Glossary

A publicly held corporation is a corporation whose shares of stock are held by and are available for purchase by members of the public. The shares of public corporations can be bought or sold on one of the major stock exchanges, such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ).

A public adjuster is a claims adjuster who represents the interests of an insured in a property loss. Public adjusters negotiate settlement of such claims with the insurer's claim representative. Public adjusters are compensated with a percentage of the payable loss that they are able to secure for their clients (2 to 15 percent, depending on the size and complexity of the claim). They are frequently retained in situations involving business interruption (BI) claims, which involve special expertise in the areas of accounting and insurance coverage analysis.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) is a private-sector, nonprofit corporation created as part of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). The PCAOB developed in response to the auditing failures that were associated with several high-profile corporate bankruptcies in the early 2000s. Its purpose is to oversee the accounting firms that audit public corporations, in an effort to protect the interests of the investing public. The PCAOB consists of five members, including its chairman, each of whom the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) appoints. It conducts inspections of public accounting firms, develops auditing quality control standards, and conducts investigations and disciplinary proceedings.

Public domain refers to a work that is available to the public as a whole and not subject to intellectual property (copyright, trademark, or patent) restrictions. Although anybody can use works in the public domain, and no permission is required for use, nobody will ever have ownership. In addition to works with expired copyrights, the public domain also consists of works that came into existence before intellectual property laws existed, government works, and underlying ideas that form the basis for the works that arise out of them. Along with the fair use defense, the concept of public domain can help media professional liability insureds mitigate exposures.

A public easement is an easement that is granted to the public in general or to an entire community. An example of this type of easement is one permitting people to walk across a home owner's land to get to a public beach.

Public employee dishonesty coverage is insurance for governmental entities (e.g., cities, towns, counties) covering loss resulting from employee dishonesty. Limits can be written to apply per loss on Insurance Services Office, Inc. (ISO), coverage form O, CR 00 16) or per employee (coverage form P, CR 00 17).

Public Law 15 (McCarran Act) is a congressional act of 1945 exempting insurance from federal antitrust laws to the extent that the individual states regulate the industry. The legislation was made necessary by the US Supreme Court decision in United States v. South-Eastern Underwriters Ass'n, 322 U.S. 533, 64 S. Ct. 1162, 88 L. Ed. 1440 (1944).

Public liability insurance is insurance covering an insured's liability to third parties for causing bodily injury (BI) or property damage (PD).

A public officials bond is a guarantee by the surety that the specified public official will faithfully perform his or her official duties, including accounting for all funds entrusted to his or her care.

Public officials liability insurance provides liability coverage for the errors and omissions of public officials. In effect, such policies serve the same function for elected/appointed officials of state and local government as directors and officers (D&O) insurance serves for the directors and officers of corporations. However, one major difference is that, under public officials liability forms, employees and the public entity itself are insureds, whereas this is not the case with D&O policies. Exclusions under this policy include losses due to fraud or dishonesty, bodily injury (BI) or property damage (PD), false arrest, assault and battery, defamation, and fiduciary liability.