Burke Bogart & Brownell Blog: 10 reasons why business owners should carrier Employment Practices Liability.

The definition of Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI) provides your company with protection against many kinds of employee lawsuits, such as sexual harassment suits, discrimination suits, wrongful termination actions and breach of employment contract lawsuits.

The escalating frequency and severity of suits alleging employment related wrongful acts comes from a variety of factors, including employee's heightened awareness of their rights under the Myriad laws and regulations. In addition, there is a more aggressive and growing body of plaintiffs' lawyers specializing in employment law. Also, economic downturns and resulting job losses also spike liability suits.

Here are the top ten reason why a business owner should carrier EPL insurance;

Employment Practices Liability covers not only actual, but also alleged acts of discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination and other similar acts

3 our of 5 employers are sued by former employees every year.

Over 40% of EPL claims are against firms with fewer than 100 employees.

Some Federal and State employment laws apply to all employers - any size company has exposure!

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recorded nearly 76,000 charges in 2006 and obtained more than $274 million in settlements for claimants.

The Financial ramifications of not having EPL insurance can be crippling, especially for small firms because they do not have the operating budgets to handle the defense costs, let alone the settlement or judgements, of an uninsured claim.

The medium cost of an EEOC lawsuit in 2006 exceeded $200,000.

There is no EPL coverage under other insurance policies such as General Liability (GL). Any endorsement to another policy general provides insufficient limits, does not provide the breadth of coverage of a separate EPL policy and erodes the limit available for the GL exposure.

Since 1997, wage and hour litigation's have tripled. More wage and hour collective / class actions have been filed in recent years than any other type of employment class actions combined.

Gender discrimination, age discrimination and retaliation claims are on the rise. There are more woman and "baby boomers" in the workplace than ever before. Recent Supreme Court decisions have lowered the standard of what constitutes retaliatory treatment.