JWC offers coverage for:

	Professional liability insurance
	Products and completed operations
	Fire legal liability
	Medical payments
	Premises liability
	Employer’s liability insurance, employee benefits liability and employment-related practices liability

With a business owners policy, your small business can get property insurance, liability insurance, crime coverage and additional protection, built into one convenient package.

Our insurance for small business owners works to protect you from:

	Property claims
	Equipment breakdown
	Income loss
	Professional liability claims
	Products and completed operations claims
	Fire legal liability claims
	Premises liability claims

Why do I need general liability insurance?
Property damage, bodily injury and personal injuries can happen at any time during group or business activities. Emergency Room traffic and news reports are enough to remind us of that every day. A variety of unfortunate incidents related to your business operations can happen during the course of normal, everyday operations on premises, through advertising, and even with purchased products or services. You need to be protected.

JWC Insurance
1-949-916-5210
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Workers Compensation

State law requires that every employer provide Worker's Compensation insurance for their employees. This insurance provides coverage for accidents or disease arising from employment as prescribed by these state laws. Benefits can include lost wages, medical expenses, and permanent disfigurement disability payments.

Workers' compensation laws are designed to ensure payment by employers for some part of the cost of injuries, or in some cases of occupational diseases, received by employees in the course of their work. Worker's compensation legislation requires the employer to furnish a reasonably safe place to work, suitable equipment, rules and instructions when they are reasonably necessary, and reasonably competent foremen and superintendents. The employer is liable for an employee's acts of negligence, for the employer's own gross negligence, and for extraordinary risks of work. In most cases the employer is not liable for accidents occurring outside the place of work, or for those which have not arisen directly from employment.

State workers' compensation statutes vary by state. The Federal Employment Compensation Act covers non-military federal employees or those workers employed in some significant aspect of interstate commerce. These laws also provide benefits for dependents of those workers who are killed because of work-related accidents or illnesses. Some laws also protect employers and fellow workers by limiting the amount an injured employee can recover from an employer and by eliminating the liability of co-workers in most accidents.

Other statutes provide similar protection to employees for injuries due to employer negligence, such as railroad employees under The Federal Employment Liability Act (FELA), and seamen under The Merchant Marine Act (the Jones Act). The Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act (LHWCA) provides workers' compensation to specified employees of private maritime employers. The Black Lung Benefits Act provides compensation for miners suffering from "black lung" (pneumoconiosis).

An employer who was aware of the likelihood that his employee will be injured in the performance of his work unless precautions are taken for his safety but deliberately fails to take such precautions, is liable for willful misconduct. Willful misconduct by an employee may bar recovery under workers' compensation laws. Willful misconduct is judged according to the facts in each case, but generally amounts to more than negligence or gross negligence, and may be quasi-criminal. For example, one court held that an employee’s acts of sexual harassment constituted "intentional and willful misconduct" under the Worker's Compensation statute. It found that the employee "knew what he was doing was wrong" and yet he persisted. The employee’s behavior was labeled "voluntary, crude, and unprofessional" and it was determined that there was a sufficient basis for finding that the employee’s behavior rose to the level of moral turpitude that could be called "intentional and willful."

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E & O Insurance

What is Errors & Omissions Insurance?
Errors and Omissions Insurance protects your company from claims if your client holds you responsible for errors, or the failure of your work to perform as promised in your contract.

Coverage includes legal defense costs - no matter how baseless the allegations. Errors and Omissions Insurance will pay for any resulting judgments against you, including court costs, up to the coverage limits on your policy.

Errors & Omissions Insurance coverage extends to both W2 employees and 1099 subcontractors, and can be worldwide in scope.

Who needs E&O insurance?
The best-known professionals who need E&O insurance are doctors, lawyers, accountants, architects, engineers, etc. However, less thought about individuals range from advertising agencies to commercial printers, Web hosting companies to wedding planners. If you are in the business of providing a service to your client for a fee, you have an E&O exposure. You may want to consider what will happen if the service is not done correctly or on time, and it costs your client money or harms their reputation.

When do I need Errors and Omissions Insurance?
We generally recommend Errors & Omissions Insurance be at the foundation of every company’s insurance portfolio. Usually it is wise to purchase the coverage prior to product launch, or when you have customers.

Why do I need Errors and Omissions Insurance?
Don’t Be Fooled. Professional Liability - Errors & Omissions Insurance - coverage is not provided by a Commercial General Liability policy. Commercial General Liability does NOT provide coverage for errors, contract performance disputes or any other Professional Liability issues.

Companies who have General Liability without Professional Liability - Errors and Omissions Insurance -coverage are taking a serious risk. It’s like a doctor practicing medicine without Malpractice Insurance.

Mistakes Happen. Every company messes up at some point. You Can’t Be Everywhere. Sometimes you can’t personally handle every job. Errors and Omissions coverage insures not only your mistakes, but also the mistakes of the employees and Independent Contractors you hire.

Most Importantly: Errors and Omissions insurance might save you from extreme embarrassment, a lost client, or worst of all, a bad reputation.

