Casualty Policy Forms for the 2-20 Exam: CGL, Auto, Workers Compensation, Bonds and Umbrella

Occurrence versus claims-made: the two coverage triggers

Every casualty question begins with one decision: which event pulls the trigger on this policy? Get the trigger wrong and every later step is wasted.

An occurrence form is triggered by when the bodily injury or property damage takes place. If the damage happened inside the policy period, that policy answers, no matter how many years later the claim surfaces and no matter how many carriers the insured has bought since. Expiration is irrelevant. An occurrence form has no retroactive date and needs no tail.

A claims-made form is triggered by two conditions that must both be satisfied. The claim must be first made against the insured during the policy period or an applicable extended reporting period, and the injury or damage must have taken place on or after the retroactive date shown in the declarations. Fail either half and there is no coverage, no matter how sympathetic the facts.

The extended reporting period, or tail, is where candidates lose points, because there are two of them and they behave differently.

• The basic extended reporting period attaches automatically when a claims-made policy is canceled or nonrenewed, costs no additional premium, and runs for a limited stated time.
• The supplemental extended reporting period must be requested in writing and paid for, usually within 30 to 60 days after termination, and it is the one that closes the reporting gap when a claims-made program moves to a new carrier.

Neither tail moves the retroactive date. A tail lengthens the window in which a claim may be reported going forward; it never reaches further back in time. Advancing the retroactive date to the expiration date wipes out prior-acts coverage. Deleting the retroactive date, or setting it to the first-ever inception, buys the widest prior acts. None of this can be renegotiated after a claim arrives.

Market convention matters on the exam. General liability, business auto, workers compensation and commercial crime loss-sustained forms are ordinarily occurrence-triggered. Professional liability, directors and officers, employment practices, employee benefits liability, cyber, and commercial crime discovery forms are ordinarily claims-made.

Florida sharpened the stakes in 2023. The limitation period for an action founded on negligence is now 2 years under s. 95.11(5)(a), F.S., cut from the 4 years that older printings show, by ch. 2023-15, Laws of Florida, effective 24 March 2023 and applying to causes of action accruing after that date. Causes accruing on or before 23 March 2023 keep the old 4-year period. Two housekeeping traps follow: many manuals still cite the negligence paragraph as s. 95.11(3)(a), and it now sits at subsection (5)(a) after renumbering; and products liability remains a 4-year action under s. 95.11(3)(d), F.S., so the shortened period does not sweep everything. A shorter suit deadline never shortens an occurrence policy's obligation, because the occurrence form responds to when the damage happened, not to when a lawsuit is filed.

The CGL insuring agreements, the two aggregates, and who is an insured

The ISO commercial general liability form, CG 00 01, is three insuring agreements bolted onto one schedule of limits. Decide which agreement a fact pattern lands in before you touch any exclusion, because each one has its own trigger and its own limit.

Coverage A pays sums the insured becomes legally obligated to pay as damages because of bodily injury or property damage caused by an occurrence in the coverage territory during the policy period. Occurrence means an accident, including continuous or repeated exposure to substantially the same general harmful conditions. Property damage means physical injury to tangible property, including loss of use of that property, or loss of use of tangible property that is not physically injured. Purely economic loss with no bodily injury and no damaged tangible property never reaches Coverage A, which is why a failure-to-procure claim against an agency goes to errors and omissions instead.

Coverage B pays because of personal and advertising injury, and it is a closed list of offenses. Nothing outside the list is covered no matter how wrongful it feels. The offenses are false arrest, detention or imprisonment; malicious prosecution; wrongful eviction from, wrongful entry into, or invasion of the right of private occupancy of a room, dwelling or premises the person occupies; oral or written publication of material that slanders or libels a person or organization or disparages its goods, products or services; oral or written publication of material that violates a person's right of privacy; use of another's advertising idea in the insured's advertisement; and infringing upon another's copyright, trade dress or slogan in the insured's advertisement. Discrimination, wrongful termination and harassment appear nowhere on that list.

Coverage C pays reasonable medical expenses for bodily injury caused by an accident on premises the insured owns or rents, on ways next to those premises, or because of the insured's operations, and it pays without regard to whether the insured is legally liable. That no-fault, goodwill character is the entire point. The accident must occur in the coverage territory during the policy period and the expenses must be incurred and reported to the insurer within one year of the accident date. Coverage C pays first aid at the time of the accident, necessary medical, surgical, X-ray and dental services including prosthetic devices, and necessary ambulance, hospital, professional nursing and funeral services. Wage loss is not on the list. Coverage C excludes any insured other than a volunteer worker, a person hired to do work for any insured or a tenant of any insured, a person injured on the part of the premises that person normally occupies, a person whose injury is payable under a workers compensation or disability benefits law, a person injured while practicing, instructing or participating in physical exercises, games, sports or athletic contests, and injury within the products-completed operations hazard.

The declarations carry six limits and you should be able to name all six.

• Each Occurrence Limit, the most for any one occurrence under Coverages A and C combined.
• Damage To Premises Rented To You Limit, which is a sublimit sitting inside the Each Occurrence Limit, not outside it.
• Medical Expense Limit, per person.
• Personal And Advertising Injury Limit, per person or organization, capped by and eroding the General Aggregate.
• General Aggregate Limit, the most for all Coverage A, B and C payments except those within the products-completed operations hazard.
• Products-Completed Operations Aggregate Limit, a separate annual pot for that hazard alone.

The two aggregates never touch each other. Exhausting the products-completed operations aggregate leaves the general aggregate fully intact, and vice versa. Aggregates do not reinstate mid-term.

The products-completed operations hazard covers bodily injury and property damage occurring away from premises the insured owns or rents and arising out of your product or your work, except products still in the insured's physical possession and work that has not yet been completed or abandoned. Work is deemed completed at the earliest of three points: when all work called for in the contract is done; when all work at the site is done, if the contract calls for work at more than one site; or when that part of the work at a site has been put to its intended use by anyone other than another contractor working on the same project. Completion, not location, is what shifts a loss out of premises and operations and into the separate aggregate.

Section II tells you who is an insured. Employees and volunteer workers are insureds for acts within the scope of their employment or duties, but the form carves out bodily injury to a fellow employee or volunteer worker, and to that person's spouse, child, parent, brother or sister, arising out of employment. That carve-out is why a co-worker injury belongs on Part Two employers liability of the workers compensation policy and not on the CGL. An organization the named insured newly acquires or forms is a named insured only until the 90th day after acquisition or formation or the end of the policy period, whichever comes first, and only if no other similar insurance is available. Ninety days is a sunset, not a condition you can argue around; the fix is to endorse the subsidiary on before day 90.

Defense is a duty, not a damages payment. Defense costs and supplementary payments are in addition to the limits, and the duty to defend ends when the applicable limit is exhausted by payment of judgments or settlements.

The CGL exclusions that decide exam questions

Almost every hard CGL item is an exclusion item, and almost every exclusion on the exam has a carve-back. Learn the hinge, which is the one fact that decides whether the exclusion attaches.

Expected or intended injury, exclusion a., bars injury the insured expected or intended, but it does not apply to bodily injury resulting from the use of reasonable force to protect persons or property.

Contractual liability, exclusion b., bars bodily injury or property damage the insured is obligated to pay by reason of the assumption of liability in a contract. Two exceptions bring it back: liability the insured would have in the absence of the contract, and liability assumed in an insured contract. Insured contract is a defined term and it lists a lease of premises, a sidetrack agreement, an easement or license agreement, an obligation to indemnify a municipality required by ordinance, an elevator maintenance agreement, and that part of any other contract pertaining to the insured's business under which the insured assumes the tort liability of another party to pay for bodily injury or property damage to a third person. The lease-of-premises category expressly does not include the portion of a contract indemnifying anyone for fire damage to premises rented to the insured, because the Damage To Premises Rented To You limit handles that instead. Additional insured status is a different mechanism, not a precondition for the insured contract exception.

