Business Insurance > General Liability Coverages

General Liability Coverages

The following coverages are available under the General Liability policy.

Comprehensive General Liability

Provides Liability coverage for Bodily Injury and Property Damage arising from accidents on premises, business operations in progress, products manufactured or sold, and completed operations. Bodily Injury includes sickness or disease and death in addition to accidental injuries. Property Damage applies only to claims from damage to tangible property or loss of use of tangible property not damaged.

Premises and Operations

The Premises hazard exists when there is ownership or occupancy of property (the premises). A customer may have a premises claim against the Insured if the newly waxed floors caused the customer to slip and fall.
The Operations hazard exists when activity in addition to occupancy of property exists. Most of our customers have this exposure rather than Premises. A carpenter may be negligent and cut the electrical wiring, causing Property Damage to the building.

Products and Completed Operations

Products hazard arises from the manufacturing or selling of a product such as an air conditioner. A compressor that our Insured sold and installed for the client may have been defective and caused a fire damaging the building.
Completed Operations is a hazard that remains after the contractor has completed the job. In the air conditioner example above, if the compressor was improperly installed and later caused fire damage due to the improper installation, any resulting injuries or Property Damage would be said to emanate from the Completed Operations hazard.

Advertising Injury

This coverage includes libel or slander; invasion of privacy; misappropriation of advertising ideas or style of doing business; or infringement of copyright, title, or slogan, all in the course of advertising the Insured's goods or services. Some of the newer policies do exclude copyright infringement so make sure to check with your agent.

Fire Legal Liability

Provides Property Damage coverage to property leased or rented to the Insured. If the Insured rents a building and by negligence on the part of the Insured, fire damages the part of the building that is leased by the Insured, Fire Legal Liability coverage limit would apply. Most agents over look Fire Legal Liability. It is important to insure for a limit equal to the value of the area of the building you are renting or leasing. Most policies only contain $50,000 of fire legal liability. Say for example you occupy 5000 square feet of a 30,000 square foot building. Therefore you occupy 1/6 of the building. If the building you lease is valued at $3,000,000 you need your fire legal liability to be $500,000 at least. That is 1/6 of the total value of the building. Also you need to understand that fire legal liability only pertains to the space you rent or lease. Once the fire leaves the area you rent or lease, any subsequent damage would be covered under the Per Occurrence Limit of your policy. Check with your agent to make sure you have an adequate Fire Legal Liability Limit. You may also want to inquire about Tenant Legal Liability to insure against perils other than fire.

Premises Medical Payments

Provides Medical Payments for persons, other than the Named Insureds, for Bodily Injury suffered on the premises, even though the Insured was not negligent. The difference between Medical Payments and Premises Liability is negligence. You do not need to be held negligent for the insurance company to pay a medical payment claim. This allows the company to pay small nuisance claims without the need for costly legal expenses. However raising the medical payments limit can also mean your insurance company may pay too many of these small nuisance claims. Since most people who commit insurance fraud know most companies would rather pay the medical payment limit than fight the claim through their attorneys. Sometimes it is best to have a lower medical payments limit. Remember insurance works a lot like credit. The better history you have, fewer losses, the lower your costs will be.

CGLs generally exclude claims arising from the rendering or the failure to render professional services, and most professional exposures are more appropriately covered by a separate policy. Malpractice insurance (sometimes called "professional liability" or "error & omissions coverage") might be available for