Regardless of what else they might know about the United States legal system, most adults and even many children know, from either their own experience or the mass media, that “anyone can be sued.” In the context of commercial risk management for landscaping businesses, this generalization can be restated as “every organization has liability loss exposures.” A loss exposure is any condition or situation that presents a possibility of loss, whether or not an actual loss occurs. In terms of liability, a liability loss is any loss that a person or business sustains as a result of a claim or suit against that person or business by someone seeking damages or some other remedy permitted by the law.

For example, any landscaping business with an office could be sued for injuries resulting from a dangerous condition on the office property. Holding the office open to the public for business therefore creates a liability loss exposure because having persons on the property presents the possibility that such a suit could occur.

Other examples of loss exposures for landscapers include bodily injury or property damage caused by lawn mowing operations, vehicle accidents, breach of contract, general negligence, intentional torts, strict liability torts, contributory negligence, libel and slander, interference with property rights, trade disparagement, unfair competition, fraud, nuisance, vicarious liability, liability based on statutes, and many other cases.

Liability losses can range from small nuisance claims to multimillion-dollar judgments. Improperly handled or covered by insurance, liability loss exposures can result in losses that prevent a business from reaching its goals and can even bankrupt the business. For landscaping businesses, the best way to manage liability loss exposures is through effective risk control and risk financing. Risk control techniques are intended to prevent liability losses from occurring or to reduce the amount of liability losses that do occur. Risk financing techniques provide ways of paying for losses that actually occur and the most cost effective way of doing this as a landscaper is through purchasing appropriate insurance to cover your exposures.

The Agent Articles section of BearWiseLandscapers.com allows our insurance agents to provide practical information for landscapers. These agents can also obtain quotes and establish a custom insurance program for your landscaping business through our access to a variety of insurance carriers. This agent article is filed under 1 General Liability, 2 Commercial Auto, 5 Umbrella Liability, and you can follow comments to it through the RSS 2.0 feed. Feel free to leave your own response below: