EPLI. What in the world is that?
And here you thought I would never get into commercial policies. I tread lightly in commercial because it's not my specialty. So I'll try and keep the information solid and easy to follow. I thought a good place to start would be with EPLI. Ok, ok... it's a good place to start because another co-worker has already done the research, so I just have to blog it. Yay! So, here we go...
EPLI aka Employment Practices Liability Insurance covers businesses against claims by workers that their legal rights as employees of the company have been violated. A few examples are:
* sexual harassment
* wrongful termination
* breach of employment contract
* wrongful discipline
* failure to employ or promote
Coverages that are part of EPLI include defense cost. There are 2 types - Defense inside the limit and defense outside the limit. Let me explain those a little better.
Defense inside the limits - this means all defense costs (attorney's fees, court costs,
investigation & filing legal papers) are deducted first from the policy limit, which
cuts into the overall limit of dollars available to pay for monetary damages awarded
by a ruling.
Defense outside the limits - this means there are separate limits available for legal
defense costs & court awarded damages. With this the defense costs do not erode
the policy limits to pay settlements from a suit.
Coverage can either be per occurrence or per claims made. Let me explain these:
Per occurrence - the "occurrence" form covers losses that take place during a
specific coverage period regardless of when an incident is reported. Example:
insured has a policy effective from 01/01/19 to 01/01/20. An EPLI claim is reported
in may of 2020 for an incident that occurred in August of 2019. the claim would be
covered since the loss occurred during the policy period.
Claims-made - the "claims-made" form covers incidents that you report during an
active policy period. Note that a claim needs to have occurred after the retro date
and reported during the policy period to be covered. If it is reported after the
policy's expiration date and no extended reporting period was purchases, there
would be no coverage.
That's all clear as mud, right?
I mentioned a retro date. The retroactive date can be found on most claims-made policies an is designed to eliminate coverage for claims that took place prior to the retro date, even if the claim is fist made during the policy period.
Ok, I admit I am definitely not an expert on EPLI coverage. These are just a few parts of an EPLI policy. If you think you need this coverage, please give you agent a call. We have a couple of agents that I would consider an "expert" in all thing commercial. They will be more than happy to explain the what, why and how of this policy. But hey... you made it to the end with me! Wooo!