Comparative negligence and claims against your business insurance

California businesses are subject to more regulations than companies in many other states. Protecting yourself from the many potential forms of liability and financial risk from doing business means carrying specialized business insurance.

You probably already have insurance policies in place to protect you from product defect claims or premises liability claims if someone falls in your store. Carrying that insurance can help protect your company, but big claims could still lead to financial consequences for your business.

Companies may want to defend against large insurance claims to keep their coverage costs low. Learning about the concept of comparative negligence could help you defend against a large insurance claim that might affect your business.

What is comparative negligence?

Sometimes, one party is clearly at fault for a situation. They broke the law or engaged in clearly reckless behavior, such as not addressing a known issue with a product or their business facilities. Other times, while there may have been a minor issue caused by the business, the person who got hurt clearly played a major role in what happened.

For example, maybe they tripped and fell because they texted the whole time they walked through your store and didn’t pay attention to their surroundings. Maybe the issue with the product was not a normal consequence but a result of them handling it improperly because they were incredibly drunk at the time.

When the person making a claim against your company’s insurance is partially or largely to blame for the outcome, that could affect what they received from insurance or in a civil lawsuit. A comparative negligence defense can help you diminish the financial consequences of an insurance claim. While it won’t necessarily prevent a claim, comparative negligence can diminish what someone receives if they helped cause the issue.

Learning about California’s fault laws can help you plan an insurance defense strategy.