Commercial General Liability and Related Liability Lines
CGL coverage grants
Coverage A covers bodily injury and property damage caused by an occurrence (an accident, including continuous exposure). Coverage B covers personal and advertising injury, which is offense-based (libel, slander, invasion of privacy, wrongful eviction, infringement in an advertisement) and does not require an accident. Coverage C provides medical payments regardless of fault, with a short reporting window.
Limits structure
Learn the six limits: general aggregate, products-completed operations aggregate, personal and advertising injury, each occurrence, damage to premises rented to you, and medical expense per person. The general aggregate sits above each-occurrence limits; the products-completed operations aggregate applies after the work is finished. Umbrella and excess policies follow form, require a self-insured retention or underlying limits, and may drop down when underlying coverage is exhausted or unavailable.
Key exclusions
The big ones: expected or intended injury; contractual liability (except an insured contract); liquor liability; your work (with a subcontractor exception); your product; impaired property; damage to your own property; pollution; professional services; and employers liability/workers compensation exposures.
Claims-made vs occurrence
Professional liability (E&O), D&O and EPLI are usually written on a claims-made basis: the claim must be made and reported during the policy period, subject to the retroactive date. An extended reporting (tail) endorsement preserves the right to report later claims. Occurrence policies respond whenever the injury happens, regardless of when the claim surfaces.
Traps
Additional insured status is not automatic - read the endorsement and its scope. Coverage B does not require a publication error to be negligent. The duty to defend can survive an exhausted policy in some forms.
Rule of thumb: ask when the injury happened and when the claim was made; the answer identifies the trigger and the policy that responds.