Why it matters for your company
Whether an incident counts as bodily injury decides which policy answers. A robot arm striking a visitor is bodily injury under general liability. A technician of yours hurt the same way is a workers' compensation claim, because general liability excludes injury to your own employees.
Most policies define the term to include mental anguish only when it flows from a physical injury. For a company whose machines work around people, the definition is less contested than the exclusions around it: autonomous operation, aircraft, and products that have left your hands.
Related terms
- General liabilityThe policy that responds when your business operations or products injure someone outside the company or damage property you do not own. It is the first line most contracts and leases require.
- Products and completed operationsThe part of general liability that covers injury or damage caused by a product after it leaves your hands, or by work after you have finished it. It usually carries its own aggregate limit.
- Employer's liabilityThe second part of a workers' compensation policy, which covers suits by employees or their families that fall outside the state compensation system. It carries its own limits, often asked for in customer contracts.
- Product liabilityLegal responsibility for injury or damage caused by a product you designed, made, sold or distributed. In insurance it is answered mainly by the products and completed operations part of general liability.