I am a Mission Viejo area car accident ansd personal injury attorney. Here are some questions you may want to think about.
What happens to you if you are injured in a car accident and the person who caused the accident is driving without insurance on his or her car and your injuries are worth $100,000 or more?
What if that person has car insurance of only $15,000.00 per person and your injuries and case are worth $100,000.00 or more?
Here is the answer.
You can purchase additional insurance on your car called Uninsured Motorist coverage. If you have Uninsured Motorist coverage and are hit by a driver with no insurance or very little insurance, you are still protected. Here is how it works.
What happens if the person who caused the accident does not have any insurance
Suppose you are in a car accident and are injured. The person who hit you does not have any insurance, is unemployed and has no assets.
- Your medical bills total $50,000.00 and you have $50,000.00 in pain and suffering. This means your case is worth approximately $100,000.00.
- If you don’t have Uninsured Motorist insurance on your car you are just out of luck.
What if the person who caused the accident has insurance but purchased insurance with low limits.
If you do have Uninsured motorist insurance you can submit a claim to your own insurance company for the $100,000.00.
- If the person who was at fault for the accident has $15,000.00 in insurance coverage, you can claim the $15,000.00 of his or her policy from his or her insurance company. You can then claim for the remaining value of your claim from your own insurance company, with which you have Uninsured Motorist coverage.
- Your own insurance company is entitled to a credit for the $15,000.00 you obtained from the at fault driver’s insurance company.
This formula is as follows:
Amount of your Uninsured Motorist policy …………………………………..$100,000.00
Amount paid to you by under insured at fault driver ………………………..$ 15,000.00
Amount available from your own insurance company for your claim ……$ 85,000.00
Horror Story of a client who did not have Uninsured Motorist coverage
I recently had someone call me from their hospital bed. They were horribly injured in a car accident. The medical bills alone were over $250,000.00. The other driver had only $50,000.00 policy was unemployed and had no assets we could attach. The injured caller did not have Uninsured Motorist insurance on the car he was driving. We could have gotten him the $50,000.00 policy of the at fault driver’s policy but that was all.
Example of client s who have Uninsured Motorist insurance
A case of this nature, where there was Uninsured Motorist insurance available, is discussed in my Case Results in this website. It is entitled Mission Viejo Area Car Accident Attorney Settles Cases of Injured Husband and Wife.
Conclusion
I strongly urge you to contact your insurance agent and get a price quote for adding Uninsured Motorist insurance coverage to your own car, truck, motor home, motorcycle or any other motor vehicle which you operate. You should ask for coverage in an amount equal to the amount of liability coverage you carry on your car in case you injure someone else.
For example, if you have a $100,000.00 automobile liability insurance policy, you should ask your agent for a quote to add $100,000.00 in Uninsured Motorist coverage. You should insure for injuries to yourself in at least as much as you are insuring someone who you might run into and injure.
If you would like to discuss this, or any other accident matter, there is no charge to talk to me. Please just call me at 949-496-7000 and I will be glad to talk with you.