We all
know that many people drive without insurance. Our lawmakers know
about these uninsured motorists, too. As a result, the
law in Connecticut requires that your automobile insurance
company provide you with a type of coverage known as Uninsured
/ Underinsured Motorist (called "UM" for
short) to protect you in these situations.
Take
out your insurance policy, or look it up online, and check
the page (the "Declarations Page") that
describes the coverage that you are paying for.
There
is a section called Liability that covers you when
you cause a car accident, or someone says you did. This section pays
the injured person for medical expenses, lost time from
work, and pain and suffering. Under Connecticut
law, this coverage has to be at least $20,000 / $40,000
($40,000 total but only $20,000 for any one person).
The
next section is usually the Uninsured / Underinsured
Motorist part. This
UM coverage takes care of the situation when you or your
passengers are injured in a car accident caused by a
driver without insurance (an uninsured motorist). This coverage will
also cover you even if you are traveling in someone else’s
car or are a pedestrian at the time you are injured.
The
Underinsured part comes in if the insurance policy
of the driver who caused the accident is less than the
value of your case. To
use this part of your insurance, you must first collect the total liability coverage of the driver at fault
and your UM coverage must be higher than the liability
coverage of the driver at fault.
Example: A driver with
$20,000 in liability coverage injures you. Your UM coverage
is $50,000. You’re
case is worth $35,000.
After collecting the $20,000 available from the
other driver’s insurance policy, you can collect $15,000
from the Underinsured Motorist coverage in your policy
that you have paid for.
Think
of all the insurance ads you have seen. Has a single one
of them ever mentioned UM coverage? Probably not. The insurance
companies want you to pay for UM coverage. But they do not
want you to know about this protection that you have
bought for yourself and your family.
We
at Serrano & Serrano think you should know about your
UM coverage. And
that you should use it when necessary, the same way you
would use your fire insurance policy if your home
accidentally burnt.
When
we tell our clients about their UM coverage rights, there
are usually 2 questions:
As to Question
1: There
is no reason for your insurance company to drop you or
raise your rates if you have to use your UM coverage. Remember, you did
not cause the automobile accident. You were just
unlucky to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Insurance
companies base their premiums on how likely a driver is to
be the cause of a car accident. That is why a 16
year old male driving a Corvette with traffic tickets on
his record and who lives in a city will pay more for
insurance than a 60 year old retired woman driving a Volvo
and who lives in the suburbs. He is a greater risk
for making the insurance company pay a personal injury
claim for a car accident.
The
fact that you were hit by an uninsured motorist does not
mean that the same thing is likely to happen to you again
in the future. There
is no reason for your insurance company to make you angry
by raising your premiums.
You do not present a greater risk to the company that you
will cause a personal injury claim.
Your insurance company has spent a lot of money getting you as a
customer. (Remember those ads.) They know you can
just go to another insurance company that will charge you
a premium based on your driving record. (You did not cause
the car accident, so it is not on your driving record.)
As
to Question 2:
Your insurance company is not paying you for
someone’s else’s fault.
Your company is paying you for coverage you have
purchased to protect yourself for car accidents, the same
way your fire insurance policy pays you for coverage you
have purchased to protect your house.
Because UM coverage protects
you and your family, it is a good idea to purchase as much
of this type of coverage as you can afford. Make
sure that you are properly covered if a car accident
results in a personal injury claim for you or a family
member. We recommend at least $100,000 in UM
coverage.
When You Need a Car Accident
Lawyer,
Rely on Us for Skill,
Determination and Experience.
