If someone becomes injured at your home due to any kind of unintentional mishap, the liability provision of your homeowners’ insurance policy generally will cover any personal injury claim. Even if your guest files a personal injury lawsuit against you, you’re still entitled to protection under your policy. Here is what to do if there is a guest injury in your home.
Injury Liability Coverage for an Injured Guest
Contact your insurer immediately and ask about your liability coverage. If you have proper coverage, this policy will cover all of the injured person’s medical expenses, lost income, pain and suffering, and other damages up to your specific limits. It may also cover the defense in case of a lawsuit.
If there has been any kind of incident at your home or on your property, and there is a possibility that an injury claim might be filed and you may need to call upon your homeowners’ coverage, the first step is to inform your insurance company about the incident.
Know your Legal Defense Options
An added benefit of having a homeowners’ policy in place is that you may be entitled to legal defense and have an attorney appointed or paid for to handle any lawsuit that occurs from the underlying incident. Therefore, hiring your own lawyer most likely won’t be needed, as hiring a personal injury lawyer can be very expensive.
Negligence, Strict Liability and Intentional Torts
Most injuries to guests at your home will be covered under your policy, and most are likely to be in regard to accidental incidents (governed by the legal concept of negligence). For instance, a slip and fall accident is an incident that would be governed by negligence, meaning that the injured person would need to prove that you were at fault because you somehow failed to keep reasonable care of your property, free of hazards, under premises liability standards.
However, keep in mind that there are some cases where the individual may be able to make a third-party claim under your homeowners’ policy without needing to prove that you were somehow at fault. It will depend on state laws and the specific incident.
Household injuries to guests are not uncommon, whether it be a slip and fall, a dog bite, or anything else. Accidents are sometimes inevitable, and you will need proper protection to cover your assets. Make sure that you have adequate insurance in place and contact your insurer as soon as possible after an incident occurs.
About Sine Insurance
At Sine Insurance Group, we are dedicated to providing you with custom tailored insurance policies to protect your assets. Our comprehensive packages have been expertly crafted to serve St. Louis and the surrounding areas for the past 25 years. For more information about our products, contact us today at (855) 700-0889.