Combined Single Limit (CSL)

A combined single limit is a single dollar amount of liability coverage that applies to a claim in any combination of bodily injury and property damage. Instead of having separate caps for injuries per person, injuries per accident, and property damage, everything pools into one number. The carrier can pay up to the full CSL amount in whatever split the actual loss requires -- all bodily injury, all property damage, or any combination.

Compare this to split limits, which are the standard format for personal auto policies. A 100/300/100 split-limit policy carries $100,000 per injured person, $300,000 total injuries per accident, and $100,000 property damage. Those are internal caps. If a crash causes $200,000 in injuries to one person, the split-limit policy at 100/300/100 pays $100,000 (per-person cap) even though $200,000 is under the $300,000 per-accident ceiling. A $300,000 CSL would have covered the full $200,000 because there are no internal sub-limits.

CSL is common on commercial auto policies because commercial losses tend to involve more complex, unpredictable distributions between injuries and property damage. A commercial truck accident might cause $350,000 in injuries and $80,000 in cargo damage on the same event. A CSL handles that flexibility cleanly. Split limits at the same total dollar level would require the $430,000 total to fit within three separate buckets, which may not work. For personal auto, split limits are typically the norm and CSL is less common.