Liability Coverage

Every person who is driving a car is required to have liability coverage.  Missouri law states they must have a minimum of $25,000 coverage and Illinois requires $20,000.  When someone hits you and we start working on the case, we are immediately dealing with the insurance company.  However, we cannot sue the insurance company directly.  Rather the suit has to be brought against the person who hit you.  However, it is the insurance company that ultimately pays for the settlement or verdict and also pays for their attorney.  Frankly, there really is little impact on the life of the person responsible other than their insurance premiums rising.  In fact, there is a recent Allstate commercial which shows a young teenager getting ready to head off to college who has just been hit with a verdict in a car accident case.  So the plaintiff’s comes over and tells them that they will somehow find the money because they know he has college savings.  The fact is this is just more insurance company propaganda and we never go after any personal assets of the person who hit you.  The only exception is when we are dealing with large corporations or large trucking companies.  However, generally, the settlement and or verdict get paid out of the person’s liability coverage.  This is why it’s so important to find out from the beginning how much coverage there is.  Because if they only maintain the minimal amounts, obviously we are not going to spend thousands of dollars in expenses which are going to eat into your net recovery.

Underinsured Coverage (UIM)

So what happens in the situation where you have $100,000 in medical bills but the person who hit you only has $25,000 liability coverage?  Well we settle for that $25,000 right away and then we proceed against your Underinsured motorist coverage.  Now, not everyone has underinsured motorist coverage and if you don’t have it already, I highly suggest that you add it.  Underinsured motorist coverage is a coverage that you specifically have to pay for on your auto policy which comes into play in the circumstances where you are hit by someone who does not have adequate insurance to pay for all your injuries.  Generally, making a claim against your underinsured motorist coverage does not affect your insurance rates because the wreck was not your fault.  In this type of case, we do sue the insurance company directly.  This is a great advantage because normally we do not get to tell the jury about the existence of insurance coverage.  However in UIM cases, they are the main defendant and if there is one thing I’ve learned through trials, it is that defendants do not like insurance companies.

Uninsured Motorist Coverage (UM)

Uninsured motorist coverage comes into play when the person who hits you did not carry insurance coverage or it was a hit-and-run and we do not know the identity of the person responsible.  Again uninsured motorist coverage is something that you personally carry on your car insurance and it is required by state law so you will have it.  Like UIM cases, suits against your insurance company for uninsured motorist company are brought directly against the insurance company.  The main thing to remember is that if your wreck was caused by someone without insurance or you do not know the identity of the person who caused the wreck, all is not lost.  Rather we will make a claim against your uninsured motorist carrier and let them explain to the jury why they do not want to pay you when you’ve faithfully paid your premiums for all these years.