, and many other states have legalized medical marijuana. Despite this state-level legislation, marijuana remains illegal at the federal level. This has put many employers in a difficult position, caught between federal and state laws, and with the situation evolving rapidly. 

Your company’s contracts may be exposing you to unnecessary risk. When your company does business with subcontractors, suppliers and other third parties, a poorly worded contract could shift liability to you for losses that you have no control over. To shield your company from losses stemming from third-party acts and claims, your attorney must include proper indemnification provisions in your contracts.

Does your company hold personal data on New York residents? If so, you may need to comply with a new law that creates data security and data breach reporting requirements. New York’s SHIELD Act is designed to protect New Yorkers against data security risks, and non-compliance will come at a cost.

In 2016, the FMCSA and DOT released a final rule on the Commercial Driver’s License Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse. Since then, employers have had time to get ready. Now that time is up. The compliance date for the Clearinghouse rule is Jan. 6, 2020.

A common insurance requirement in commercial contracts of all types (construction, energy, real estate, etc.) requires at least one party’s liability insurance to be “primary and noncontributory” to the other party’s liability insurance coverage. Those not well-versed in insurance policies may interpret this language to mean that one party’s liability insurance coverage will pay any and all claims arising from the contract, without limit – so that the other party’s liability insurance would never respond, regardless of the size of claim. If this interpretation was accurate, it would result in great confusion in contracts where both parties’ liability insurance are required to be “primary and noncontributory.” This incorrect interpretation often leads parties to a contract wanting to delete the term “and noncontributory” from the compound requirement “primary and noncontributory” because they think it means their insurance policy will provide unlimited coverage to the other party – but that is not the case.