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Your Employee Just Filed A Lawsuit Against You....Are You Covered?

Do you need Employment Practices Liability coverage? The answer is probably yes.  Every year there are more and more lawsuits filed against employers for charges alleging some sort of employment discrimination.  Over 40% of those lawsuits are filed against smaller employers (15-100 employees).  In most cases, those charges are for more than one type of violation.  Those violations don't need to be true, but the lawsuits are lengthy and expensive.  Allegations include discrimination based on a person's race, sexual orientation, color, marital status, creed, national origin, religion, gender, age, military service, disability or pregnancy.  Those allegations are expanding as we speak.  What is you have one employee defame, disparages or harasses another employee online?  While the employee that made the remarks is not covered, if the co-workers sues the employer for failing to prevent the harassment, EPLI (Employment Practices Liability Insurance) may protect the employer.  What about violations of the Family Medical Leave Act?  What about a Data Breach and your employee claims negligence against the employer may trigger coverage under the EPLI policy.  How about Alternative Work Arrangements, missed opportunities at promotion, violations of non-exempt employees working longer hours?  If one of these claims falls under "wrongful acts" the employer is provided coverage under EPLI.  The estimated costs to defend a case through discovery and a ruling on a motion for summary judgement can cost an employer between $75,000 and $125,000.  And if you lose the summary judgement, you can expect another $175,000 to $250,000 to take a case to a jury trial.  The median compensatory award if you lose is around $218,000.  Can your business survive that kind of payout?  Don't you at least owe yourself the time to find out what the premium would be to secure EPLI coverage?  The quote is free, the lawsuit won't be!