Commercial General Liability (CGL) policies, like all insurance products, are intended to protect the insured from unexpected claims or suits by third parties. A CGL policy covers bodily injury, property, personal and advertising liability, products and completed operations and fire liability unless they are excluded by a specific endorsement. CGL coverage can provide important protections to a business owner for a variety of losses, but they are most ubiquitous in the construction setting.

Perhaps no issue is as litigated and disputed within the CGL context as whether faulty construction work comes within a typical CGL policy's initial grant of coverage. Pundits, professors and law professionals have all offered starkly differing views, but recent cases appear to be coalescing in favor of coverage, albeit for a specifically delineated subset of damages. This article will briefly summarize the positions and arguments in favor and in opposition to such coverage and offer a glimpse of what the future may hold. This article is limited to analyzing the CGL's initial grant of coverage and does not delve into how, if at all, the policy's 20 or so exclusions would affect that grant.