Liquor liability, exclusion c., applies only if you are in the business of manufacturing, distributing, selling, serving or furnishing alcoholic beverages. The form adds that merely permitting a person to bring alcoholic beverages onto your premises for consumption there, whether or not a fee is charged or a license is required, is not by itself that business. That sentence is what preserves host liquor liability for a business outside the alcohol trade, and it is exactly why a bar or restaurant needs a separate liquor liability policy.

Employers liability, exclusion e., bars bodily injury to an employee arising out of employment. Note that it is written entirely in terms of bodily injury, so it is never even reached on a wrongful termination or discrimination claim, which fails on the definitions long before any exclusion.

Pollution, exclusion f., is written on an absolute basis in the current form. Prong f.(1)(d) is the one contractors get caught on: it bars injury or damage arising out of pollutants at or from any premises on which any insured or a contractor working on an insured's behalf is performing operations, if the pollutants were brought on to the site in connection with those operations by that insured, contractor or subcontractor. Brought-on-site is the hinge. Prong f.(2) separately bars any loss, cost or expense arising out of a governmental direction to test for, monitor, clean up or neutralize pollutants, but its closing language preserves damages the insured would owe absent the demand. The sudden and accidental carve-back is a genuine provision of the 1973 and 1985 editions and is long gone from the standard form; a candidate who reaches for it is answering from a stale manual. Contractors pollution liability is the correct placement.

Aircraft, auto or watercraft, exclusion g., bars injury arising out of the ownership, maintenance, use or entrustment to others of any aircraft, auto or watercraft owned or operated by, or rented or loaned to, any insured. Two exceptions matter: a watercraft the insured does not own that is less than 26 feet long and is not being used to carry persons or property for a charge, and a watercraft while ashore on premises the insured owns or rents.

Damage to property, exclusion j., is a set of narrow slices rather than one broad care, custody or control bar. Paragraph j.(4) removes personal property in the care, custody or control of the insured. Paragraph j.(5) removes that particular part of real property on which the insured or a contractor on its behalf is performing operations, if the damage arises out of those operations. Paragraph j.(6) removes that particular part of any property that must be restored, repaired or replaced because your work was incorrectly performed on it. Anything outside the particular part is a covered occurrence, which is how a dropped rooftop unit is excluded while the roof deck it lands on is covered. An unlettered paragraph after the exclusions restores exclusions c. through n. for damage by fire to premises while rented to the insured or temporarily occupied with the owner's permission, and exclusion 2.j. separately carves back damage from causes other than fire where premises including their contents are rented to the insured for seven or fewer consecutive days. That fire carve-back is the coverage historically sold as fire legal liability, and it is capped by the Damage To Premises Rented To You limit, which Section III makes subject to the Each Occurrence Limit.

Damage to your work, exclusion l., removes property damage to your work arising out of it and included in the products-completed operations hazard, with one exception that swallows a great deal: the exclusion does not apply if the damaged work, or the work out of which the damage arises, was performed on the insured's behalf by a subcontractor. For a general contractor, your work is the whole project, so the subcontractor exception is what keeps a defective-subwork claim insured. Many carriers delete that exception with CG 22 94, and on an endorsed form the tear-out and replacement cost is excluded again. Read the stem for the word unendorsed.

Impaired property, exclusion m., removes damages for loss of use of property that is not physically injured and can be restored to use merely by replacing the insured's product or work. The claim clears the insuring agreement, because the definition of property damage does reach loss of use of undamaged tangible property, and then the exclusion knocks it out.

Recall of products, work or impaired property, exclusion n., the sistership exclusion, bars any loss, cost or expense incurred by the insured or others for the loss of use, withdrawal, recall, inspection, repair, replacement, adjustment, removal or disposal of the insured's product or work withdrawn from the market because of a known or suspected defect. Proving an actual injury opens a Coverage A claim for that injury; it never makes the withdrawal expense payable. Product recall or product withdrawal expense insurance is a separate purchase.

Two employment-related endorsements finish the picture. CG 21 47 strips both Coverage A and Coverage B for refusal to employ, termination, coercion, demotion, evaluation, reassignment, discipline, defamation, harassment, humiliation and discrimination directed at a current, former or prospective employee. That endorsement is what removes the defamation and privacy offenses when they arise from the employment relationship, and it is why employment practices liability is the market for that exposure.

Commercial auto: symbols, garage risks, and motor carriers

The business auto coverage form does not list vehicles in the insuring agreement. It uses covered auto designation symbols entered next to each coverage on the declarations, and the symbol is the answer to most commercial auto questions.

• Symbol 1, any auto. The broadest liability symbol: owned, hired and non-owned alike, with newly acquired autos picked up automatically and no reporting requirement.
• Symbol 2, owned autos only.
• Symbol 3, owned private passenger autos only.
• Symbol 4, owned autos other than private passenger autos.
• Symbol 5, owned autos subject to no-fault, used to attach personal injury protection.
• Symbol 6, owned autos subject to a compulsory uninsured motorists law.
• Symbol 7, specifically described autos. Only the vehicles on the schedule, and newly acquired autos generally must be reported.
• Symbol 8, hired autos only: autos leased, hired, rented or borrowed by the named insured, excluding autos borrowed from employees or members of their households.
• Symbol 9, non-owned autos only: autos the named insured does not own, lease, hire, rent or borrow that are used in its business, including employees' own cars while used in the insured's business.
• Symbol 19, mobile equipment subject to compulsory or financial responsibility law.

Symbols 8 and 9 together are the standard answer for an employer that owns no vehicles but whose staff drive their own cars on company errands and that occasionally rents a truck. Symbol 9 reaches an employee's car only while it is used in the insured's business, which is why a personal vacation rental by an executive is not covered by it. That specific gap is filled by CA 99 10, Drive Other Car, which extends liability and optionally medical payments, uninsured motorists and physical damage to a named individual and resident family members while using an auto the named insured does not own. It is written for the executive who drives a furnished company car and carries no personal auto policy.

Physical damage on the business auto form uses the same comprehensive versus specified causes of loss versus collision structure as personal lines. Comprehensive, described on the personal auto policy as other than collision, includes flood, and that matters in Florida: the homeowners form excludes flood, but an automobile submerged in a storm surge is an other-than-collision loss under either auto form. Collision means impact with another object or upset, not immersion.

Garage risks are a family of their own and the exam separates them carefully. The auto dealers coverage form insures dealerships. Its physical damage section covers the dealer's own autos held for sale, and it excludes false pretense losses, meaning autos obtained by trick, scheme or false pretense; that exposure is bought back with the False Pretense endorsement, CA 25 03. Garagekeepers coverage is entirely different: it responds to customers' autos left in the insured's care, custody or control for service, repair, storage or safekeeping, and it can be written on three bases.

• Legal liability, the narrowest and most commonly sold: the insurer pays only when the insured is legally responsible for the damage.
• Direct primary: the insurer pays covered damage to the customer's auto whether or not the insured is legally liable, and it pays ahead of the customer's own insurance.
• Direct excess: the insurer pays without regard to liability, but only over whatever coverage the customer carries.

Hail damage to customer cars in the lot is the classic sorting question, because no one is at fault and only a direct basis responds.

Florida adds its own dealer requirements. Section 320.27(3), F.S., conditions a motor vehicle dealer license on evidence of insurance of at least $25,000 combined single limit liability including bodily injury and property damage, plus $10,000 personal injury protection; franchise dealers must submit a garage liability policy, and other dealers may use a garage liability policy or a general liability policy coupled with a business auto policy. Section 320.27(10), F.S., separately requires a $25,000 surety bond or irrevocable letter of credit, furnished annually before the license is issued.

