Casualty Insurance Basics
Negligence
Four elements must be proven: legal duty, breach of that duty, proximate cause, and actual damages. Defenses include contributory negligence (bars recovery in a few jurisdictions), comparative negligence (reduces the award in proportion to fault, with modified versions barring recovery at 50% or 51%), assumption of risk, and intervening cause.
Liability theories
Absolute or strict liability imposes liability without fault (wild animals, abnormally dangerous activities). Vicarious liability holds one party responsible for another's acts, typically an employer for an employee acting within scope. Contractual liability arises from an assumed obligation; statutory liability from a statute.
Damages
Compensatory damages are special (medical bills, lost wages) or general (pain and suffering). Punitive damages punish and are often excluded or restricted. Liability policies pay sums the insured is legally obligated to pay as damages and defend covered suits; in most liability forms defense costs and supplementary payments are paid in addition to the limit of liability.
Triggers and limits
Occurrence forms respond to injury or damage that takes place during the policy period. Claims-made forms respond to claims first made during the period, controlled by a retroactive date and extended reporting periods. Limits include per occurrence, aggregate, split limits, combined single limit, and self-insured retention.
Trap: medical payments coverage pays regardless of fault but only for accidental injury to others on the insured premises; it is not liability insurance. Worked example: $100,000 of damages with the claimant 20% at fault under pure comparative negligence leaves the insured owing $80,000, payable subject to the policy limit.