Who needs E&O insurance?
The best-known professionals who need E&O insurance are doctors, lawyers, accountants, architects, engineers, etc. However, less thought about individuals range from advertising agencies to commercial printers, Web hosting companies to wedding planners. If you are in the business of providing a service to your client for a fee, you have an E&O exposure. You may want to consider what will happen if the service is not done correctly or on time, and it costs your client money or harms their reputation.

The cost of E&O insurance may vary greatly depending on the class of business, location, claims experience (both of the individual insured and of the industry they are in) and from insurance company to insurance company. An insurance company that is very competitive on insurance agents or real estate agents, may not be competitive, or may not even offer coverage on business consultants, even if the consultant works with real estate or insurance agents.

An insurance company underwriter may ask for copies of contracts, a description of quality control procedures, documentation procedures, training procedures, etc., or they may want nothing more than a completed application.

The underwriter will not only look at your experience to see if you have had claims, but they will also try to determine the reason you haven't had claims. Is it luck or are you doing something that prevents the claim in the first place? And if you have had claims, what steps have you taken to ensure that the same errors will not continue to occur?

Here are some steps you can take to mitigate claims:

	Always have a written contract that spells out what will be done, what will not be done and what the fees will be.
	Communicate throughout the job and keep the expectations realistic.
	Have quality control procedures in place and use internal and external audits to check them.

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Property Casualty

Business Property Insurance - Protect What You Work Hard For

JWC’s business property insurance protects your business, from a minor hiccup to a major financial loss. Whether you own your building, lease your workspace or work at home, we will protect your business’ physical assets. When disaster strikes your business, JWC is the commercial property insurance company to turn to for superior coverage:

	A fire could destroy your building and the contents inside
	A burst water pipe could damage your documents, drawings or other valuable papers
	A storm could damage your outdoor sign

That’s why business property insurance is one of the most important investments ensuring the future of your business. JWC even has you covered if you have commercial or rental building property to protect:

	Your building
	Your outdoor sign
	Your furniture and equipment
	Your inventory
	Your fence and landscaping
	Others’ property

Property insurance provides protection against most risks to property, such as fire, theft and some weather damage. This includes specialized forms of insurance such as fire insurance, flood insurance, earthquake insurance, home insurance or boiler insurance.

Property is insured in two main ways - open perils and named perils. Open perils cover all the causes of loss not specifically excluded in the policy. Common exclusions on open peril policies include damage resulting from earthquakes, floods, nuclear incidents, acts of terrorism and war. Named perils require the actual cause of loss to be listed in the policy for insurance to be provided. The more common named perils include such damage-causing events as fire, lightning, explosion and theft.

Fire insurance coverage
There are three types of insurance coverage. Replacement cost pays the cost of replacing your property regardless of depreciation or appreciation. Extended replacement cost will pay over the coverage limit if the costs for construction have increased. This generally will not exceed 25% of the limit. Actual Cash Value provides replacement minus depreciation. When you obtain an insurance policy, the coverage limit established is the maximum amount the insurance company will pay out in case of loss of property. This amount will need to fluctuate if homes in your neighborhood are rising; the amount needs to be in step with the actual value of your home. In case of a fire, household content replacement is tabulated as a percentage of the value of the home. In case of high value items, the insurance company may ask to specifically cover these items separate from the other household contents. One last coverage option is to have alternative living arrangements included in a policy. If a fire leaves your home uninhabitable, the policy can help pay for a hotel or other living arrangements.

What does property insurance cover?
Some policies offer property insurance coverage for basic equipment like the building structure, furniture, inventory, equipment and supplies. There are also policies that insure money, securities like lost revenue or cash on the premises and hard to replace records.

The perils that property insurance covers are:
Known perils
Multiple perils

Known or named perils are fire and theft. Most of the insurance companies offering multiple peril coverage include theft as well as fire. The named peril policy will cover losses caused by the dangers mentioned in the policy where as the multiple policy covers all perils except those that are mentioned as excluded in the policy.

Usually most businesses get multiple risk insurance that compensates for a Business Owner's Policy. Sometimes business insurance also includes two types of additional (optional) coverage to provide insurance coverage for property - Business interruption insurance and extra-expense insurance.

The business interruption insurance provides protection for lost salaries, debts, taxes and for any loss of profit for any damage to the business. On the other hand, extra-expense insurance covers the cost of relocating your business as a temporary arrangement as a result of a covered peril.

What types of property do I need to insure?

