General Liability vs. Professional Liability

Confused about general liability vs. professional liability? Learn the key differences, what each covers, and whether your business needs one or both.

Coverage Guide | 6 min read | 2026-03-01

They sound similar. They're not. One covers physical harm. The other covers professional mistakes. Most businesses need both — and here's why.

General liability (GL) and professional liability (PL, also called errors & omissions or E&O) protect against fundamentally different types of risk. General liability covers physical events — a customer slips on your floor, your employee damages a client's property, someone is injured by your product. Professional liability covers intellectual events — you give bad advice, miss a deadline, make…

In This Article

• The Core Difference
• What General Liability Covers
• What Professional Liability Covers
• The Dangerous Gap Between Them
• Who Needs Which — A Quick Reference
• What It Costs

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