Casualty Insurance Basics and Coverages
Liability triggers
Commercial general liability comes in two forms. An occurrence form covers injury or damage that happens during the policy period, whenever the claim is filed. A claims-made form covers claims first made during the policy period, with a retroactive date limiting how far back the wrongful act can reach and an extended reporting period available after expiration. Questions love to place the injury before inception and the claim after expiration - decide with the trigger, not the calendar of the claim alone.
CGL structure
Coverage A (bodily injury/property damage), B (personal and advertising injury), and C (medical payments) each have their own rules. Limits run per occurrence, then a general aggregate, with a separate products-completed operations aggregate. Supplementary payments (defense costs, bail bonds, loss of earnings) sit outside the limits. Key exclusions: expected or intended injury, your work, your product, contractual liability (except insured contracts), pollution, and employer's liability.
Auto and workers compensation
A personal auto policy covers liability, medical payments, uninsured/underinsured motorists, collision, and other-than-collision. Remember who qualifies as an insured: the named insured and family members for the owned auto, and anyone using it with permission. Workers compensation is statutory - Part One pays benefits without regard to fault and is the employee's exclusive remedy; Part Two is employer's liability; Part Three is other states' coverage.
Rule of thumb: bodily injury to three people from one accident is one occurrence for the per-occurrence limit, and the general aggregate caps the total for all occurrences in the policy term.