by Guest » Mon Dec 30, 2013 12:20 pm
My agent told me few days back that if I’m in an accident and I don’t have enough auto insurance, I can be sued and might lose my home in the lawsuit. However, I never heard that someone lost their home for an auto accident. If I have a really good driving record, how much insurance do I need in order to save my house? I also want to know how they collect from someone who doesn’t have enough insurance.
Posted: Mon Dec 30, 2013 01:13 pm Post Subject:
Is it possible? I doubt it. What is possible is that someone could obtain an excess judgement against you and attach that judgement as a lien against the home. This means the judgement would need to be paid before the home could be sold.
For this to happen, the injured party would need to refuse to accept the offers from your insurance company and go to trial. This means your insurance company would defend you the entire time. The other party may loose. The other party may get less then is being offered. If they win no more then your limits, then the limits are paid by your carrier and it's done. If they obtain an excess verdict then your carrier pays the policy limits and the plaintiff obtains an excess judgement against you. Will they every see a dime of that? Not likely.
The attorney is in the game _only_ to make money. A judgement is not money. In 25 years I've never seen an attorney not settle for the insurance money and go after a person. Has it happened? I'm sure it has. More likely is that an insurance company will not agree to pay the policy limits and the attorney may get an excess verdict. Some carriers will go ahead and just pay more then the limits (Farmers does this). Most won't But then you have a Bad Faith claim against your carrier as they did not protect you by offering your limits and settling.
At the end of the day I'd recommend having higher limits then the state requires. Something around 100/300 is good for most people. Get quotes for different amounts. You may find an extra $100k might cost something like $20 more a year. If so, you may not mind paying that extra money.
Posted: Tue Dec 31, 2013 04:59 am Post Subject:
My agent told me few days back that if I’m in an accident and I don’t have enough auto insurance, I can be sued and might lose my home in the lawsuit.
andA judgement is not money. In 25 years I've never seen an attorney not settle for the insurance money and go after a person.
Tort lawyers understand that most individuals do not have the resources or means to pay large judgments for wrongful death claims such as the OP's agent must be suggesting the need to cover. Instead they look for other "deep pockets" to go after, such as an agent and his $1,000,000 errors & omissions insurance policy, or an auto manufacturer. Can you lose your home in the event of a wrongful death lawsuit? Could you be forced to sell to pay a judgment? Anything is possible. Will they simply take it from you? No.tcope is correct when he says that increasing one's personal injury liability limits to 100/300 is good and that the added expense is nominal. Larger PI limits provide an added measure of protection. Your agent, however, is perhaps playing on fear to sell you more insurance and make a larger commission. His recommendation has merit, but his motives are suspect. There are better ways to make the same recommendations.
Of equal or greater importance, however, is property damage liability. With new vehicles averaging $35,000+, carrying low limits such as $5,000 (CA minimum) or $10,000 is foolhardy -- simply banging into the rear end of any late model vehicle at 5-10 mph will easily cause $7,000-$10,000 in physical damage.
What's worse is that the economic times have caused people to own their vehicles much longer, and that used car values have not diminished as fast as insurers would like. This makes vehicle repairs more likely than total losses in many cases, and those repairs could easily exceed one's low PD limit.
For that, a judgment is far more likely to result in a lien against a person's home or other tangible property. It is most appropriate to carry PD in the $50,000 range to avoid such entanglements.
Posted: Thu Jan 02, 2014 07:31 am Post Subject:
Though technically this is true, to me they are just trying to scare you so that you go ahead and purchase a more expensive policy. You should talk to more carriers what I think...
Posted: Thu Jan 02, 2014 09:50 am Post Subject:
In many cases, an individual can be sued following an auto accident. This is where an insurance policy saves you. However, once the limits of your liability coverage are exhausted, your personal belongings become vulnerable since now you become liable for the remaining damages. If the remaining balance is minimal, you can manage. In 2007, an auto accident with a with a resultant injury sustained by two or more occupants of the vehicle resulted in more than $375,000 in average insurance settlements.
So if you have only $1,00,000 in coverage, you are required to pay off the remaining $275,000 on your own.
Posted: Thu Jan 02, 2014 01:06 pm Post Subject:
In 2007, an auto accident with a with a resultant injury sustained by two or more occupants of the vehicle resulted in more than $375,000 in average insurance settlements.
Setting aside the grammatical errors that make this statement confusing to say the least, can your back up this claim in anyway?
Certainly an average or typical injury judgement in 2007 for 2 people was not $375,000.
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