Illinois Employment Practices Liability Insurance

The number of lawsuits filed on behalf of employees against their employers is rising. Claims vary from sexual harassment to wrongful termination to discrimination and many other serious charges.

Can your small business afford an ongoing court case? Are you prepared to settle with a former employee, often times for hundreds of thousands, if not a million dollars or more? Ouch. The financial impact alone would be staggering, let alone the hit to your business’s reputation.

But fear not. There is protection available for your business. At R.C. Keller & Company we pride ourselves on protecting local small businesses. Our Employment Practices Liability Insurance, or EPLI, will protect you from all variety of employee-based lawsuits:

Your policy will protect you against the following kinds of employee lawsuits:

• Breach of employment contract
• Deprivation of career opportunity/failure to promote
• Discrimination
• Emotional distress
• Mismanagement of employee benefits
• Sexual harassment
• Wrongful termination
• And many more!

Why EPL Insurance?

This coverage is liability insurance designed specifically to protect your business from potentially devastating personnel claims. A standard Business Owners Policy (BOP) provides liability insurance for bodily injury and property damage, but not for damage done to your reputation. Employment Practices Liability Insurance, however, will pay your court costs, win or lose. It also will reimburse your business for any judgments or settlements.

Please note that all such policies operate on a claims-made basis. That means the policyholder is only covered if the protection was purchased prior to the incident and at the time the claim is filed.

EPLI Makes You Less Susceptible To Lawsuits

The number one reason for choosing this coverage for your Illinois small business, however, isn’t to reap the benefits of reimbursement. With EPL Insurance, we here at R.C. Keller & Company will help you by reviewing your employment practices and make recommendations to reduce your risk!

Education is key to reducing your risk for a lawsuit, which is why we offer the following help and guidance to all our clients:

• Help to create effective hiring and screening processes that will decrease the likelihood of discrimination in hiring practices
• We will review your employee handbook to ensure its clarity and effectiveness
• Review documentation strategies – Hint: Document everything! From the steps you have taken to prevent workplace discrimination to run in or incidents and the steps your business is taking to settle disputes
• Create a guideline for how your employees are to respond to sexual harassment and what steps to take in reporting it. Remember, your company needs to take a hard stance on the topic: Sexual harassment is not acceptable!

Further, we want to help you avoid the situations in the first place, by helping you understand the law. As an employer, you need to be aware of the following:

The Equal Pay Act of 1963, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Civil Rights Act of 1966, the Immigration and Reform Act of 1986 & the American with Disabilities Act of 1990, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act

Choose R.C. Keller & Company For Your EPLI

All businesses are susceptible to lawsuits. While you might think it is the bigger businesses who are more likely to be sued by a disgruntles employee, it is actually the small businesses and start-ups who are most at risk.

Why? Because you probably don’t have a full-time legal team working for you or an HR staff to monitor your hiring practices. That is where we come in. Our EPL Insurance is here to protect your Illinois business from employment-based claims.

We are a full serviced Trusted Choice Insurance Agency. We have protected the residents and business of Schaumburg and Park Ridge since 1910. We offer a full array of Personal Insurance, Business Insurance, and Life Insurance products. Call us today at 847-907-4520.