Trucking gets two overlapping rule sets, and mixing them up is a standard trap. Section 627.7415, F.S., imposes additional liability limits on commercial motor vehicles operated on Florida roads, stated as combined bodily injury and property damage per occurrence in three weight tiers: $50,000 for a gross vehicle weight of 26,000 pounds or more but less than 35,000; $100,000 for 35,000 or more but less than 44,000; and $300,000 for 44,000 pounds or more. The same section requires a vehicle actually subject to 49 C.F.R. part 387 to carry the federal amounts instead, and a violation is a noncriminal traffic infraction. The familiar federal figure is $750,000 for a for-hire interstate carrier of non-hazardous property in a vehicle over 10,000 pounds under 49 C.F.R. 387.9, rising to $1,000,000 for oil and certain hazardous substances and $5,000,000 for bulk hazardous materials. A purely intrastate Florida hauler answers to the state weight tiers, not to the $750,000 figure.

The MCS-90, prescribed by 49 C.F.R. 387.15, is the endorsement candidates most often misdescribe. It is a suretyship for the benefit of the public, not an expansion of the insured's coverage. The insurer agrees to pay any final judgment against the insured for public liability resulting from negligence in the operation of vehicles subject to the federal minimums, regardless of whether the vehicle is described in the policy and notwithstanding any condition or exclusion in it. The same endorsement then obliges the insured to reimburse the insurer for any payment the insurer would not have owed but for the endorsement. The injured member of the public is made whole; the motor carrier still ends up bearing the loss.

Florida personal auto: what is compulsory and how PIP actually pays

Start with the fact that trips more candidates than any other in this domain. Florida still has no-fault. The 2026 regular session ended on 13 March 2026 with SB 522 and HB 769 both dead in committee, and the 2025 attempt, HB 1181, died as well. Personal injury protection remains required, at the same $10,000 limit, with the same 14-day rule. Any answer choice built on repeal, or on 25/50/10 bodily injury minimums, is describing a bill that never became law.

Florida compels exactly two coverages at registration for an ordinary private passenger car: $10,000 of personal injury protection under the Florida Motor Vehicle No-Fault Law, ss. 627.730 through 627.7405, F.S., and $10,000 of property damage liability under s. 324.022, F.S. Bodily injury liability is not compulsory at registration for such a vehicle. Section 324.022(1), F.S., also lets an owner satisfy the property damage requirement with a combined bodily injury and property damage single limit of at least $30,000.

Keep three sets of auto numbers apart, because the exam mixes them deliberately.

• Compulsory at registration: $10,000 PIP plus $10,000 property damage liability.
• Proof of financial responsibility under s. 324.021(7), F.S.: $10,000 per person, $20,000 per crash for bodily injury, and $10,000 property damage. These bite only when a driver must file proof, for example after an unsatisfied judgment or certain crashes, and they are certified on an SR-22.
• After a DUI conviction, s. 324.023, F.S.: $100,000 per person, $300,000 per crash for bodily injury and $50,000 property damage, maintained for a minimum of 3 years, certified on an FR-44. The alternative methods of proof in s. 324.031, F.S., remain available at the higher amounts. The trigger is being found guilty of, or pleading guilty or nolo contendere to, driving under the influence under s. 316.193 after 1 October 2007.

PIP attaches to a motor vehicle, defined in s. 627.732(3), F.S., as a self-propelled vehicle with four or more wheels that is both designed and required to be licensed for use on Florida highways. A two-wheeled motorcycle is outside that definition, so no PIP is required on it and carriers do not write it. The separate helmet rule in s. 316.211(3)(b), F.S., which lets a rider over 21 go without a helmet if covered by at least $10,000 in medical benefits for motorcycle crash injuries, is a condition of the helmet law, not a registration requirement and not PIP. A nonresident owner whose vehicle has been physically present in Florida for more than 90 days during the preceding 365 days must thereafter maintain security under s. 627.733(2), F.S.

The benefit structure inside the $10,000 is a favorite calculation item, and the percentages differ by benefit type.

• Medical: 80 percent of reasonable expenses for medically necessary services.
• Disability: 60 percent of loss of gross income and loss of earning capacity from inability to work.
• Replacement services: 100 percent of expenses reasonably incurred for services the injured person would ordinarily have performed.
• Death: $5,000 per individual under s. 627.736(1)(c), F.S., in addition to the medical and disability benefits, not inside them.

Two gates sit in front of the medical benefit. First, the 14-day rule: s. 627.736(1)(a), F.S., conditions PIP medical benefits on the injured person receiving initial services and care within 14 days after the motor vehicle accident. Missing that window forfeits PIP medical benefits entirely; it does not merely reduce them. Initial services must be lawfully provided, supervised, ordered or prescribed by a physician licensed under chapter 458 or 459, a dentist licensed under chapter 466, a chiropractic physician licensed under chapter 460, or an advanced practice registered nurse, or rendered in a hospital or an emergency transport and treatment setting. Second, the emergency medical condition gate: reimbursement reaches the full $10,000 only where a physician, osteopathic physician, dentist, physician assistant or advanced practice registered nurse has determined that the injured person had an emergency medical condition. Where no such determination is made, reimbursement is limited to $2,500. A chiropractic physician may render the initial care but may not make the emergency medical condition determination, which is exactly the trap the bank sets.

The PIP deductible rules are their own item. Section 627.739(2), F.S., requires insurers to offer deductibles of $250, $500 and $1,000 to each applicant and to each policyholder at renewal. Section 627.739(1), F.S., limits who the election may reach: the named insured alone, or the named insured plus dependent relatives residing in the same household, and no other person covered under the policy. The deductible applies to 100 percent of the medical and disability expenses, but s. 627.739(2), F.S., expressly bars applying it to reduce the s. 627.736(1)(c) death benefit.

Payment timing has its own statute. Benefits are overdue 30 days after the insurer is furnished written notice of the covered loss and the amount, under s. 627.736(4)(b), F.S. A presuit demand letter is a condition precedent to any action for PIP benefits under s. 627.736(10), F.S., and the insurer can cure: if within 30 days after receiving the notice it pays the overdue claim with applicable interest and a penalty of 10 percent of the overdue amount, subject to a maximum penalty of $250, no action may be brought on that claim. The $250 cap is the half of that rule candidates forget.

Finally, the tort side. Section 627.737(1), F.S., exempts owners, registrants, operators and occupants of motor vehicles from tort liability for damages because of bodily injury to the extent PIP benefits are payable, and s. 627.737(2), F.S., permits recovery of noneconomic damages for pain, suffering, mental anguish and inconvenience only where the injury consists of significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function; permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability other than scarring or disfigurement; significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement; or death. Exhausting the $10,000 opens the door to suing the at-fault driver for remaining economic losses, but it does nothing for noneconomic damages, which are gated only by the threshold.

Florida auto part two: uninsured motorist, exclusions, and who pays first

Uninsured motorist coverage is the single most heavily tested Florida auto topic, and the statute is rigid about form.

Section 627.727(1), F.S., prohibits delivery in Florida of a motor vehicle liability policy providing bodily injury liability coverage unless uninsured motorist coverage is included, unless the named insured rejects the coverage in writing on a form approved by the Office of Insurance Regulation. The approved form carries a prescribed heading warning the applicant that valuable coverage is being declined, and a named insured's signature on it is conclusively presumed to be an informed, knowing rejection on behalf of all insureds. An oral rejection, however carefully the agency papers its file, does not satisfy the statute, and UM then attaches by operation of law at the statutory amount. Section 627.727(2), F.S., sets that amount at limits not less than the bodily injury liability limits purchased, unless the named insured has selected a lower limit in the manner the statute allows. Once the insured has rejected the coverage or selected lower limits in writing, the insurer need not offer it again on a policy that renews, extends, changes, supersedes or replaces the existing one.

