What is EPLI?

A commonly overlooked area of insurance is employment practices liability (EPLI).  EPLI is what protects businesses from lawsuits about discrimination during the hiring/firing process.  EPLI policies also protect businesses in the event of a sexual harassment cases which unfortunatly happen all to often here in “Las Vegas”.  The hiring, firing, and promoting of your employees can be the most difficult part about running your business.  In order for your business to grow you need to make sure you find the best-qualified, most capable people you can.  Sometimes your idea of who should be hired, fired, or promoted isn’t necessarily shared with those being turned down.  Have you ever wondered what could happen if someone you didn’t hire or promote or even fired were to sue you? This is where EPLI comes into play.

Small businesses are extra vulnerable because the informal office atmosphere and often laid-back attitude, allows sexual banter and innuendos.  Furthermore, a small business is not likely to have an official sexual harassment policy and training program to arm employees with what is acceptable and what is not. Being wrongfully sued could definitely harm your business. If you own a business and two qualified employees apply for a position, the one that isn’t hired may be bitter about the lack of opportunity.  In Las Vegas, EPLI insurance should be a top priority especially with the nature of so many businesses in our city.

Third parties, such as customers, consumers and clients, are also more frequently seeking legal recourse for alleged discrimination or harassment. These trends, coupled with more expansive judicial interpretation of applicable laws, have gone hand-in-hand with the emergence of a professional plaintiffs’ bar eager to drive employment related lawsuits against employers.  In fact if you Google EPLI insurance Las Vegas, one of the first thing to come up is attorneys.

This is another reason why it is imperative to maintain an employee handbook no matter the size of your company.  Be sure to be clear on company policies regarding any form of harassment and have an outlined guideline to how any such events would be handled.