Uninsured motorist claims

     There are often times when an accident occurs that a Plaintiff needs to make a liability claim against his/her own automobile insurance policy. For example, if a phantom motorist causes someone to become involved in an accident and the driver of the vehicle cannot be identified, the claimant may be required to pursue a claim under the uninsured motorist provisions of their own automobile insurance policy. Even if the other driver in an accident can be identified, yet still does not have required liability insurance, a claimant can make a claim under his/her own liability policy. Therefore, we always recommend that our clients increase their own uninsured motorist coverage to higher amounts since there are a lot of uninsured drivers in the community.

Underinsured motorist claims

     By statutory definition an underinsured motorist claim, for all practical purposes, is much like an uninsured motorist claim. If you have insurance limits higher than the defendant has, you may make a claim under your own insurance policy as well as the defendant's policy. If another driver who is at fault in an accident only has a minimal limits policy of $20,000, yet the claimant has a larger policy that contains uninsured limits of $100,000, the claimant can still attempt to collect the balance of the damage from his/her own policy. The uninsured (underinsured in this case) would normally get a credit for any amounts paid by the other liability policy. Accordingly, in the above example, the claimant would only be able to collect an additional $80,000 from his/her own policy.

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The legal information on this site is not intended to be legal advice.  Contact one of our experienced auto accident attorneys or lawyers today to get specific information and answers for your specific situation.