Stacking is the second half of the topic, and here a renumbering trap sits waiting. Section 627.727(8), F.S., lets an insurer offer nonstacked uninsured motorist coverage, in language approved by the Office, providing that coverage as to two or more motor vehicles is not added together to determine the limit available to an injured person for any one accident. The insurer must file rates reflecting a reduction in the uninsured motorist premium of at least 20 percent for policies carrying the limitation. That 20 percent is a discount on price only; it never scales the stated limit down. Paragraph (8)(b) supplies the rule that decides most items: if at the time of the accident the injured person is occupying a motor vehicle, the uninsured motorist coverage available is the coverage available as to that motor vehicle. Signing the approved form creates a conclusive presumption of an informed, knowing acceptance of the limitation on behalf of all insureds, resident relatives included. Without a valid nonstacked election, Florida law produces the stacked result and the per-vehicle limits combine.

The renumbering matters because manuals printed through the 2022 statutes cite the nonstacking rule as s. 627.727(9), F.S. Section 21 of ch. 2023-15, Laws of Florida, deleted the former subsection (8), which had applied the now-repealed one-way attorney fee statute to uninsured motorist actions, and everything below it moved up one. Nonstacking is subsection (8) today. Today's subsection (9) is an unrelated provision on damages recoverable from an uninsured motorist carrier in a bad faith action under s. 624.155, F.S.

Three Florida-specific auto rules round out the topic.

• Named driver exclusion, s. 627.747, F.S.: a private passenger motor vehicle policy may exclude all claims or suits resulting from operation of the vehicle by an identified individual who is not a named insured. The exclusion reaches personal injury protection applicable to that individual, property damage liability, bodily injury liability, and uninsured motorist coverage for damages the excluded individual sustains. It requires the named insured's written consent plus notice that the excluded person must maintain his own coverage to satisfy Florida's financial responsibility law.
• Windshield deductible waiver, s. 627.7288, F.S.: the deductible provisions of any motor vehicle policy delivered or issued in Florida by an authorized insurer providing comprehensive coverage or combined additional coverage do not apply to damage to the windshield. The insured contributes nothing toward a covered windshield loss. Read it narrowly: the waiver is specific to the windshield and does not extend to side glass, rear glass or the sunroof. This provision was not touched by the 2022 or 2023 rewrites and remains in force.
• Rental vehicle priority, s. 627.7263, F.S.: the lessor's valid and collectible liability and personal injury protection insurance is primary unless otherwise stated in at least 10-point type on the face of the rental or lease agreement, and subsection (2) supplies the exact wording that shifts primacy to the renter for the limits required by ss. 324.021(7) and 627.736, F.S. If the agreement is silent, the rental company pays first.

Owner liability is capped, but only in the permissive-use setting. Florida's dangerous instrumentality doctrine makes a vehicle owner liable for a permissive user's negligence without any fault of the owner. Section 324.021(9)(b)3., F.S., caps that vicarious exposure for a natural person who loans a motor vehicle to a permissive user at $100,000 per person and $300,000 per incident for bodily injury plus $50,000 for property damage; and if the permissive user is uninsured or carries less than $500,000 of combined property damage and bodily injury liability coverage, the owner is liable for up to an additional $500,000 in economic damages only. The owner's own negligence, such as negligent entrustment, is a separate and uncapped basis of liability.

Two market mechanisms complete the picture. Transportation network company drivers are governed by s. 627.748, F.S., which sets two coverage periods: while logged on to the digital network but not engaged in a prearranged ride, at least $50,000 for death and bodily injury per person, $100,000 per incident, and $25,000 for property damage, plus PIP and uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage; and while engaged in a prearranged ride, at least $1,000,000 for death, bodily injury and property damage. And the residual market for auto is the Florida Automobile Joint Underwriting Association under s. 627.311(3), F.S., which serves applicants in good faith entitled to but unable to procure insurance through the voluntary market at standard rates, with designated servicing carriers issuing policies and handling claims on behalf of all participating insurers. Citizens Property Insurance Corporation is the residual market for property, never for automobile risks, and the Florida Insurance Guaranty Association pays covered claims of insolvent insurers and issues no policies at all.

Two policy-language points recur alongside the statutes. Under the personal auto policy's Other Insurance provision, any insurance the policy provides for a vehicle the insured does not own is excess over any other collectible insurance, so when a borrower crashes a neighbour's car the neighbour's policy pays primary and the borrower's pays only above those limits. Non-owned autos driven with permission are covered, not excluded, and pro rata sharing applies only where two policies are both primary.

And on physical damage: flood and water damage to an automobile is an other than collision loss, listed among the perils the personal auto policy treats as other than collision. The homeowners form excludes flood, but no separate flood policy is available or needed for the car. Collision means impact with another object or upset, not immersion.

The workers compensation and employers liability policy, Part by Part

The standard workers compensation and employers liability policy is one contract in six parts, and every exam question about it is really a question about the Information Page.

The Information Page carries Item 1, the named insured and mailing address; Item 2, the policy period; Item 3, which is the one that matters, subdivided into 3.A. the states where the workers compensation law applies to the insured's work, 3.B. the employers liability limits, 3.C. the other states where coverage may apply, and 3.D. the endorsements attached; and Item 4, the premium classifications, rates and estimated premium.

Part One, Workers Compensation Insurance, pays promptly the benefits required of the insured by the workers compensation law. Workers compensation law is a defined term meaning the law of each state shown in Item 3.A. There is no dollar limit on Part One, because the benefits are whatever the statute requires. Part One also gives the insurer the right and duty to defend at its expense any claim, proceeding or suit for those benefits, and it makes clear that the insured must reimburse the insurer for any payment the insurer makes that it was not otherwise liable to make, which is how penalties for the insured's own violations end up back on the employer.

Part Two, Employers Liability Insurance, is the tort half. It covers the employer's liability for damages because of bodily injury by accident or disease arising out of and in the course of employment where the injury is not covered by the workers compensation law. Its limits are stated three ways and you must be able to name all three: bodily injury by accident, each accident; bodily injury by disease, policy limit; and bodily injury by disease, each employee. The textbook Part Two claims are third-party-over actions, consortium claims by a spouse, dual-capacity claims, and injury to a worker outside the statutory definition of employee. Two Florida cautions apply. Section 440.11(1), F.S., extends exclusive remedy to the employee, the legal representative, husband or wife, parents, dependents and next of kin, so consortium and family claims are largely unavailable against a Florida employer that secured coverage. And Part Two carries an employment practices exclusion, so it never answers a discrimination or wrongful termination suit.

Part Three, Other States Insurance, applies only if one or more states are shown in Item 3.C. If the insured then begins work in one of those states after the effective date and is neither insured nor self-insured for that work, all provisions of the policy apply as though the state were listed in Item 3.A. The insured must tell the insurer at once when that work begins. This is the prospective mechanism for a trip that may or may not happen; a known, scheduled out-of-state job is handled by adding the state to Item 3.A., not by Part One reaching out on its own. Monopolistic fund states cannot be listed in Item 3.C., because coverage there must be bought from the state fund.

Part Four sets out the insured's duties if injury occurs: notice, cooperation, records and the like. It grants no coverage. Part Five is premium, including the audit provision, the classification basis and the experience modification. Part Six is conditions, including the inspection right, transfer of rights of recovery against others, and cancellation.

Federal acts and specialty exposures come in by endorsement, and confusing the endorsement with Part Three is a standard distractor.

