Insurance 101 | Bell Davis Pitt

Providing Timely Notice to Your Insurance Company

January 11, 2017

Alan M. Ruley Allison Buckner Parker

Insurance Recovery

In the wake of an incident, once you’ve identified and located potentially applicable insurance policies, the next step is to provide notice to each of the potentially responsible insurance companies. The notice requirement usually is expressly set forth in the policy. In a commercial general liability (CGL) policy, it usually is in a section that identifies the “Conditions” for coverage. Here is a typical provision:

What You Need to Know about CGL Policies

December 7, 2016

Insurance Recovery

Commercial General Liability insurance—“CGL”—is an important asset for most businesses. It covers things like bodily injury, property damage, and advertising injury to others for which the insured—the policyholder—may be held liable. But for most policyholders, the CGL policy is a poorly understood mystery. You assume that you are completely covered, but in fact there are any number of exclusions, conditions and definitions in the standard CGL policy that may defeat or impair coverage.

Insurance policy correspondence

Cooperating with your Insurance Company After Filing a Claim

December 1, 2016

Insurance Recovery

You've notified your insurer of a claim on behalf of your company. Now what? You have a duty to cooperate with your insurance company after providing it with notice of a claim or potential claim. In fact, the duty to cooperate is usually expressly set forth in the “Conditions” section of Company General Liability ("CGL") policies. For example, most CGL policies require the insured to:

insurance recovery for company disaster

The Four Steps You Need to Take When Disaster Strikes at your Business

November 1, 2016

Insurance Recovery

Whether you are a business owner whose building burns down, the victim of employee theft, sued by a former client for bad advice, or sued by the employee of another company who was injured on your premises, disaster has struck and the sometimes overwhelming process of navigating the insurance world has begun. We've outlined below the first four steps to get your insurance situation under control:

insurance policies for business insurance recovery

Identifying Applicable Policies for Insurance Recovery

October 1, 2016

Insurance Recovery

If you've been hit with an unexpected disaster at your company, your first step toward insurance recovery should be to identify and compile all potentially applicable insurance policies. This includes not only your own policies, but also the policies of others that may provide coverage for you, for example as an “additional insured.” This will in turn depend on what type of claim you have. Broadly speaking, there are two types of insurance claims: first party and third party.

Scrabble letter tray with the word "RISK"

Insurance for Businesses: What Coverage do you Need?

February 11, 2016

Insurance Recovery

If you have a business – small, medium or large – you need insurance to protect your business from the risks that it is most likely to encounter. However, the different types of policies and coverage available can be very confusing. This post provides an overview of what is available and what to keep in mind.