Just after midnight on a Saturday, a security officer working the door of a Fort Lauderdale bar is told to remove a customer who has been starting arguments. The customer refuses to leave, shoves the officer, and the two end up on the sidewalk. The customer breaks his wrist in the fall. Months later a lawsuit names the bar, the landlord and the security company, alleging that the officer used excessive force. The security company sends the suit to its general liability carrier and receives a reservation of rights letter in return. The policy has an assault and battery exclusion, and the carrier is questioning whether it has any duty to defend.
For Florida security guard companies, assault and battery coverage plays the same role that care, custody and control plays for a marine contractor. It is the single coverage question that decides whether the policy responds to the exposure at the center of the job.
Why Assault and Battery Is Treated Differently
Standard general liability insurance is built around accidental bodily injury and property damage. Claims that arise from physical confrontation sit closer to intentional conduct, even when the officer acted properly and the force used was reasonable. Insurers handle that risk separately for that reason. Some general liability policies exclude assault and battery entirely. Others cover it with a sublimit that is far lower than the main policy limit. Others cover it only for certain operations or locations.
The result is that a security company can carry an active general liability policy with a large limit and discover during a claim that the type of incident most likely to happen on its posts was never covered, or was covered only up to a small fraction of what the company thought it had.
What These Claims Look Like
The incidents behind assault and battery claims are part of ordinary security work. An officer removes a trespasser from a pool deck. A guard detains someone suspected of shoplifting until police arrive. A crowd control officer at an event pulls apart two people who are fighting. A patrol officer confronts someone breaking into a car. In each case the person who was removed, detained or restrained may later allege that the force was excessive, that the detention was unlawful, or that the officer started the confrontation.
Claims can also come from the other direction. A guest attacked by another guest at a property may sue the security company for failing to prevent the assault. Depending on the policy wording, an exclusion for injury “arising out of” assault and battery can reach those failure-to-protect claims too, not only claims about what the officer did.
A Certificate of Insurance Will Not Show You This
Certificates of insurance list the policy, the limits and the dates. They rarely show exclusions or sublimits. A client looking at a certificate that shows a large general liability limit has no way of knowing whether assault and battery is excluded or limited to a much smaller amount. The only way to know is to read the policy forms and endorsements themselves. Clients who hire security companies are increasingly asking for that proof, and security companies should be ready to provide it.
Armed Operations Face More Scrutiny
Armed security officers in Florida must hold a Class G statewide firearm license in addition to their Class D security officer license, both issued under chapter 493 of the Florida Statutes. Insurers treat armed posts very differently from unarmed ones. Fewer markets will write armed operations, and those that do typically review firearm training, use-of-force policies, supervision and claims history closely before offering assault and battery coverage at a meaningful limit. Our comparison of armed and unarmed security guard insurance covers those differences.
Unarmed does not mean low risk, however. Nightclub door staff, event crowd control, retail loss prevention and residential security at troubled properties all generate physical confrontations, and carriers price those operations accordingly.
New Agencies Face the Hardest Market
A newly licensed agency with no loss history often has the most difficulty finding assault and battery coverage at the limits its clients require. Carriers want to see experience, written procedures and supervision. A new owner who has worked in the industry for years should document that background, along with the agency’s training program, post orders and incident reporting process, before going to market.
What Happens When It Is Excluded
If the policy excludes assault and battery and a claim arrives, the security company may have to pay for its own defense and any settlement or judgment. That can be a business-ending event for a small agency. It can also put the company in breach of its client contracts, many of which require assault and battery coverage at a specified limit. Clients who find out after an incident that their guard company had no coverage may also be left exposed, which is why sophisticated property managers and associations now ask specifically about this coverage. Our article on what an HOA should verify before hiring a security company explains the buyer’s side.
Documentation Changes the Outcome
Even with good coverage, how a claim turns out often depends on what the company can show. Written use-of-force policies, training records for each officer, clear post orders, incident reports written promptly and accurately, and video when it exists all help establish that the officer acted reasonably. Insurers look at the same documentation when deciding whether to offer coverage and at what price, so building it into daily operations pays off in both places.
Worth Confirming With Your Agent
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Whether your general liability policy excludes assault and battery or covers it with a sublimit
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The assault and battery limit, and whether defense costs reduce it
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Whether the wording reaches failure-to-protect claims as well as claims about officer conduct
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Whether coverage applies to every type of post you staff, including nightlife and events
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Whether armed posts are covered and what the carrier requires to keep them covered
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Whether your limits meet the assault and battery requirements in your client contracts
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That your use-of-force policy, training records and incident reports are current
This article is general information and is not legal advice.
Talk to Prestige Insurance Group
Security guard insurance is one of the main lines Prestige Insurance Group writes, and assault and battery is the first thing we look at in any security program. If you want to know exactly how your current policy treats these claims, send us the policy forms, not just the certificate, and we will review the wording and compare it with what specialty markets can offer.
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Orlando: 407-993-2331
Miami: 305-969-8776
Stuart: 772-247-3788
Prestige Insurance Group, License L057894