• The Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act Coverage Endorsement makes that federal act part of the workers compensation law the policy insures. Part Three cannot do this; it extends the policy to other states, not to federal acts.
• Maritime Coverage Endorsement, sometimes sold as maritime employers liability, addresses crew members of a vessel under the Jones Act, a different class from longshore workers on the dock.
• The Federal Employers' Liability Act Coverage Endorsement handles railroad workers.
• Voluntary Compensation and Employers Liability Coverage Endorsement offers benefits to workers not subject to the act, such as certain domestic or agricultural workers, in exchange for a release.
• Foreign Voluntary Compensation covers employees working abroad, usually with repatriation expense.

Premium is developed from payroll per $100 by classification, adjusted by the experience modification factor. An experience modification below 1.00 is a credit and above 1.00 is a debit. Florida directs the Office of Insurance Regulation, in s. 627.0915, F.S., to approve rating plans that give specific identifiable consideration to employers implementing a drug-free workplace program under s. 440.102, F.S., or a qualifying safety program, and requires insurers to notify employers that the credits exist. The statute fixes no percentage; the size of the credit comes from the approved rating plan, so a question offering a specific number such as 5 percent is offering a plausible invention.

Florida chapter 440: who must be covered, who may opt out, and what it costs to skip

Florida applies two different employee-count thresholds, and the industry, not the payroll, decides which one you use.

• Construction industry: coverage is required at one or more employees.
• Non-construction private employers: coverage is required at four or more employees, whether full-time or part-time.
• Agricultural labor has its own rule under s. 440.02, F.S.: a bona fide farmer is outside the definition of employment only while employing 5 or fewer regular employees and fewer than 12 seasonal workers who work 30 days or less at one time and not more than 45 days in the same calendar year.
• State and local government employers must cover employees regardless of number.

Construction industry is defined broadly in s. 440.02, F.S., as for-profit activities involving any building, clearing, filling, excavation, or substantial improvement in the size or use of any structure or the appearance of any land. Drywall, roofing and landscaping-that-alters-the-land questions all resolve by pushing the employer into the one-employee tier.

Exemptions run in the opposite direction and are tightly capped in construction. Under s. 440.02, F.S., as to officers of a corporation engaged in the construction industry, no more than three officers of a corporation, or of any group of affiliated corporations, may elect to be exempt. Each must be a shareholder owning at least 10 percent of the stock and be listed as an officer with the Division of Corporations of the Department of State. Owning 10 percent is necessary but never sufficient, because the cap of three is absolute. Section 440.05, F.S., adds the mechanics: the department assesses a $50 fee with each request for a construction industry certificate of election to be exempt or its renewal, and a certificate issued on or after 1 January 2013 is valid for 2 years after its effective date. Filing a notice of election to be exempt containing false or misleading information, knowingly and with intent to injure, defraud or deceive, is a third-degree felony. Sole proprietors and partners engaged in the construction industry are employees under the statutory definition and cannot simply declare themselves out. Officers outside the construction industry face no equivalent numerical cap.

The up-the-ladder rule is the most tested single provision in this section. Section 440.10(1)(b), F.S., provides that where a contractor sublets any part of its contract work, all employees of the contractor and of the subcontractors engaged on that work are deemed to be employed in one and the same business, and the contractor is liable for and must secure the payment of compensation to all of them, except employees of a subcontractor who has itself secured such payment. Section 440.10(1)(c), F.S., requires the contractor to obtain evidence of the subcontractor's coverage or a copy of an officer's certificate of election to be exempt, and s. 440.10(1)(d), F.S., lets a contractor that ends up paying recover all benefits paid or payable, plus interest, from the subcontractor. The intuitive wrong answer, that the sub's own carrier handles it, states the result only where the sub actually carries coverage; that is precisely the exception that fails.

Exclusive remedy is the trade at the heart of the system, and it has conditions. Section 440.11(1), F.S., makes the liability prescribed in s. 440.10 exclusive and in place of all other liability to the employee, the legal representative, husband or wife, parents, dependents and next of kin. Two escapes exist. First, an employer that fails to secure the required coverage loses the immunity: the injured worker may elect to claim compensation or to maintain an action at law, and in that action the employer may not plead comparative negligence, assumption of risk or the fellow-servant rule. Second, the intentional tort exception requires the employee to prove by clear and convincing evidence that the employer engaged in conduct virtually certain to result in injury or death and deliberately concealed the danger; that standard applies to an employer that did secure coverage, so do not confuse the two escapes. Section 440.11(2), F.S., extends the immunity to an employer and each of its employees who use the services of a help supply services company's employees, which is why a client company of a staffing firm keeps its immunity.

Employee leasing is a paired rule. Section 468.529, F.S., makes the licensed employee leasing company the employer of the leased employees and responsible for providing workers compensation coverage under chapter 440, with a duty to notify its carrier and the state when a client relationship begins or ends. Day-to-day direction and control, the common-law test, points at the client, but the leasing statute overrides that analysis for coverage purposes. The client still needs its own policy for anyone it employs directly outside the leasing agreement, and under s. 440.11(2), F.S., it keeps exclusive-remedy immunity for the leased workers.

Coverage may be secured under s. 440.38, F.S., by insuring with an authorized carrier, by qualifying as an individual self-insurer through the Florida Self-Insurers Guaranty Association, or through a group self-insurance fund, a commercial self-insurance fund, a local government pool or an assessable mutual. Florida is a competitive state with no monopolistic fund; the residual market is the Florida Workers' Compensation Joint Underwriting Association, Inc., a nonprofit created under s. 627.311(5), F.S., for applicants required to carry coverage who are in good faith entitled to but unable to procure it in the voluntary market.

The penalty for skipping coverage changed recently, and this is a live trap. Under s. 440.107(7)(d)1., F.S., the department assesses a penalty equal to 2 times the amount the employer would have paid in premium during periods for which it failed to secure coverage within the preceding 12-month period, or $1,000, whichever is greater. Chapter 2022-138, Laws of Florida, shortened that look-back: the earlier statute used the preceding 2-year period, which is the figure older manuals still print. A 24-month look-back survives for an employer previously issued a stop-work order or penalty assessment, and where the employer materially understated or concealed payroll or misrepresented employee duties. The same 2022 law added penalty relief: a 25 percent reduction where a first-time violator produces the requested business records within 21 days, and a further 15 percent reduction where the employer correctly answers at least 80 percent of the questions on the department's online coverage and compliance tutorial within the same 21 days. A stop-work order requires the employer to cease operations until the department finds it in compliance, and a conditional release requires a $1,000 down payment against the penalty plus a payment agreement for the balance.

Florida chapter 440 benefits: the numbers, and the one duration nobody can state

Indemnity benefits start on a delay. Section 440.12(1), F.S., allows no compensation for the first 7 days of disability, except for the medical benefits provided under s. 440.13, F.S., which are payable from day one. However, if the injury results in more than 21 days of disability, compensation is allowed from the commencement of the disability, so the withheld week is paid retroactively. Half-remembering this rule as a flat waiting week is the most common error on the topic: the waiting period is real, but it is conditional.

Section 440.12(2), F.S., caps the weekly rate at 100 percent of the statewide average weekly wage in effect at the time of the injury, and sets a floor of $20 per week for injuries after 31 December 1974. The statewide figure is a ceiling on the benefit, never a substitute wage base.

The benefit classes are:

• Temporary total disability, s. 440.15(2)(a), F.S.: 66 2/3 percent of the average weekly wage during the continuance of the disability.
• Temporary total for a catastrophic injury, s. 440.15(2)(b), F.S.: 80 percent of the average weekly wage, running only up to 6 months from the date of the accident.
• Temporary partial disability, s. 440.15(4), F.S.: 80 percent of the difference between 80 percent of the average weekly wage and the wages the employee is able to earn after the injury.
• Permanent total disability, s. 440.15(1), F.S.: 66 2/3 percent of the average weekly wage during the continuance of the total disability.
• Impairment income benefits, s. 440.15(3), F.S.: a schedule of weeks by impairment rating, at 2 weeks for each percentage point from 1 to 10 percent, 3 weeks per point from 11 to 15 percent, 4 weeks per point from 16 to 20 percent, and 6 weeks per point at 21 percent and above, paid biweekly at 75 percent of the employee's average weekly temporary total disability benefit.

