Insurance for restaurants — what to carry, and what it costs

Typically covers

• ✓Medical bills for a work injury, at rates the state sets
• ✓Part of the injured employee's lost wages
• ✓The employer too: covered employees generally can't sue over the injury

Typically doesn’t

• ✕Injuries outside work
• ✕Independent contractors, in most states
• ✕Lawsuits that get around the can't-sue trade-off — that's the employer's liability part of the same policy

Typically covers

• ✓Liability when a business vehicle injures someone or damages property
• ✓Accidents in vehicles titled to the business, driven by employees for work
• ✓The liability minimums states set for business vehicles

Typically doesn’t

• ✕Your liability when employees drive their own cars for work — that's hired and non-owned auto; the employee's own car stays on their personal policy
• ✕The freight or goods being hauled — that's cargo or inland marine coverage
• ✕Damage to your own vehicle, unless physical damage coverage is added

Typically covers

• ✓Injuries to customers, visitors, and other third parties
• ✓Damage your operations cause to someone else's property
• ✓Legal defense for covered claims

Typically doesn’t

• ✕Your employees' injuries — that's workers' compensation
• ✕Mistakes in professional advice or design — that's professional liability
• ✕Redoing your own faulty workmanship itself

Typically covers

• ✓Your building if you own it, and improvements if you lease
• ✓Equipment, fixtures, furniture, and inventory inside
• ✓The common causes of loss — fire among them

Typically doesn’t

• ✕Flood and earthquake on standard forms — separate policies
• ✕Property in transit — that's inland marine coverage
• ✕The income you lose while closed — that's business interruption coverage

Typically covers

• ✓Claims from injuries caused by a patron you served
• ✓Legal defense in dram-shop suits — lawsuits over alcohol you served
• ✓The proof of coverage many on-premises liquor licenses require

Typically doesn’t

• ✕Ordinary slip-and-fall claims — that's general liability
• ✕Fines or license penalties for serving violations, typically
• ✕Businesses that don't sell alcohol — host situations usually fall under general liability

Typically covers

• ✓The fallout of a hack or data breach — notifying customers, restoring data and systems
• ✓Claims from customers whose data was exposed
• ✓Often the income lost while systems are down

Typically doesn’t

• ✕Physical damage to property — that's commercial property
• ✕Tricked-into-wiring-money losses on many forms — social-engineering coverage is its own add-on
• ✕Breaches at your vendors, unless the policy extends to them