Glossary

A nonsuit is a judgment issued by the court against the plaintiff dismissing the case, before the defense presents its case, based on the plaintiff's failure to produce sufficient evidence.

Nontransferability provisions refer to clauses found in professional liability policies indicating that an insured cannot transfer coverage to a noninsured without the insurer's approval. For example, attorney A who sells their practice to B cannot transfer coverage under their professional liability policy to B without the assent of their insurer. This is because professional liability insurance is a "personal" contract.

Noon clause is found in an insurance policy where the starting time of the coverage is noon on the date of coverage inception. The noon clause has been replaced in most policies with a time shown of 12:01 a.m.

Normal loss describes a noncatastrophic level of loss within the working layer. It is the predictable loss and encompasses expected loss.

The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is a system for classifying entities (including businesses, governmental entities, and private households) by type of economic activity.

Nose coverage applies to the period between the inception date and retroactive date in a claims-made liability policy, if the specified retroactive date is earlier than the inception date of the policy. Claims-made liability policies typically include a retroactive date, and the policy will not cover claims arising from covered occurrences, acts, or omissions committed prior to that date. It gets its name from its attachment to the "front" of the policy term, as opposed to "tail" coverage provided by an extended reporting period (ERP) on the end of a claims-made policy.

A notary claim exclusion is an exclusion found in professional liability policies written for attorneys, insurance agents and brokers, and accountants. The exclusion precludes coverage for claims that arise when an insured notarizes a document without having actually witnessed the signature. (People sometimes convince notaries to notarize a signature, despite the fact that the person signing the document did not actually appear before the notary.) The rationale for the exclusion is that such situations often facilitate forgeries, as well as the fact that claims resulting from such circumstances are entirely preventable by an insured.

Notice of cancellation clauses are provisions in policies mandating that insurers are to provide advance notice of cancellation or nonrenewal of a policy. Most commonly, the required cancellation notice period is 30 days, although state amendatory endorsements frequently extend this period to 60 days. Additionally, most policies require that the insurer provide advance notice of nonrenewal with the notice requirement ranging from 10 to 75 days depending on jurisdiction and circumstances surrounding the nonrenewal.

A notice of cancellation endorsement modifies an insurance policy to provide notice of cancellation beyond that stipulated in the policy. The endorsement typically stipulates an additional number of days' notice the insurer must provide of its intent to cancel the policy, additional parties that are to receive notice of cancellation, or both. Additional insureds, for example, sometimes request a notice of cancellation endorsement guaranteeing them a right to notice of cancellation. Insurers vary regarding their willingness to expand their notice of cancellation obligations.

The notice of circumstances during extended reporting period provision refers to a provision found within an extended reporting period (ERP) endorsement of a claims-made liability policy. Such provisions state that in addition to covering claims reported to the insurer during the ERP, the policy also covers "incidents" or "circumstances" reported to the insurer that have the potential to produce a claim in the future. About half of all ERP provisions are written on this basis, which is favorable for an insured because regardless of how far in the future a claim is made against the insured in conjunction with a reported "incident" or "circumstance," coverage will apply under the ERP.