The duration of temporary total disability is the one number no honest guide can state cleanly, and candidates should know why. Section 440.15(2)(a), F.S., prints a 104-week cap. In Westphal v. City of St. Petersburg, 194 So. 3d 311 (Fla. 2016), the Florida Supreme Court held that cap unconstitutional under article I, section 21 of the Florida Constitution as applied to a worker who is still totally disabled and has not reached maximum medical improvement, and revived the pre-1994 limit of 260 weeks. The Legislature has not amended the subsection since; the most recent touches, including ch. 2024-6, Laws of Florida, are reviser's changes. So the printed figure and the operative one diverge, and both appear as answer choices. If a stem simply asks what the statute says, 104 weeks is the printed text; if it asks what a totally disabled worker who has not reached maximum medical improvement can actually receive, 260 weeks is the operative limit under Westphal. Entitlement to temporary benefits ends at maximum medical improvement in any event.

Medical benefits under s. 440.13, F.S., are directed by the employer and carrier, with one statutory exception the exam loves. On the written request of the employee, s. 440.13(2)(f), F.S., requires the carrier to give one change of physician during the course of treatment for any one accident, and to authorize an alternative physician not professionally affiliated with the previous physician within 5 days after receiving the request. If the carrier fails to do so, the choice passes to the employee and the physician the employee selects is deemed authorized, so long as the treatment is compensable and medically necessary. Separately, s. 440.13(3)(d), F.S., requires a carrier to respond to an authorized provider's request for authorization, by telephone or in writing, by the close of the third business day after receipt.

Compensability has its own filters. Section 440.09(1), F.S., requires the accidental injury to arise out of work performed in the course and the scope of employment, and requires the employment to be the major contributing cause, defined as more than 50 percent responsible for the injury as compared to all other causes combined. A positive blood alcohol at or above the s. 316.193 level, or a positive confirmed drug test, creates a rebuttable presumption that the injury was occasioned primarily by intoxication or the drug. Mental or nervous injuries are tightly controlled by s. 440.093, F.S.: no benefits without an accompanying physical injury requiring medical treatment, the mental condition must be shown by clear and convincing medical evidence from a licensed psychiatrist, the compensable physical injury must be and remain the major contributing cause, and temporary benefits for the mental injury run no more than 6 months after the date of maximum medical improvement for the physical injury, counted inside the 104 weeks.

Death benefits under s. 440.16, F.S., are a fixed set of figures worth memorizing: actual funeral expenses not to exceed $7,500, payable within 14 days after the bill is received, and total compensation on the death claim not to exceed $150,000. Dependency shares are percentages of the average weekly wage: 50 percent to the spouse if there is no child; that amount plus 16 2/3 percent on account of the child or children where there is a spouse and children; 33 1/3 percent for each child where there is no spouse; 25 percent to each parent; and 15 percent for each brother, sister or grandchild. All dependents together are limited to 66 2/3 percent of the average weekly wage. A surviving spouse also has an educational benefit covering student fees for up to 1,800 classroom hours at a career center or up to 80 semester hours at a community college, ending 7 years after the death. Section 440.16 has not been amended since 2014, so these figures are stable, which is exactly why they are examinable.

None of this is Part Two money. Part Two, Employers Liability, responds to tort suits that fall outside the compensation remedy; it never pays statutory dependency benefits.

Surety bonds, fidelity bonds, and commercial crime

A surety bond is a three-party guarantee and a policy of insurance is a two-party contract. Getting that distinction straight answers a surprising share of the bond questions on its own.

• The principal is the party who must perform, such as the contractor or the licensed dealer.
• The surety is the party guaranteeing that performance.
• The obligee is the party protected by the guarantee and entitled to make demand on the bond, such as the project owner, the state, or the public.
• The indemnitor is whoever signs the general agreement of indemnity promising to reimburse the surety, ordinarily the principal itself and its owners.

The economics follow from the structure. A surety underwrites the principal expecting no loss at all, so bond premium is a service and credit charge rather than a loss fund, and whatever the surety pays the obligee it may recover from the principal. An insurer, by contrast, prices for expected losses and has no right of reimbursement from its own insured. A surety that cannot get comfortable with the principal's balance sheet declines the bond; it does not simply charge more.

Contract bonds run in a sequence that mirrors a construction job.

• Bid bond: guarantees that if the principal's bid is accepted it will enter into the contract at the bid price and furnish the performance and payment bonds the contract documents require. On default the surety owes the obligee the additional cost of awarding the work to the next acceptable bidder, worded in standard forms as the lesser of that excess cost or the penal sum.
• Performance bond: guarantees completion of the work according to the contract terms. It comes into force only after the contract has actually been executed, which is why it is the wrong answer when a low bidder walks away before signing.
• Payment bond: guarantees that subcontractors, laborers and material suppliers will be paid. It matters most on public jobs, where public property cannot be liened, so the bond substitutes for the lien rights a supplier would otherwise have.
• Maintenance bond: guarantees workmanship and materials for a stated period after the owner accepts the work, commonly one or two years. The performance bond is discharged on acceptance and is not a long-term warranty.
• Supply bond: guarantees delivery of materials or supplies under a purchase contract.

Florida compels the payment and performance combination on public work. Section 255.05, F.S., requires a contractor entering a formal contract with the state or a county, city or other political subdivision for the construction of a public building or public work to furnish a payment and performance bond, with a front-page disclosure of the names, addresses and telephone numbers of the contractor, surety, property owner and contracting public entity, plus the contract and bond numbers and a project description. State contracts of $100,000 or less need no bond, and a local governing board may exempt a contract of $200,000 or less. The notice sequence for a claimant not in privity with the contractor is the tested part and it has two separate steps: serve the contractor with written notice that the claimant will look to the bond before commencing, or not later than 45 days after commencing, to furnish labor, services or materials; and then serve a notice of nonpayment no earlier than 45 days after first furnishing and no later than 90 days after the final furnishing. Serving a fraudulent notice of nonpayment forfeits the claimant's rights under the bond. Suit on the bond must be instituted within 1 year after performance of the labor or completion of delivery of the materials. Section 255.05 was amended by ch. 2023-226, Laws of Florida, so verify any figure you carry from an older edition.

License and permit bonds are the other large family. The obligee is the government and the protected class is the public, so the bond runs against the principal and in favor of anyone the principal harms, which is the exact opposite direction from a fidelity bond. Two Florida figures recur.

• Motor vehicle dealer, s. 320.27(10), F.S.: a good and sufficient surety bond or irrevocable letter of credit in the sum of $25,000, executed by the applicant-dealer as principal, furnished annually before the license is issued.
• Notary public, s. 117.01(7), F.S.: a bond of $7,500, payable to any individual harmed as a result of a breach of duty by the notary acting in an official capacity, given before executing the duties of the office and maintained throughout the term. The right figure with the wrong beneficiary is the standard distractor; the bond protects the public, not the notary, and a surety that pays can collect from the notary.

Judicial bonds divide in two. Court bonds arise in litigation: an appeal or supersedeas bond stays execution of a money judgment while an appeal proceeds and guarantees the judgment plus interest and costs if the appellant loses; an attachment, replevin or injunction bond protects a party against wrongful use of the remedy; a bail bond guarantees a criminal defendant's appearance and nothing else. Note that writing bail bonds in Florida requires a separate license under chapter 648, F.S., as a limited surety agent or professional bail bond agent; a 2-20 general lines license does not authorize it. Fiduciary bonds, sometimes called probate bonds, guarantee the faithful performance of executors, administrators, guardians, trustees and receivers appointed by a court. Public official bonds guarantee the faithful performance of an elected or appointed officer.

