Glossary

Psychological rehabilitation is one aspect of the overall rehabilitation process that concentrates on restoring the injured person's mental condition to a healthy status. It focuses on removing any phobias, anxieties, or self-doubts arising out of the disability. This work is normally accomplished by psychologists and counselors.

A public-private partnership is an arrangement between a governmental entity and a private entity to finance a public project with private funds. The most common use of this arrangement in the United States is for highways, but it can be utilized on a variety of other infrastructure projects. In exchange for providing the financing, the private entity receives a share of the revenue generated by the project, such as tolls or fees, for a specified time period. Airports, telecommunications, power plants, and university housing are examples of how public-private partnerships are being deployed.

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).