Glossary

Production of documents means to produce or bring forward, show, or exhibit documents deemed to be relevant to a legal action and is in response to a request for production of such documents.

Products-completed operations is one of the hazards ordinarily insured by a general liability policy. It encompasses liability arising out of the insured's products or business operations conducted away from the insured's premises once those operations have been completed or abandoned.

Products guarantee legal liability is a specialty insurance coverage that insures the liability of a manufacturer for damage to the product resulting from the product. Normally, the product failure must result from a mistake or deficiency in design, plan, or specifications for coverage to apply.

Products tampering insurance indemnifies the insured for loss of net profit, chemical analysis, recall, examination, transportation, destruction, and extra expenses incurred to regain market share following a malicious product tampering incident.

Product liability is liability for bodily injury (BI) or property damage (PD) incurred by a merchant or manufacturer as a consequence of some defect in the product sold or manufactured.

Product liability insurance provides protection against financial loss arising out of the legal liability incurred by an insured because of injury or damage resulting from the use of a covered product. It is a component of standard general liability insurance.

Product recall is a type of insurance coverage for the cost of getting a defective product back under the control of the manufacturer or merchandiser that would be responsible for possible bodily injury (BI) or property damage (PD) from its continued use or existence. Standard product liability insurance does not cover this exposure due to the "sistership liability exclusion."

Professional liability refers to a type of liability coverage designed to protect professionals and businesses from errors and omissions in performing their professional services. This coverage can protect traditional professionals (e.g., accountants, attorneys) and quasi-professionals (e.g., real estate brokers, consultants). Although there are a few exceptions (e.g., physicians, architects, engineers), most professional liability policies only cover economic or financial losses suffered by third parties, as opposed to bodily injury (BI) and property damage (PD) claims that are typically covered under commercial general liability (CGL) policies. The vast majority of professional liability policies are written with claims-made coverage triggers, and the insurer's payment of defense costs reduces available policy limits.

A professional reinsurer is a company whose business is confined solely to reinsurance and the peripheral services offered by a reinsurer to its customers. This is in contrast to primary insurers, which exchange reinsurance or operate reinsurance departments as adjuncts to their basic business of primary insurance.

The professional services exclusion is an exclusion commonly endorsed onto general liability policies and found within directors and officers (D&O) liability insurance policies. As a modification of commercial general liability (CGL) policies, the exclusion serves to segregate general liability from professional (errors and omissions (E&O)) exposures, leaving only the former insured. For example, it would not interfere with coverage of a physician's premises liability if someone falls and is injured while in the office, but it would exclude any liability arising from the physician's providing of medical care. As part of a D&O policy, the intent of the exclusion is similar: to preclude coverage of traditional professional services that are sometimes performed by individuals covered by the D&O policy but should be separately insured. The exclusion would apply in the following situation. Assume that a corporation's chief counsel is an officer of the corporation and therefore covered by the D&O policy. The chief counsel reviews a merger and acquisition agreement with a competitor firm, concluding that the merger does not violate antitrust laws. But 3 months later, the antitrust division of the US Department of Justice challenges the merger, which, after protracted litigation, does not take place. The competitor firm then sues the chief counsel for rendering an erroneous legal opinion that cost the competitor millions of dollars in legal and consulting fees. The professional services exclusion would preclude coverage for the chief counsel in this situation because the services provided were those of a lawyer rather than those of a traditional director or officer. Coverage for this exposure is available under a lawyers professional liability policy or under an employed lawyers professional liability policy.