Though the evidence is anecdotal, experience suggests that
too many of our personal injury clients are injured as the
result of auto accidents caused by drivers who bought the
minimum level of auto insurance ($20,000) or, even worse,
failed to maintain any auto insurance at all. Too often, clients
who carry $1,000,000 of liability insurance on their own
vehicles to protect against personal injury claims by others are
dumbfounded to learn that the other driver has insufficient
liability coverage to compensate our client or his family
member for his physical injury. Any experienced personal
injury lawyer would tell you that this scenario is common.
While the scenario might be common, it is avoidable. All of
us may protect ourselves and our household members against
this tangible risk by taking advantage of existing benefits
on our own auto insurance policies. Each policy includes
a provision for uninsurance and underinsurance coverage.
Uninsurance coverage protects the insured and his household
members against the risk that the at-fault driver might not
have any liability coverage at all. Underinsurance coverage
protects against the risk that the at-fault driver might have
insufficient coverage. We can protect ourselves and our families
by increasing the limits of these coverages from the typical
$20,000 policy limit to higher policy limits.
The process that attaches to an uninsurance or underinsurance
claim is direct and expedient. In the event of a personal injury
to a client resulting from an auto accident, the client first
turns toward the liability policy limits of the at-fault driver.
If the liability policy limits are insufficient to compensate the
client for the injuries, then the client next makes demand
upon his own auto insurer for payment of the uninsurance
or underinsurance benefit to supplement the at-fault driver’s
liability coverage. If the client and his own insurer are unable
to resolve the claim, then the matter proceeds swiftly to
arbitration rather than to a lengthy judicial proceeding. The
uninsurance or underinsurance claim is usually resolved within
a few months of initiation of the arbitration process.
This office recommends that its clients purchase the maximum
uninsurance or underinsurance limits available under their
policies. High limits of underinsurance are necessary partly
because the amount of underinsurance obtained is reduced
on a dollar for dollar basis by the amount of liability insurance
carried by the at-fault driver. If the at-fault driver has a
$20,000 liability policy, then the first $20,000 of the client’s
underinsurance is offset.
Nobody likes to pay for additional auto insurance. This type
of auto insurance, however, directly protects the client and his
family for their injuries. It is a relatively inexpensive hedge
against the possibility that the at-fault driver lacked the means
or desire to carry adequate insurance. If experience is any
guide, then that possibility is close to a statistical likelihood
