A general liability policy is not one coverage, it is three coverage parts with six separate limits sitting on the declarations page, and the eight items below are what you should check before you sign. Most Oklahoma businesses never read past the premium. Then a claim lands on the one limit nobody looked at. This page walks the policy itself. For what it costs, who has to be added to it and what Oklahoma contracts demand, see general liability insurance in Oklahoma.
1. Products and completed operations
This is the part that answers for your work after you have left the job, and for the things you made or sold after they are in someone else's hands. A roofer finishes a roof, the roof leaks eight months later and the water ruins the ceiling below. A manufacturer ships a part that fails. Both of those are completed operations and products claims, not premises claims.
It matters more than any other section for contractors and trades, because it carries its own aggregate limit separate from everything else on the policy. It is also the part that some cheap policies quietly exclude. If you build, install, repair or manufacture anything in Oklahoma, read this line on the declarations page first.
2. Personal and advertising injury
Coverage B on the form, and it has nothing to do with physical injury. It answers for libel, slander, false arrest, wrongful eviction, invasion of privacy, and for using someone else's advertising idea or slogan in your own advertising. It carries its own limit, usually equal to the each occurrence limit.
Service businesses tend to think this one is irrelevant. It is the section that responds when a competitor says you disparaged them, or when a tenant says you evicted them wrongly.
3. Damage to premises rented to you
The old name for this was fire damage legal liability, and you will still hear it called that. It covers damage to the building you rent when you are legally responsible, and on most policies it is capped far below your main limit. A common default is $100,000, and a lot of leases require more.
If you lease your shop, your office or your warehouse, pull the lease and compare what it makes you responsible for against what this line actually pays. That gap gets discovered at the worst possible time.
4. Medical payments
A small goodwill limit, often $5,000 or $10,000 per person, that pays medical bills for someone hurt on your premises without anyone arguing about fault. A customer trips in your entryway, you send the bill here, the ambulance and the urgent care visit get paid, and the incident frequently ends there.
It is the cheapest claim you will ever have, because it settles before a lawyer is involved.
5. Bodily injury and property damage
Coverage A, the core of the policy, and what most people picture when they say general liability. Someone is hurt, or someone's property is damaged, by your operations or on your premises, and the policy pays what you are legally obligated to pay plus the cost of defending you.
The defense cost is the part worth understanding. On a standard form, defense is paid in addition to your limit rather than out of it, which means a $1,000,000 limit is $1,000,000 available to the claimant with your legal bills covered separately. Some cut-rate forms erode the limit with defense costs instead. That single difference is worth more than the premium gap between two quotes.
6. Reputational harm
This lives inside Coverage B rather than standing alone, which is why it is easy to miss when you compare policies. If your business is accused of damaging someone's reputation through something said or published, this is the section that responds.
It has become more relevant, not less, now that most Oklahoma small businesses answer reviews and post on their own social accounts. A reply written in frustration on a Friday afternoon is a published statement.
7. Copyright and advertising infringement
Also part of Coverage B, and worth being precise about, because this is where policies get oversold. The form covers infringing on someone else's copyright, trade dress or slogan in your advertisement. It is not general intellectual property coverage. Patent and trademark infringement are excluded on a standard form.
In practice it responds to things like using a photo you did not license in an ad, or running a tagline close enough to a competitor's to draw a letter. If your business genuinely needs broad IP protection, that is a separate policy and you should ask for it by name.
8. Each occurrence limit, and the aggregates above it
The each occurrence limit is the most the policy pays for any single claim. The general aggregate is the most it pays for all claims in the policy year combined. Those are different numbers doing different jobs, and the second one is the one that runs out quietly.
The pattern Oklahoma contracts ask for over and over is $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate. Three moderate claims in one year can exhaust a $2,000,000 aggregate even though no single one came near the occurrence limit, and once the aggregate is gone the policy is finished until renewal.
How the six limits fit together
Every standard general liability declarations page carries the same six lines, and they stack like this:
- General aggregate: the ceiling for the whole policy year.
- Products and completed operations aggregate: a separate ceiling, for your finished work and your products only.
- Personal and advertising injury limit: the most for any one Coverage B claim.
- Each occurrence limit: the most for any one bodily injury or property damage claim.
- Damage to premises rented to you: the capped amount for the building you lease.
- Medical expense, any one person: the no-fault goodwill limit.
When a certificate holder asks for "one million two million" they are asking about the first and fourth lines. Nobody asks about the fifth, and the fifth is the one that fails a lease.
What it does not do
General liability does not cover your own employees who get hurt, which is workers compensation. It does not cover your vehicles, which is commercial auto. It does not cover mistakes in professional advice, which is professional liability. And it does not pay to redo the work you were hired to do when you did it badly, only the damage that work caused to other things.
General liability policy questions we get asked
What is the difference between each occurrence and general aggregate?
Each occurrence is the most the policy pays for one claim. The general aggregate is the most it pays for every claim in the policy year added together. A $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate policy can pay a million on one claim, but only two million in total across the year. Once the aggregate is used up the policy stops responding until it renews.
Does general liability cover damage to my own work?
No. If you install a roof badly, the policy does not pay to redo the roof. What it does pay for is the damage your faulty work caused to something else, such as the ceiling and the flooring ruined when that roof leaked. That distinction is the one contractors are most often surprised by, and it is why the products and completed operations section matters so much on a trades policy.
Are defense costs paid on top of my limit or out of it?
On a standard general liability form, defense costs are paid in addition to the limit, so a $1,000,000 limit stays fully available to the claimant while your legal bills are covered separately. Some cut-rate policies erode the limit with defense costs instead, which can consume a large share of the limit before anything reaches the claimant. Ask which one you are being quoted, because two policies at the same limit are not the same policy.
Does general liability cover copyright or patent infringement?
Only narrowly. The form covers infringing on someone's copyright, trade dress or slogan in your own advertisement, so an unlicensed photo in an ad is the typical claim. Patent and trademark infringement are excluded on a standard form. If your business needs real intellectual property protection, that is a separate policy and you have to ask for it specifically.
What limit do Oklahoma contracts usually require?
The pattern you will see over and over is $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate. Mall and shopping-center leases tend to be the strictest, and often add additional insured status for both the landlord and the property manager plus a waiver of subrogation. Send us the insurance requirements page from the contract and we will quote to it exactly.
Have your current policy read
Send us your declarations page and we will tell you which of these eight lines is short and what it costs to fix. Call or text (405) 509-9433, or start a business insurance quote.