Coverage for third-party claims of bodily injury or property damage arising from a business's operations, products or premises — the foundation most commercial insurance programs are built around. Placed across markets by an independent Rochester Hills agency that reads the operations and the contracts behind a request before it quotes a limit.
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General liability is a third-party coverage — it responds to claims brought against the business by someone else, not to the business's own property or its own employees.
Injury to a customer, vendor or passerby, or damage to someone else's property, caused by the business's operations or premises — a customer who slips at the entrance, or a contractor's crew that damages a client's floor. Coverage applies subject to the policy's terms, conditions and exclusions.
Products liability responds to injury or damage caused by something the business sold or manufactured after it left the business's control. Completed operations responds to a problem that surfaces after a job is finished and the crew has left — both subject to the policy as written.
Covers certain non-physical injuries arising from the business's advertising or operations — claims like libel, slander, false arrest or copyright infringement in advertising — again subject to the policy's specific terms and any applicable exclusions.
Most general liability policies pay the cost of defending a covered claim, typically outside the liability limit on an occurrence form, so defense does not automatically erode the amount available to pay a settlement or judgment. Defense obligations and how they interact with the limit vary by policy, so this is worth confirming on the actual form.
A smaller, no-fault medical benefit some policies include for minor injuries to others on the premises, intended to resolve small claims quickly without a liability finding. It is a modest supplemental coverage, not a substitute for the liability coverage itself.
A sublimit some forms carry for fire damage to premises rented to the business, separate from the main liability limit. Relevant to any business operating out of leased space, and worth checking against what a lease actually requires.
General liability is usually the first policy a business buys, but it answers a specific, limited set of exposures. These are the lines it is most often confused with.
General liability covers third parties; workers' compensation covers the business's own employees for work-related injuries, under a separate statutory framework, regardless of who was at fault. An employee's injury is a workers' comp matter, not a general liability claim.
General liability generally excludes liability arising from owned, hired and non-owned vehicles — that exposure is addressed by a commercial auto policy. A business that uses vehicles for deliveries, service calls or sales visits typically needs both coverages, not one in place of the other.
General liability responds to bodily injury and property damage. Professional liability, or errors & omissions, responds to claims arising from professional advice, services or a failure to perform them correctly — a design error or a missed filing, for example — which general liability does not address.
General liability does not cover the business's own building or its own contents — that is commercial property coverage. A fire that damages the business's own space is a property claim; a fire that spreads and damages a neighboring tenant's space may also raise a liability question.
The occurrence limit caps what's paid for a single occurrence, not a single claim — one occurrence can produce multiple claims, and the limit applies across all of them together. The aggregate caps everything paid across the policy period, and many policies split it into a general aggregate and a separate products-completed operations aggregate, so claims from each draw against a different pool. A business facing several occurrences in one year can exhaust the relevant aggregate well before any single one approaches its own limit, which is why all of these figures matter when comparing options.
A certificate of insurance documents that a policy exists; it does not itself add additional insured status, primary and noncontributory wording, or a waiver of subrogation. Those are specific endorsements that either were or were not issued on the policy — the certificate alone does not change what the policy actually provides.
Two businesses of similar size can price very differently on general liability. The underwriting conversation centers on what the business actually does and who it does it for.
Direct answers to what Michigan small business owners ask before reviewing a liability program.
General liability responds to third-party claims of bodily injury or property damage caused by the business's operations, products or premises, along with personal and advertising injury such as slander or copyright infringement in advertising. It also typically pays the legal defense costs of a covered claim, in addition to any settlement, subject to the policy's limits. It does not cover injuries to the business's own employees, damage to the business's own property, or the business's own vehicles — those are separate coverage lines.
Products coverage responds to injury or damage caused by a product after it has left the business's control — a defective part or a contaminated food item, for example. Completed operations responds to injury or damage arising from work the business already finished, such as a contractor's installation that fails after the job was completed and the crew left the site. Both are part of a standard general liability policy, subject to its terms, conditions and exclusions.
The occurrence limit is the most the policy pays for a single occurrence, which is not the same as a single claim — one occurrence can produce more than one claim, such as an incident that injures several different people, and the occurrence limit applies in total across all of them. The aggregate limit is the most the policy pays in total across the entire policy period, so repeated occurrences can erode it even while each one individually stays under the occurrence limit. Many general liability policies also split the aggregate in two: a general aggregate for premises and operations claims, and a separate products-completed operations aggregate that only products and completed-operations claims draw against, so one type of claim does not reduce the limit available for the other. Once the applicable aggregate is exhausted, no further claims are paid under it until the policy renews, which is why all of these numbers — not just the occurrence limit — matter when comparing quotes.
General liability covers third-party claims from the business's operations, products and premises. Workers' compensation instead covers the business's own employees for work-related injuries, regardless of fault, and runs under separate statutory rules. Commercial auto covers liability and damage involving owned, hired or non-owned vehicles, which general liability generally excludes. Professional liability (errors & omissions) covers claims arising from professional advice or services rather than bodily injury or property damage. A business often needs several of these together, not one in place of the others.
An additional insured endorsement extends a measure of coverage under the named insured's policy to another party, such as a landlord or a general contractor, for liability arising from the named insured's work. Contracts often pair this with primary and noncontributory wording, which puts the named insured's policy first in line ahead of the additional insured's own coverage, and sometimes a waiver of subrogation, which gives up the insurer's right to pursue that other party after paying a claim. Each is a distinct endorsement, and whether a given contract's wording is actually satisfied depends on the endorsement issued, not just on having a policy in force.
No. A certificate of insurance is a summary document showing that a policy exists as of the date issued — it is not a contract and does not add, remove or modify coverage. The actual terms, conditions, limits, exclusions and any required endorsements are set by the policy itself. A certificate that lists coverage a contract requires is not proof that the matching endorsement was actually issued; that has to be confirmed separately.
At minimum: the nature of the business and its operations, annual revenue or payroll depending on how the class is rated, the business address and any additional locations, number of employees, whether work is subcontracted out, current limits and any contract-driven requirements, and currently valued loss runs. Businesses with products or completed operations exposure should also describe what they sell or install and how long completed work is typically expected to last.
Operations, revenue and contract requirements all change over time. We review current general liability programs against what a business actually does and what its contracts actually require today.
Your current declarations page, renewal date, any contracts with specific insurance requirements, and a note on what's changed gets the review started. You don't need it all assembled before you reach out.
Titanium Shield Insurance Agency is an independent commercial agency in Rochester Hills. We read the operations and the contract requirements behind a request, and place liability coverage across carriers rather than through one company.