Do Not Buy Auto Insurance Before Reading This! Part III – Uninsured and Underinsured Coverage | Car Insurance Claims Lawyer in Indianapolis, IN
In Part I of this series, I covered a few of the many factors that can increase or decrease your premiums and how—to some extent—you can control your costs. In Part II, I suggested that you consider shopping for your automobile insurance policy through a licensed independent agent with the capabilities of searching through a database of carriers licensed to do business in the state of Indiana. You can verify an agent’s licensing status with the Indiana Department of Insurance.
As a car insurance claims lawyer in Indianapolis, IN, it is my responsibility to personally share my knowledge and experiences with automobile insurance to family, friends, clients and with the members of the general public through presentations and articles I periodically publish on the topic. And because uninsured and underinsured coverage is probably the least understood type of insurance, I would like to clarify why having this coverage can make all the difference to you and your family should the need arise.
Uninsured Drivers
The latest statistics we have on uninsured drivers in Indiana is from a study conducted by the Insurance Research Council in their 2015 analysis of insurance claims. Five years ago, Indiana ranked 8th in the nation for uninsured drivers. As trends go, if you were to be injured by an act of reckless driving in Indiana, the odds that the driver would be uninsured are approximately one in six.
What is uninsured/underinsured automobile coverage?
Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage protects you, your family and any injured passengers in your vehicle if you are hit by a driver who is either uninsured or doesn’t carry enough bodily injury liability insurance to cover all reasonable economic and non-economic damages caused by the defendant’s negligence.
The state of Indiana requires that all newly written policies must include uninsured/underinsured coverage unless you specifically waive this coverage in writing. However, I cannot convey in words strongly enough, that to pinch pennies or forfeit this coverage altogether, may cause you regret down the road.
I have health insurance. Why do I need uninsured/underinsured insurance?
While it is true that health insurance may pay a portion of your medical bills, there are other potential losses that the defendant driver’s insurance may pay, or in the case of an uninsured or underinsured defendant, the insured’s policy may pay through their uninsured/underinsured coverage.
An example of a claim using uninsured/underinsured insurance
An experienced car insurance claims lawyer in Indianapolis, IN will make a claim of negligence against the other driver requesting compensation for injuries and other losses or damages. These damages may include economic (quantifiable) damages such as past and future medical bills, past and future loss of wages, and other expenses that may be independently calculated and agreed upon by the parties.
In addition to economic damages, most negotiations include a request for compensation that covers non-quantifiable losses, or non-economic damages. Non-economic damages cannot be priced or documented objectively. They are abstract and subjective to the injured plaintiff(s) and may consist of pain and suffering, loss of companionship, disfigurement, disability, and assorted costs that are a part of living life with a disability.
However, if the defendant driver has no insurance or an insufficient amount of insurance to make the plaintiff(s) financially whole again, the remaining compensation is sought from the injured person(s) uninsured/underinsured policy.
Experienced personal injury lawyers in Indianapolis, IN
If you have been injured in an accident that was caused by another driver, call Charlie Ward, an experienced personal injury lawyer in Indianapolis, IN, as soon as possible and before valuable evidence can be lost or destroyed. Call Charlie Ward from Ward & Ward Law Firm today at (317) 639-9501.
