Casualty Insurance Basics
The CGL architecture
Commercial general liability on the occurrence form insures bodily injury and property damage that occurs during the policy period, regardless of when the claim is reported. Coverage A is BI/PD; Coverage B is personal and advertising injury (libel, slander, wrongful eviction, infringement in advertising); Coverage C is medical payments, paid without regard to fault and outside the liability limits. Limits are structured as each occurrence, general aggregate, products-completed operations aggregate, personal and advertising injury, damage to premises rented to you, and medical expense.
Defense and triggers
- The duty to defend is broader than the duty to indemnify and is triggered by any potentially covered allegation in the complaint.
- Defense costs and supplementary payments sit outside the limits on the standard occurrence form.
- Claims-made forms respond only if the claim is made and reported during the policy period or an extended reporting period, and only for acts after the retroactive date.
Worked example
An insured's employee injures a visitor in March 2023; suit is filed in 2025. On an occurrence policy written for 2023, the insurer must defend and indemnify because the injury occurred in the policy period, even though the claim came later. Under a claims-made policy with a 2024 retroactive date, the same claim is not covered because the wrongful act predates the retro date.
Other casualty lines
Umbrella and excess policies sit above scheduled underlying coverage and usually require self-insured retentions to be exhausted; employer's liability covers work-related injury claims that fall outside workers' compensation exclusivity; professional liability is typically claims-made with consent-to-settle provisions.
Traps
Treating medical payments as an admission of liability; assuming defense costs erode the limit on the standard form; confusing the products-completed operations aggregate with the general aggregate.