The Assault and Battery Provision

Nearly every general liability policy written for security operations addresses assault and battery specifically. There are three common treatments, and the difference between them is the single most important fact about the policy.\n\nFull exclusion is the harshest. The policy excludes bodily injury or personal injury arising out of assault or battery, including the failure to prevent or suppress it. For a guard company, that removes coverage for a large share of its realistic claims.\n\nSublimited coverage is the most common. Assault and battery is covered, but subject to its own limit that is lower than the policy limit, sometimes substantially lower, and often with its own aggregate. A policy with a general limit and a much smaller assault and battery sublimit can exhaust that sublimit on a single serious claim, including on defense costs.\n\nFull limits coverage is available from some markets at higher cost. Assault and battery is covered at the policy limit.\n\nRead the endorsement, not the declarations page. Also check how defense costs interact with the sublimit, because a sublimit that includes defense inside it is worth far less than one with defense outside it.

• Identify whether assault and battery is excluded, sublimited, or covered at full limits
• Check whether the sublimit has its own aggregate and whether defense costs erode it
• Confirm whether failure to prevent or suppress assault is treated the same way
• Compare the sublimit against the real severity of a serious use of force claim

Firearms, Weapons, and Armed Officers

Armed service changes the risk profile, the market, and the policy wording.\n\nMany general liability policies for security operations exclude claims arising from the use of firearms, or restrict coverage to unarmed operations. Others cover armed operations subject to conditions: officers must be properly licensed and permitted under state law, must have completed specified training and qualification, and may be required to requalify on a schedule. Those conditions are enforceable, and a claim arising from an officer who had not requalified can be contested.\n\nLess lethal tools create their own questions. Batons, chemical sprays, conducted energy devices, and restraints each carry injury potential and each may be treated differently in the policy. Canine units are often addressed separately again, because dog bite claims have their own exposure profile.\n\nThe practical steps are simple but need to be done. Confirm in writing whether your policy covers armed operations and which weapons. Confirm the training, licensing, and qualification conditions, and confirm that your records can prove compliance for every officer, on every post, on the date of any incident. And align your post orders with your policy, so an officer on an unarmed contract is not carrying.

• Confirm whether armed operations are covered and under what conditions
• Verify training, licensing, and requalification conditions and keep records that prove compliance
• Check how less lethal tools and canine units are treated
• Match post orders and client contracts to what the policy actually permits

Professional Liability for Security Services

General liability responds to bodily injury and property damage. A meaningful share of security claims allege neither. A client sues because a theft occurred that the guard should have prevented, because an alarm was not responded to, because a report was inaccurate, or because the service provided did not meet the standard promised in the contract. Those are economic loss claims arising from the performance of professional services.\n\nSecurity professional liability, sometimes written as errors and omissions for security services, is the coverage built for that. It addresses negligence in the performance of security services, including failure to detect, failure to respond, inadequate investigation, and inaccurate reporting.\n\nFirms that provide alarm installation or monitoring, electronic security system design, background screening, or investigative services have additional professional exposures that may need separately addressed coverage. Background screening in particular carries privacy and consumer reporting exposure that general liability does not touch.

• General liability generally does not cover economic loss from failure to perform security services
• Security professional liability addresses failure to detect, failure to respond, and reporting errors
• Alarm monitoring, system design, screening, and investigations may need their own coverage
• Review how professional liability and general liability divide a mixed allegation claim

Have Your Security Program Reviewed

If you do not know your assault and battery sublimit, or whether your policy contemplates armed service at every post you staff, that is worth confirming now. We place general liability, professional liability, and auto for security and investigative firms and will read your policy and your client contracts with you. Schedule a conversation at calendly.com/grandbayfinancial.\n\nThis article is for general information and is not a substitute for policy language or professional advice.