Casualty Insurance Basics and Coverages
Liability fundamentals
The commercial general liability (CGL) policy is third-party coverage written on an occurrence basis (injury during the policy period, reported later) or a claims-made basis (claim must be made during the policy period, subject to a retroactive date and extended reporting periods). Limits include general aggregate, products-completed operations aggregate, each occurrence, personal and advertising injury, damage to premises rented, and medical expense. Supplementary payments - defense costs, bail bonds, loss of earnings - sit outside the limits. Core exclusions: expected or intended injury, contractual liability, your work, your product, impaired property, auto, pollution, and employers liability.
Auto and workers compensation
Personal auto policy parts: A liability, B medical payments or PIP, C uninsured/underinsured motorists, D damage to your auto (collision and other-than-collision), plus duties after loss and general provisions. Commercial auto uses covered-auto symbols and business-use definitions. Workers compensation has Part One (statutory benefits, no dollar limit), Part Two (employers liability), and Part Three (other states); benefits are medical, disability income, death, and rehabilitation, and the exclusive remedy rule bars most employee tort suits.
Traps
On claims-made policies, the retroactive date - not the injury date - controls. The "your work" exclusion targets the insured's completed workmanship, not the product itself. UM responds to uninsured, underinsured, and hit-and-run drivers; collision pays regardless of fault after the deductible.
Rule of thumb
An insured's own bodily injury is a first-party benefit (med pay, PIP, workers comp), never a liability claim against that same insured.