If you’re planning an event with alcohol, you’ll want to make sure you are covered for your liability related to the serving of liquor. Liquor liability insurance coverage isn’t automatically included in all event insurance policies, and if you’re not sure what to ask for or what to look for, you might find out you don’t have adequate coverage when it’s already too late.

What is Liquor Liability Insurance?

Liquor liability insurance (also called retail liquor liability insurance) means insurance that protects you if a guest becomes intoxicated at your event and causes injury or property damage to a third party as a result, and you are being held responsible.

Not every carrier offers liquor liability insurance for event coverage. And carriers set unique eligibility criteria to manage risk. Each liquor liability policy needs to be inspected for not only eligibility criteria, but also coverage details, and more.

Types of Liquor Liability Coverage

Events should fall in one of these three categories. Whichever one applies to your event will inform what coverage you need: No liquor liability coverage required, Host liquor liability coverage required, or Standard liquor liability coverage required.

It is also important to remember that if you hire a third-party bartender or caterer to serve alcohol, your event may require a different category of coverage than you expect. Consider these key liability impacts when you hire a third party to serve alcohol: Transfer of Liability, Verification and Certificates of Insurance, and Additional Insured Status.

Original reporting: El Paso News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.