The General Liability Policy for Architects and Engineers - What You Need to Know Whether You Want to or Not

The General Liability Policy for Architects and Engineers: What You Need to Know Whether You Want to or Not…

All of us understand the professional liability insurance policy, sometimes referred to as the Errors and Omissions (E&O) policy. But many of us pay less attention to the General Liability (GL) policies. We all have GL policies, and we need to understand what they cover as opposed to the E&O policy.

But there is an even more important reason that we need to understand GL policies.

All of our projects are constructed by General Contractors and Subcontractors whose primary insurance is the GL policy. Every legal case we deal with is influenced by issues arising out of the contractors GL coverage and the interaction between the general contractors and subcontractors GL coverages. Issues of additional insured status and coverage exclusions can influence the ability for contractors to pay for claims. As a result, problems are created for the design teams directly or indirectly.

This program will cover many issues that we all need to have a fundamental understanding of:

• What is covered and not covered by the GL policy?
• What is the “your work” exclusion and why is it such an issue?
• What are the exclusions to the” your work” exclusion?
• Who is an additional insured on the GL policy?
• What is the “blanket additional insured endorsement”?
• How can the designer (A&E) become an additional insured on the contractors GL policy and why is that important?
• How a designer can “think” they are an additional insured because they included it in the specifications section 0800 but in fact will find out they are not (as a practical matter).
• What does “primary and non-contributory” mean and why is that important?
• Other common pitfalls in dealing with the contractors GL policy.