A Texas jury has awarded a wedding photographer more than $1 million after determining a newly married couple unhappy with her work launched a social media campaign to post falsehoods about her. The Dallas County jury found Friday that the campaign amounted to defamation. The jury unanimously found the couple acted of out malice in targeting the business in the months after their October 2014 wedding. (AP) Read article.

Does Your Homeowner’s Insurance Cover Social Media?
Social media has changed how we communicate with family and friends. Technology has made it so that anyone can have their voice heard and their comments recorded for posterity.  Among the greatest contributors to this revolution are your teenagers...and you can be held responsible for their actions.

What Kind Of Personal Insurance Claim Can Come From A Social Media Post?
Recently, a 16-year-old student sued five classmates and their parents for online harassment. Whether or not the allegations are true, the teenagers and their parents required legal resources to defend themselves for the possible judgments against them.

What Does Homeowner’s Insurance Provide?
Most people assume their homeowner’s insurance will cover any kind of claim that comes from social media content. However, you need to have personal injury coverage as part of your homeowner’s insurance policy. If you bought your insurance online you may not have this coverage.

Personal Injury coverage is an optional endorsement on the standard homeowner’s policy that provides protection for libel, slander, defamation of character, false arrest, malicious prosecution, and wrongful eviction. This coverage is also provided by most umbrella policies.
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Striving for High Levels of Service
As our name implies, we strive to make your insurance experience positive. We understand you have many options when it comes to getting personal insurance, so we are going to strive to give you first class customer service you deserve.
 

Uber, Airbnb and VRBO may increase your personal liability risk
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We live in a digital world that now allows us to share everything from our car, bike, boat, apartment and even our home with total strangers. Smart phones, and the applications that can be added, offer many useful tools, but some of these things create new and increased liability for you. Before you decide to jump into the sharing economy consider the following:

• Do these sharing sites have the ability to protect your confidential information? Many times you are giving your credit card information to companies that may not have the ability to protect it.
• If you use Airbnb to sublease your apartment, you might check your lease. Many lease agreements have “no sublease” clauses that do not allow for this kind of activity. Also, some big cities are now actually considering outlawing the Airbnb services as it reduces hotel/motel taxes.
• Uber offers a taxi service where individuals can offer rides to those who subscribe. Are you confident that these individuals have had proper background checks? Are they experienced drivers?  Do they have the correct insurance? Remember, even in states that have mandatory auto insurance laws, over 25% of drivers don’t have insurance.
• Personal auto insurance issues should be considered if using your car for hire. There is a big difference in the auto insurance world between a car pool for work and being paid to deliver people.
• If you rent your primary home to others, it may limit your personal insurance coverage. Call out office for a review.

The use of the new sharing economy will most likely continue and may be a good way to make money. However, if you have an uninsured claim, the cost may be much greater.  Be aware that using these services may increase your risk of loss.
Strive Insurance Group, Inc. is a full-service independent insurance agency that has been serving the insurance needs of the Dallas area since 1984 (formerly Gordon Lund Insurance). Don't worry, nothing has changed, but our name. In addition to having a presence in the Dallas and North Texas area, we have also expanded to Austin and Central Texas with agent representation and the same professional service.
 

A Business Insurance Update
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We don’t expect you to be experts in business insurance, but we thought it might be fun to test you on what you do know about your business insurance. Business insurance is designed to cover unexpected losses. We can offer a wide range of business insurance options, so please call our office today.

Business Insurance Quiz (answers at the end)

1. Your deductible is the amount you are responsible for if a covered loss occurs.

True       False

1. Flood and earthquake coverage are always part of your business property coverage.

 Ture       False
 Cyber Insurance is protection against losses caused by hackers from businesses dealing strictly in e-commerce, but it does not exist.True       False

1. Business Interruption covers your lost income no matter what kind of loss closes your business.

True       False

1. My employees are prohibited from suing me, as this would be a workers’ compensation claim.

True       False
As an Independent Insurance Agency we represent many insurance companies to fit your businesses dynamic needs.  Whether you're a new business or a small business, we can help. Being an Independent Agent means we are not only your agent, but we are your insurance broker as well.  We understand every business and industry is unique, so we will work with you to find the best business insurance coverage at the lowest rate. Contact us today for a free quote
Answers

1. True-
2. False- You need to add this coverage under a separate policy
3. False- Cyber insurance can be purchase by all business
4. False- Business interruption only applies to covered losses under the policy
5. False- Your employees have rights under federal and state laws to sue you if they feel they have been wronged.  You would need employment practices liability insurance in order to protect you and your business from employee lawsuits.