Understanding Uninsured Motorist Coverage
As a Florida personal injury lawyer who sees hundreds and thousands of car accidents,I always tell my clients, friends and family to buy this coverage.
Uninsured Motorist Insurance is called "UM" Coverage.
In Florida, this insurance is very important to have.
Personal injury lawyers in Florida who handle car accident cases know about this coverage. So should you.
The way uninsured motorist coverage works is usually this:
Let's say someone is driving their own car, or driver or occupant of the car, who is residing in the household and a relative of the owner of the car. That driver gets injured in a serious car accident where the driver and owner of the other car had no or little insurance.
For our example, let's say the driver who was at fault carried only $10,000 in car insurance.
Now, suppose that the injuries are pretty bad, maybe a fractured arm or leg, and that the jury award is going to be bigger than the amount of insurance carried by the at fault driver of the other car. Are you with me so far?
The other guy has $10,000 but the injury is worth let's suppose $50,000 in my example.
Where can the injured victim get the other $40,000 of the value of the injuries, if the other driver only had $10,000 in insurance?
There are many possible answers, no cases are always alike. However, for our purposes, we are discussing and learning about uninsured motorist coverage.
So, now we will assume that there was $50,000 in uninsured motorist coverage purchased by the injured driver before this accident.
Just to make it easy math. OK, thank's for bearing with me, here we go!
The other and at fault driver says "please, take my $10,000 in insurance, its all I have to pay you with".
The Florida car accident lawyer writes to the uninsured motorist carrier and says " Hey, is it OK for us to accept this $10,000? Because we think that is all the insurance the other side has for this 2 car accident, and we want to continue after taking the $10,000 with a claim against the UM insurance which was bought before this accident. Does the UM insurance company allow us to take that $10,000 and proceed to claim against the UM coverage?" Let's say the answer is Yes.
Now, the Florida car accident lawyer says to the UM insurance company, "Ok, the Florida personal injury claim is worth $50,000 and we have gotten only $10,000 from the underlying insurance of the at fault motorist. We now want you to give us the remaining $40,000 that this car accident case is worth!"
That is one of the ways that UM coverage works. It supplies insurance as if it is stepping into the shoes of the negligent motorist.
Now, the UM insurance company can do a couple of things that you might not think is fair. Because after all, they are the insurance company providing UM insurance purchased by the car accident victim or a relative of the policy holder. So, you might expect them to agree about who is at fault. Nope, ERRRRR (buzzer sounds, like on a game show).
The UM carrier might fight paying the claim, saying that the victim is partially at fault, that the injuries are not so big and so forth.
The car accident lawyer in Florida may have to argue about who is at fault. That same Florida car accident personal injury attorney may have to argue that the injuries are serious and permanent.
The UM carrier might be insurance purchased by the claimant, but because the UM insurance carrier gets to step into the shoes of the at fault driver, the insurance company acts like it is the insurance company for the at fault driver and inherits many but not all of the defenses available to the at fault driver!
If you have been following all of the above, then you know:
1. The UM insurance can supply coverage for accidents where the other driver is at fault and either not insured or only partially insured.
2. The UM coverage usually only begins to be responsible to pay out money, if at all, after any insurance limits of the other driver have been offered, and after the UM carrier gets the opportunity to agree that the injured person can accept them. If the UM carrier does not agree that the underlying insurance limits of the other driver can be accepted, it is a big headache, very technical, and is properly the subject of an in conference meeting with the Florida personal injury lawyer about how to proceed.
Now, a few twists and turns:
It is possible that if there are multiple cars in the household, there may be increased insurance- using something called '"stacking".
If the injured victim has a policy of UM insurance on more than one car, it is actually possible with "stacking" to get more insurance coverage than the stated limits on one car!
Well, I hope that this long explanation about UM insurance was helpful.
Remember, each situation needs legal advice, and every case is different. Don't be a know-it-all and rely only on the information I am giving you, be smart and speak with a Florida car accident personal injury lawyer about your claim.
