| An insurance policy is
designed for a particular coverage area (auto coverage
for autos, professional liability for professional acts,
general liability for non-professional exposures, etc.),
certain situations might bring in multiple liability
policies on a single claim.
For example, if a client is injured while visiting
your office for an appointment:
- Is the injury filed as a professional
claim (defended by your professional liability policy)
since it was a professional service appointment?
- Or is it a premises claim
(your general liability policy) since they were injured
while in your office?
The simple answer is it could be both. The defense
provided by your policies will hinge on the specific
facts of the allegation filed against you by the injured
party. There are few, if any, legal prohibitions against
raising multiple issues in a single complaint. In fact,
it’s to the injured party’s benefit to do
so, since your insurance carriers still must defend
against the entire complaint even if many of the allegations,
if proven, wouldn’t fall under that particular
policy’s coverage.
So the injured party has created a scenario in which
the odds are that at least one of your insurance carriers
is going to pay something for some part of this claim
— even if the majority of the allegations are
dismissed. It only takes one successful allegation to
secure a payment under your liability coverage.
A key issue in preparing for such possibilities is
proper coordination of your coverage provisions among
your policies. Multiple allegations, while attempting
to draw to the table as much coverage as possible, also
might uncover unintended gaps where no coverage exists.
Contact
us for a complete review of your coverages, whether
handled by our agency or not, to look for possible gaps
and to arrange the best possible coordination among
your coverage providers. |
