It’s clear that general liability exposure is substantial for nearly every type of company. If you can think of a situation where your business or employees would be directly or indirectly responsible for the safety or property of others, you’re exposed! In short, general liability insurance protects your cannabis company from some of the basic risks associated with running a business.

These include:

• ‘Slip and fall’ claims: A customer visits your coworking space and trips on a power cord. She hits her head on the way down and is out of work during an extended hospital stay.
• Property damage: You stop by your client’s new space with pastries and coffee. On your way through the office, you accidentally spill your officewarming gifts onto some high-end computers and monitors, not to mention the brand new carpet.
• Products liability: Your hydroponic supply company has sold 1,000 water pumps. Suddenly reports come in that a manufacturing defect is causing the pumps to overheat and malfunction. Customers have lost significant portions of their stock. In a few cases, the pumps ignited a fire which caused substantial property damage. You’re sure that, since the pumps were manufactured in China by a Chinese company, you’re off the hook. Your lawyer disagrees (and is probably right).
• Damage to rented space: You close down the office for a holiday weekend without realizing you left a space heater on. It’s not the best heater: a fire starts and destroys most of the office. Your landlord sues for the damages.
• Personal injury: While talking with a customer, you make a regrettable comment about your competitor that you wish you could take back. Unfortunately the competitor finds out about the insult, considers your comments to be defamatory and calls his lawyer.
• Advertising injury: In a massive social media marketing campaign, you use a catchy tag line to get people’s attention. It works! But unfortunately you accidentally plagiarized another company’s content and they take issue.