Glossary

General liability insurance protects commercial insureds from most liability exposures other than automobile and professional liability.

General maritime law is a common law concept whose origin is rooted in historical sea codes and requires the owner of the vessel to provide the entire crew with transportation, wages, room and board (maintenance), and medical services (cure) for the duration of the voyage. This condition applies even if the illness or injury is not job-related. Further, the crew member may sue the owner of the ship for additional damages by citing the unseaworthiness of the craft.

General supervision in an insurance context is one of the two loss exposures for which the insured has coverage under an owners and contractors protective (OCP) liability policy. The other exposure is the insured's vicarious liability for acts or omissions of the designated contractor. (See Owners and contractors protective liability.) General supervision has usually been given a broad meaning by the courts in order to maximize the scope of OCP coverage.

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 is a law that prohibits the improper use of genetic information in both health insurance underwriting and pricing and in employment decisions. The Act prohibits health insurers from denying coverage to a healthy individual or charging that person higher premiums based solely on a genetic predisposition to developing a disease in the future. The legislation also bars employers from using individuals' genetic information when making hiring, firing, job placement, or promotion decisions. Here is an example of how the law might apply in an employment scenario: A company requires preemployment physicals as a condition of employment. The results of a prospective employee's physical examination indicate that she is healthy and fully capable of performing the job duties for the particular position for which she had been hired. However, the examination also revealed that she has a genetic predisposition for developing breast cancer. Under GINA, the employer would not be able to deny the person the job, despite such a predisposition.

The gig economy is a moniker for businesses and occupations in which individuals rent assets and obtain/provide services directly from each other, coordinated via technology in an "on-demand" format. Sharing services, most commonly offered via mobile applications, allow individuals to act as taxi drivers, hoteliers, etc. when it suits them, permitting clients to procure such services at a moment's notice. These business models leverage the global connectivity engendered by the proliferation of mobile applications, thereby allowing individuals to create and participate in their own micromarket economies. Since gig economy business models are disruptive in nature, they have been exposed to much greater litigation risk than traditional businesses, which may present higher exposure for insurers when compared with businesses of comparable size in more traditional industries. The host of liability issues facing large companies participating in the gig economy gives rise to interesting and unpredictable risks and exposures for insurers across many coverage lines, such as general liability, auto liability, workers compensation, professional liability, and others.

The glass ceiling is an invisible, artificial barrier to the advancement of women and minorities into upper-level corporate management positions. Within the past decade, a number of so-called glass ceiling claims have been made against corporations. Glass ceiling allegations are essentially employment-related sex and/or race discrimination claims. However, such allegations are difficult to prove because only rarely can a plaintiff successfully establish that a company has an unstated but intentional policy to prevent the promotion of women and minorities. Glass ceiling claims are covered by employment practices liability insurance (EPLI) policies.

Glass insurance is property insurance covering breakage of building glass (such as windows) regardless of cause. Standard commercial property and homeowners policies now generally cover building glass in the same way and to the same extent as other covered property. For this reason, special coverage on glass is purchased less often than once was the case.

A glider kit is a new semitruck chassis, generally ordered from the factory, without an engine or transmission. Rebuilt engines, transmissions, and remanufactured differentials and rear ends are installed into the new chassis, allowing recalculation of the age of the tractor.

Global insurance program refers to a multinational insurance program with a coverage territory encompassing the entire world, including the country in which the insured is domiciled. Because of the differences in legal climates and regulations, most global programs cover only property, business interruption, and sometimes crime exposures.

A glovebag is a polyethylene or polyvinyl chloride bag-like enclosure affixed around an asbestos-containing source (most often thermal system insulation) permitting the material to be removed while minimizing release of airborne fibers into the surrounding atmosphere.