Casualty Insurance Coverages and Policy Provisions
Liability fundamentals
Negligence requires duty, breach, proximate cause, and damages. Defenses include comparative fault, assumption of risk, and statutes of limitation. Utah follows modified comparative fault: a claimant 50% or more at fault recovers nothing. Also know vicarious liability and respondeat superior (employer liability for employee acts within scope), strict liability (products, wild animals), and the exclusive remedy doctrine in workers compensation.
Commercial general liability
Under the occurrence form, Coverage A pays bodily injury and property damage, Coverage B personal and advertising injury, Coverage C medical payments. Limits include each occurrence, general aggregate, products-completed operations aggregate, damage to premises rented to you, and the medical expense limit. Study the insured contract, your work, and your product exclusions, plus additional-insured endorsements.
Claims-made vs. occurrence
A claims-made policy responds only when the claim is made during the policy period (or an extended reporting period) and the wrongful act occurred on or after the retroactive date. Example: policy inception 1/1/2024, retro date 1/1/2022, act on 6/15/2023, claim reported 3/2025 - covered only if the report falls within the policy period or a purchased ERP. An act before the retro date is never covered.
Auto and workers compensation
Personal auto policy parts: A liability, B medical payments, C uninsured/underinsured motorists, D physical damage (collision and other than collision). Split limits (25/65/15 style) versus a combined single limit. Utah requires insurers to offer UM/UIM coverage, and a rejection must be in writing; Utah is a no-fault state with a statutory minimum of $3,000 in personal injury protection (verify current statutory liability minimums, which have changed). Workers compensation provides Part One statutory benefits and Part Two employers liability.
Traps
Confusing per-occurrence and aggregate limits, treating a claims-made policy as an occurrence policy, and forgetting the retroactive date.