Section 4.37 Design Professional Liability Insurance

• Library: Construction Law 2016 Supp

XII. (§4.37) Design Professional Liability Insurance

Because a professional services exclusion will likely be placed in all commercial general liability (CGL) policies of insureds having a professional liability exposure, any party having any design professional risk needs to determine whether to insure it through a professional liability insurance policy or partially through an endorsement to its CGL policy. Another discussion of this insurance can be found in II MISSOURI INSURANCE PRACTICE, ch. 8 (MoBar 4^th ed. 1995 and 2000 Cum. Supp.).

If the party elects to purchase a professional liability policy, one of the most significant differences between its terms and those of other policies is the event that triggers coverage. Generally speaking, most liability policies, including a CGL policy, are issued as occurrence-form policies. Professional liability policies, however, are only claims-made. Therefore, even though an incident may occur during the professional liability policy year, coverage will not be triggered until a claim regarding the incident or occurrence is made. Furthermore, if a claims-made policy is not continually renewed, coverage ceases to exist upon nonrenewal for any claims that arise following the termination date of the...