Commercial General Liability
Coverage agreements
On the occurrence CGL form, Coverage A is bodily injury and property damage; Coverage B is personal and advertising injury; Coverage C is medical payments (small, no-fault, and paid outside the limits, often excluding insureds and employees). Supplementary payments cover defense, bail bonds, and loss of earnings in addition to the limits.
Limits architecture
Know each occurrence, damage to premises rented to you (fire legal), personal and advertising injury, medical expense, general aggregate, and products-completed operations aggregate. The general aggregate may apply per policy, per location, or per project.
Who is an insured
The named insured; if a partnership or LLC, its members; spouses; employees and volunteer workers acting within the scope of employment; additional insureds by endorsement; and newly acquired organizations for a limited period after acquisition.
Exclusions candidates must know
Expected or intentional injury; contractual liability (with the insured-contract exception for leases of premises, sidetrack agreements, easements, and certain assumed tort liability); liquor liability; workers' compensation and employer's liability; pollution; aircraft, auto, watercraft, and mobile equipment; damage to property in your care, custody, or control; damage to your product, your work, or your premises; recall; impaired property; professional services; and electronic data.
Triggers and traps
Coverage A is triggered by injury or damage during the policy period; for continuous exposure the occurrence is deemed to happen when injury manifests. Products-completed operations applies away from the premises after work is finished. The your-work exclusion often defeats a general contractor's claim for a subcontractor's rework, but damage to other property may still be covered. Loading and unloading is auto exposure, not CGL.
Worked example
A plumber's faulty fitting floods a building owner's inventory. The cost to redo the plumber's own work is excluded; the owner's water-damaged stock is covered as damage to other property, subject to the per-occurrence limit.