One of the most devastating moments for some of my clients comes after a collision has taken place and they have been seriously hurt.? The devastation at that point is not necessarily the fact that they were injured in a car wreck, but learning that the insurance that they have been paying for does not protect them, but the other driver.
The law requires that a driver have minimum coverage of $25,000.? This insurance is there so that if a collision takes place for which the driver is at fault, the other driver has some recovery.?? In the end $25,000 may sound like a lot of money, but it is very small when you consider how much a serious injury can end up costing in medical bills, lost time at work, and a host of other factors.
The point of this article is to address uninsured motorist coverage.?? This is additional insurance over and above that $25,000 that covers the driver in the event that he or she is involved in a car wreck where the other driver did not have any insurance for whatever reason.? Yes, the other driver was breaking the law by driving without insurance, but this is far more common than any of us would like to believe.? When a person is hit by a driver without insurance, unless there is uninsured motorist coverage, the person may absolutely have little or no ability to receive any compensation for his or her injuries.? It is in that moment that the person realizes that the insurance they have been paying for, that minimum $25,000, does not mean that the insurance company pays him or her.
With uninsured motorist coverage, if and when a person is hit by someone without insurance, the driver?s own insurance company stands in the place of the other driver and may end up being responsible for paying compensation for the injuries that the driver sustained.? This additional insurance is vital given how many drivers are in the country illegally and how many are driving without valid insurance.? Although many would argue that it should be required by law, it is not at this time, and that means that many people out there are driving around unprotected.
I always feel terrible when I have to advise clients that they have no recourse but to file a lawsuit against someone who may be incarcerated because they were here illegally or perhaps against someone who was driving without insurance because they had no money.? In these situations, the chance of my client ever being able to get paid the first dime in compensation is usually a longshot.?? Many times, my clients chose not to purchase uninsured motorist coverage, or ?UM? or ?UIM? as it may be called, because they wanted to save as much money as possible when buying insurance.
Insurance is not something anyone ever wants to get there money?s worth from.? Even if you have excellent uninsured motorist coverage, the only way you will ever ?get your money?s worth? is to be seriously injured.? Although the wish to save money is something most of us want to do whenever possible, car insurance is not the place to cut corners.? As I learned years and years ago when I first took driver?s education as a teenager, the question is not whether or not you will be in a car wreck, but when and how serious the wreck will be.? I do not believe I have ever met anyone who has been driving for more than 10 or 15 years who has never been in any car wreck.? No matter how safe or defensive a driver you are, the other guy or girl behind the wheel may be talking, texting, drinking, eating, playing with the radio, or engaging in some other activity that takes their attention of the road.
In the end, it is best to evaluate what insurance you have and to ensure that you are sufficiently protected against a host of likely scenarios.? As for uninsured motorists, they are far more prevalent on our roads than they should be and anyone who fails to purchase this insurance coverage is placing themselves in a very, very dangerous situation.
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