The aim of this paper is to establish whether and to what extent road carriers are protected by the current terms of professional liability insurance in transport of goods available on the Croatian market in the event of a partial or complete loss of and/or damage to goods in domestic and international transport. The author will present the system of road carrier liability for this type of damage in accordance with the current Croatian law and the grounds for exemption from liability pursuant to the CMR Convention of 1956 in international carriage of goods, i.e., as concerns domestic transport, the Civil Obligations Act. Furthermore, we will analyse the available judgments of Croatian courts which applied provisions of the said acts, i.e. conventions in order to assess the interpretation of grounds for exoneration that has been used in practice.
In addition, we will compare the terms of professional liability insurance for road carriers with different insurance companies on the Croatian market, with a special emphasis on the analysis of the grounds for exclusion of coverage. In doing so we will try to establish whether and to what extent the terms of exclusion are in line with the current legal framework governing exemption from liability for carriers in the event of loss of and/or damage to goods in carriage by road, i.e. whether it is possible for a carrier to be considered liable for damage (fully or in part) even though he is subject to exclusion of coverage according to his professional liability insurance policy.