Fidelity is the mirror image of surety: it protects the employer against dishonest acts of its own employees, and it is first-party insurance rather than a guarantee running to a third party. In modern practice the exposure is written on the ISO commercial crime coverage form, whose insuring agreements are purchased individually.

• Employee Theft: money, securities and other property taken by the insured's own employees. It requires a dishonest act by someone who meets the form's definition of employee, so an outside vendor or a deceived but honest controller is outside it.
• Forgery Or Alteration: loss resulting directly from forgery or alteration of checks, drafts, promissory notes or similar written promises, orders or directions to pay a sum certain, made or drawn by or drawn upon the insured, or made or drawn by someone acting as the insured's agent. It also adds a defense-cost benefit if the insured is sued for refusing to pay such an instrument.
• Inside The Premises, Theft Of Money And Securities: theft, disappearance and destruction of money and securities. No force is required, so a simple walk-in theft of cash qualifies.
• Inside The Premises, Robbery Or Safe Burglary Of Other Property: business personal property other than money and securities, but only when taken by robbery of a custodian or by safe burglary. A laptop taken with nobody present and no safe involved is neither.
• Outside The Premises: money, securities and other property outside the premises in the care of a messenger or armoured motor vehicle company.
• Computer And Funds Transfer Fraud: the current form combines what the 2006 edition split into two agreements. The computer limb responds to the use of a computer to fraudulently cause a transfer of property from inside the premises or banking premises to a place outside them; the funds transfer limb responds to a fraudulent instruction directing a financial institution to pay funds from the insured's transfer account.
• Money Orders And Counterfeit Money: loss from accepting in good faith a money order that is not paid, or counterfeit money.

Two structural points finish the crime topic. First, trigger. A loss sustained form covers loss sustained during the policy period, reaching back into a canceled prior policy only through a limited superseded-coverage provision and only up to the earlier policy's limit. A discovery form covers loss discovered during the policy period or the extended period to discover loss, even where the dishonest acts were committed before inception, subject to prior insurance and prior loss conditions. Choosing between them is the practical decision when a crime program is replaced, and the discovery form is what a buyer pays for to avoid apportioning an old theft by date. Second, the social engineering gap. Where a controller is deceived into wiring money voluntarily, Employee Theft fails because the employee was deceived rather than dishonest, Computer Fraud fails because a persuasive email is not the use of a computer to transfer property, and Funds Transfer Fraud fails because the insured knowingly ordered the wire. Only a fraudulent impersonation or social engineering fraud endorsement responds, and it must be bought for additional premium, usually with a lower sublimit.

One federal bond sits on this list and is not liability insurance at all. ERISA section 412, 29 U.S.C. s. 1112(a), requires every fiduciary of an employee benefit plan and every person who handles plan funds or other property to be bonded for not less than 10 percent of the amount of funds handled, subject to a minimum of $1,000 and a maximum of $500,000 per plan per year, with the maximum rising to $1,000,000 for a plan that holds employer securities. Apply the formula and then apply the cap: 10 percent of $4,000,000 is $400,000, which is below the ceiling and is therefore the required amount, while 10 percent of $8,000,000 is $800,000 and gets cut back to $500,000. The bond protects the plan and its participants against dishonesty. A fiduciary liability policy insures the fiduciary against claims for breach of duty, and one can never substitute for the other.

Umbrella, excess, and the specialty casualty lines

An umbrella liability policy does three things, and the third one is what separates it from a plain excess policy.

• It provides excess limits over the underlying policies listed on its schedule, typically the CGL, the business auto, and employers liability.
• It provides additional limits when an underlying aggregate is exhausted.
• It drops down and responds as though primary for a loss that is covered by the umbrella but excluded or simply not covered by any underlying policy, after the insured satisfies the self-insured retention.

The mechanism is the retained limit. The umbrella defines the retained limit as the underlying limits where underlying insurance applies, or the self-insured retention where it does not. So where an underlying policy responds, the umbrella sits above the scheduled underlying limit; where none responds, the insured absorbs only the self-insured retention and the umbrella pays above it. A stem giving both a $1,000,000 underlying CGL limit and a $25,000 self-insured retention is testing whether you can tell which one applies: if the CGL is never triggered, the $1,000,000 is irrelevant and the retention is what the insured absorbs.

A following-form excess policy behaves differently. It adopts the terms, conditions, definitions and exclusions of the underlying policy and simply adds limit above it. It therefore never covers anything the underlying excludes, it never drops down, and it needs no self-insured retention. A buffer layer is an excess layer placed between the primary and the umbrella when the umbrella insurer requires higher underlying limits than the primary carries. Umbrellas and excess policies are routinely written by carriers other than the primary; a different carrier is not a distinguishing feature.

Umbrella policies also carry their own exclusions and their own conditions requiring the insured to maintain the scheduled underlying insurance. If underlying insurance is not maintained, the umbrella still pays only what it would have paid had the underlying been in force, and the insured absorbs the difference.

The specialty casualty lines are best learned as a set of one-line placements.

• Professional liability, errors and omissions, and medical malpractice: economic loss caused by a professional act, error or omission. There is no bodily injury or property damage in a typical failure-to-procure claim against an insurance agency, so the CGL cannot reach it and errors and omissions is the answer.
• Directors and officers liability: wrongful acts, errors, misstatements and breaches of duty by directors and officers acting in their corporate capacity, and the resulting financial-loss claims.
• Employment practices liability: refusal to employ, wrongful termination, harassment, discrimination and related employment torts, written claims-made. The Florida Civil Rights Act, chapter 760, F.S., defines a covered employer as one with 15 or more employees for each working day in each of 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding year, and an aggrieved person may file with the Commission on Human Relations within 365 days of the alleged violation. Nothing in Florida law obliges an employer to buy this coverage; it is simply the only product that reaches the claim.
• Employee benefits liability: negligent acts, errors or omissions in administering an employee benefit program, meaning counseling employees, interpreting the plan, handling records, and enrolling, terminating or canceling employees. It is written claims-made with a retroactive date, often by endorsement CG 04 35 to a CGL or businessowners policy, and it excludes breach of fiduciary duty under ERISA.
• Fiduciary liability: the exposure employee benefits liability excludes, namely breach of the fiduciary duties ERISA imposes, such as imprudent investment of plan assets, improper plan design and self-dealing.
• Cyber liability: first-party breach response, including notification, credit monitoring, forensics, business interruption and extortion, plus third-party defense and damages when customers sue. Florida deadlines belong here. Under s. 501.171(4)(a), F.S., a covered entity must notify each affected individual in this state as expeditiously as practicable and no later than 30 days after determining that a breach occurred or that there is reason to believe one occurred; under s. 501.171(3)(a), F.S., a breach affecting 500 or more individuals in this state must also be reported to the Department of Legal Affairs on the same 30-day clock. A 15-day extension exists, but read it carefully: it sits inside subsection (3)(a) and by its terms buys 15 additional days to provide the notice required in subsection (4), the notice to individuals, and only where good cause for the delay is given to the department in writing within the original 30 days. A third-party agent that merely maintains, stores or processes personal information for someone else owes notice to the covered entity within 10 days under s. 501.171(6)(a), F.S., and the covered entity then owes the two 30-day notices.
• Liquor liability: the exposure the CGL excludes for a business in the alcohol trade.
• Contractors pollution liability: the exposure the CGL pollution exclusion removes for a contractor that brings pollutants on to a job site.
• Product recall or product withdrawal expense: the exposure exclusion n. removes.
• Owners and contractors protective liability, or OCP: issued in the name of the indemnitee, usually the project owner, and paid for by the contractor as a contract requirement. It covers the owner's liability arising out of the designated contractor's ongoing operations at the designated project and out of the owner's own general supervision of that work. The contractor is not an insured on it. Its practical advantage over additional insured status is a separate dedicated limit that claims against the contractor cannot erode; additional insured status shares the contractor's limits. A railroad protective policy is the same idea with a railroad as the designated insured, and a wrap-up, whether an owner-controlled or contractor-controlled program, insures all enrolled parties under one program rather than giving the owner a dedicated limit.
• Businessowners policy: a package of property and liability for eligible small and medium risks. Its liability section provides bodily injury and property damage liability, personal and advertising injury liability, and medical expenses, all on an occurrence basis, so no separate CGL is needed. Coinsurance is a property concept and it is applied neither to the BOP's liability limits nor to its property limits, since the businessowners property section is written without a coinsurance clause.