Your business may not possess all the following types of property, but you can use this list to make sure that you have considered all the property categories and any insurance coverage that may be warranted:

	Buildings and other structures (owned or leased)
	Furniture, equipment and supplies
	Inventory Money and securities
	Records of accounts receivable
	Improvements and betterments you made to the premises
	Machinery Boilers Data processing equipment and media (including computers)
	Valuable papers, books and documents
	Mobile property such as automobiles, trucks and construction equipment
	Satellite dishes Signs, fences, and other outdoor property not attached to a building
	Intangible property (good will, trademarks, etc.)
	Leased equipment

Some common additional coverage's for business property include (although this list is by no means all-inclusive):

Boiler and Machinery Insurance

Even if you do not own a boiler, you may need this coverage. The term "boiler and machinery insurance" is gradually being replaced with terms such as "equipment breakdown" or "mechanical breakdown" coverage. This insurance provides coverage against the sudden and accidental breakdown of boilers, machinery or equipment, including computer systems and telephones/communication systems. Coverage usually includes reimbursement for property damage, expediting expenses (e.g., express transportation charges), and business interruption losses.

Builders Risk Coverage

This covers buildings in the course of construction. Depending on the policy, this coverage can be for either the building's value at the time of loss or its full value at the time of completion.

Building Ordinance Coverage

Provides coverage when a community has a building ordinance stating that when a building is damaged to a specified extent (usually 50%), it must be completely demolished and rebuilt in accordance with current building codes rather than repaired. Special attention is required when establishing the amount of insurance.

Business Interruption Insurance

This covers the loss of earnings as a result of damage or loss of business property. Reimbursement for salaries, taxes, rents, and other expenses plus net profits that would have been earned during the period of interruption can be included.

Commercial Crime Coverage

This covers money and securities, stock and fixtures against theft, burglary and robbery both on and off the insured premises and from both employees and outsiders.

Debris Removal Coverage

Covers the cost of removing debris after damage from fire or other covered peril that requires debris removal before reconstruction of the damaged building can begin. This is not part of fire insurance coverage and must be added as an endorsement.

Fidelity Bonds

This covers business owners for losses due to dishonest acts by their employees.

Glass Coverage

This provides coverage for glass breakage such as store windows and plate glass on office fronts.

Inland Marine Insurance

Primarily covers property in transit such as from warehouse to warehouse or warehouse to retail store, as well as other people's property left on your business premises, such as clothes left at a dry cleaning business or an employee's personal effects left in the company locker room.

Insurance for Loss of Lease Income or Value

This covers the loss of income when rental property is damaged or destroyed and the loss of value when the owner of the rental property also used some of its space for business. If the tenant of the destroyed or damaged building is forced to rent space elsewhere at a higher cost, this is called loss of lease value.

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Employment Practices Liability Insurance

RECENT UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT RULINGS

Employers are liable for a supervisor's sexual harassment even if no adverse employment action was taken against the employee and even if the employer had no knowledge of the harassment. An Employer has no affirmative defense when a supervisor’s harassment culminates in a tangible employment action. Employees may win discrimination suits without direct evidence of an Employer’s illegal intent. Employees protected by the Age Discrimination in Employment Act can sue their employer for age discrimination if a practice, policy or employment criterion has a disproportionate adverse impact on older workers, even if the employer did not adopt the practice or policy with an intent to discriminate.

INTERNET LIABILITY

The NJ Supreme Court ruled an employer may be liable for workplace harassment resulting from e-mail postings if it fails to take remedial action.

WRONGFUL TERMINATION

Four employees who were fired after being video-taped eating candy that had been damaged in shipping were awarded $20 million after suing for wrongful termination and libel because the company used the videotape in a training film.

RETALIATION

A manager who claimed she was discriminated against because of her sex and retaliated against when she complained of the discrimination was awarded $80.7 million.

THIRD PARTY LIABILITY

A Jewish family sued a prestigious South Florida country club for religious discrimination for denial of membership. Defense costs and settlement were in excess of $500,000.

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WE OFFER EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES LIABILITY DISPELLING THREE MYTHS OF EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES LIABILITY INSURANCE

Myth #1 - EPL exposure is no greater today than it was in the past.
Reality: The 1991 amendments to the Civil Rights Act gave employees the ability to seek jury trials, claim damages for mental anguish and emotional distress and obtain punitive damage awards for employment claims. The frequency and severity of lawsuits continues to increase each year.

Myth #2 - Employers are protected by written employment procedures or relying on their human resource department.
Reality: Even the best-written procedures and human resource departments cannot prevent an employment claim. Employers must still defend themselves even if a claim is frivolous. Defense costs alone can jeopardize a small firm's financial stability.

Myth #3 - Employers are already protected under other insurance policies.

Reality: Commercial General Liability policies contain exclusion CG2147 which excludes all employment related claims. Umbrella and Workers Compensation policies also have an employment related practices exclusion. EPL endorsements to these forms provide inadequate
coverage and erode limits of liability.

PROTECTION FROM THESE AND OTHER EXPOSURES INCLUDING:

	Discrimination
	Harassment
	Retaliation
	Wrongful Termination
	Employment-related misrepresentation
	Negligent evaluation, training and supervision
	Failure to enforce adequate policies
	Wrongful discipline
	Wrongful deprivation of career opportunity
	Negligent violation of the Family Medical Leave Act
	Use of email/internet with respect to the above all

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The Top Ten Reasons Why To Buy Employment Practices Liability (EPL)

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