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.