Two Florida medical items belong in this section. Section 458.320, F.S., ties a physician's required financial responsibility to hospital staff privileges: a physician with staff privileges at a facility licensed under chapter 395, or who performs surgery in an ambulatory surgical center, must maintain not less than $250,000 per claim with a minimum annual aggregate of not less than $750,000; a physician without those privileges must maintain not less than $100,000 per claim with a minimum annual aggregate of not less than $300,000. Either tier may be satisfied by professional liability insurance, an escrow account or an unexpired irrevocable letter of credit. A physician may go bare only by posting the prescribed sign in the reception area, giving each patient the prescribed written notice, and agreeing to satisfy adverse judgments up to the same per-claim figure. Both sets of numbers are real, and the exam is testing which tier attaches to which practice setting.

Second, Florida gates medical negligence litigation. Section 766.106(3)(a), F.S., bars filing suit for a period of 90 days after the notice of intent to initiate litigation is delivered to a prospective defendant, during which both sides conduct an informal presuit investigation and the defendant must respond by rejecting the claim, making a settlement offer, or offering to arbitrate damages; s. 766.106(4), F.S., tolls the statute of limitations as to all prospective defendants during that period. Do not confuse it with the 60-day civil remedy notice under s. 624.155, F.S., which precedes a statutory bad faith action against an insurer. And for birth-related neurological injury, the Florida Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Plan is a true no-fault exclusive remedy: s. 766.303(2), F.S., makes the plan's rights and remedies exclusive against a participating physician and hospital, preserving a civil action only on clear and convincing evidence of bad faith or malicious purpose or willful and wanton disregard of human rights, safety or property, and only if filed before the claimant accepts a plan award.

What the 2022 and 2023 rewrite changed, and what your manual still prints

Florida rewrote its property and casualty law across three sessions, and most published study material has not fully caught up. Learn the change and the retired rule together, because the retired rule is the distractor.

Attorney fees. Sections 627.428 and 626.9373, F.S., the one-way fee-shifting statutes that let a prevailing insured recover fees from an insurer, were repealed outright by ch. 2023-15, Laws of Florida, effective 24 March 2023, for all lines and not merely property. In their place s. 86.121, F.S., awards reasonable attorney fees to a named insured, omnibus insured or named beneficiary who obtains a declaratory judgment on coverage after the insurer has made a total coverage denial of a claim; a defense offered under a reservation of rights is not a total coverage denial, the right may not be transferred or assigned, and the section does not apply to any action arising under a residential or commercial property insurance policy. Older manuals still teach that any insured who recovers anything gets fees. That has not been the law since March 2023.

Comparative negligence. Section 768.81(6), F.S., as amended by ch. 2023-15, provides that in a negligence action to which the section applies, any party found to be greater than 50 percent at fault for his or her own harm may not recover any damages. Florida had been a pure comparative fault state, in which a plaintiff 90 percent at fault still recovered 10 percent. The modified 51-percent bar is the current rule, and it does not apply to a medical negligence action under chapter 766, F.S., which remains pure comparative.

Statute of limitations. An action founded on negligence is now 2 years, s. 95.11(5)(a), F.S., reduced from 4 years by ch. 2023-15 for causes of action accruing after 24 March 2023. Older printings cite the negligence paragraph as s. 95.11(3)(a); it is subsection (5)(a) today.

Bad faith. Chapter 2023-15 added s. 624.155(4), F.S.: an action for bad faith involving a liability insurance claim, including a common law action, does not lie if the insurer tenders the lesser of the policy limits or the amount demanded by the claimant within 90 days after receiving actual notice of a claim accompanied by sufficient evidence to support the amount claimed. The same law provides that mere negligence alone is insufficient to constitute bad faith and imposes a duty on the insured, claimant and their representatives to act in good faith in furnishing claim information, making demands, setting deadlines and attempting to settle. The 60-day civil remedy notice in s. 624.155(3), F.S., is unchanged and still runs before a statutory bad faith action.

Damages evidence. Section 768.0427, F.S., created by ch. 2023-15, limits evidence of medical damages: past charges already paid are proved by the amount actually paid regardless of source; unpaid incurred charges are proved by what the claimant's health coverage would pay, or where there is none, by 120 percent of the Medicare reimbursement rate under a stated fallback; and a claimant treating under a letter of protection must disclose the letter, itemised coded billing, any sale of the accounts to a factoring company, insurance status, and the identity of the person who made the referral, with the financial relationship between a law firm and a provider admissible on bias.

Premises liability. Section 768.0701, F.S., requires the trier of fact in a negligent security action against an owner or principal operator of commercial or real property to consider the fault of all persons who contributed to the injury, including the third party who criminally and intentionally caused it. Section 768.0706, F.S., gives the owner or principal operator of a multifamily residential property a presumption against liability for third-party criminal acts where it substantially implements the listed security measures. Both were created by ch. 2023-15.

Uninsured motorist renumbering. Section 21 of ch. 2023-15 deleted the former s. 627.727(8), F.S., which applied the repealed fee statute to uninsured motorist actions. The nonstacking provision moved from subsection (9) to subsection (8), and today's subsection (9) is the unrelated bad faith damages provision. A manual printed through the 2022 statutes cites this wrong.

Workers compensation penalties. Chapter 2022-138, Laws of Florida, shortened the uninsured-employer penalty look-back in s. 440.107(7)(d)1., F.S., from the preceding 2-year period to the preceding 12-month period, keeping 24 months for repeat offenders and for employers who materially understate or conceal payroll or misrepresent employee duties, and it added the 25 percent records reduction and the 15 percent online-tutorial reduction.

Public construction bonds. Section 255.05, F.S., was amended by ch. 2023-226, Laws of Florida; treat any bond threshold or notice figure from an older edition as unverified until checked.

Now the equally important list of things that did not change, because half the exam traps are invented reforms.

• Personal injury protection is still required. The 2026 repeal bills, SB 522 and HB 769, both died on 13 March 2026, and the 2025 attempt, HB 1181, died in committee. There is no 25/50/10 bodily injury minimum in Florida law today.
• The windshield deductible waiver, s. 627.7288, F.S., is intact and untouched by the 2022 and 2023 rewrites.
• Section 440.15(2)(a), F.S., still prints a 104-week cap on temporary total disability. The Legislature has not amended it since Westphal v. City of St. Petersburg, 194 So. 3d 311 (Fla. 2016), revived the 260-week limit, so the printed rule and the operative rule still diverge.
• Section 440.16, F.S., death benefits have not been amended since 2014: $7,500 funeral cap and $150,000 aggregate.
• The Florida dram shop statute, s. 768.125, F.S., dates from 1980 and has not been amended. Vendor immunity for serving an adult stands, with the two exceptions for willfully and unlawfully serving someone not of lawful drinking age and for knowingly serving a person habitually addicted to alcohol.
• The proof of financial responsibility limits in s. 324.021(7), F.S., are still $10,000 per person, $20,000 per crash and $10,000 property damage, and the DUI tier in s. 324.023, F.S., is still $100,000, $300,000 and $50,000 for 3 years.