You may be carrying sufficient coverage to meet your state’s minimum liability insurance coverage requirement. But, would it be enough to cover all the damages you suffer during an accident?
If such an unfortunate thing ever happens to you, your uninsured motorist coverage may not come into the scene if the other driver has got some level of coverage. However, if you got an underinsurance coverage in your own vehicle, you may be able to get more than what the other driver’s insurance pays as compensation.
How underinsured motorist coverage works
Once you’ve settled a claim with the at-fault driver’s insurance company, negotiate with your own insurance provider and try to collect the additional amount your case is worth. However, you can only collect up to the extent of your underinsurance policy limits. Again, if you’ve fetched any medical payments from your own insurance company, the amount would get deducted from the one you collect through your underinsurance coverage. Few examples might help you understand this in a better way. Let us assume that in order to pay the hospital bills, you collect $3,000 from your own insurance company right after the accident. A few months later, you settle the accident claim against the other driver for $10,000, which was the limit of the driver’s liability coverage. Assuming that your underinsurance coverage has a limit of $40,000, and you convince your insurance provider that your claim’s worth is a total of $30,000, under your underinsurance coverage you’re entitled to get an additional $17,000. The calculation is your claim’s worth minus what you collected from the at-fault driver’s insurance company, and the advance payments for hospital bills.Collecting under underinsured motorist coverage
If you want to collect under your underinsured motorist coverage, you must first show your insurance company that the at-fault driver was underinsured. Get a letter from the at-fault driver’s insurance company that states the policy limits of that person’s liability coverage, and also that you’ve settled your claim with that company for the highest limit allowed. You’ll probably won’t have to request for such a letter, as when you negotiate your claim with the at-fault driver’s insurance company, the documents you exchange to settle the claim, may already include the information you need.Getting more information and legal help
If you want to know more about how should you proceed with the insurance thing after a car accident, and in-depth information on what to expect during every step, you can refer to How to Win Your Personal Injury Claim by Joseph L. Matthews. And if you’re thinking about proceeding with a lawsuit after getting involved in a car accident, it’s better that you discuss your case with a personal injury attorney to make sure that all your legal grounds are covered and your rights are protected.Blog Category