How a Negligent Driver’s Insurance Policy Affects Your Injury Case

In Massachusetts, all insured drivers must carry liability insurance, in the amount of $25,000 per person, and $50,000 per accident. This is the minimum liability that is required, and therefore, the most affordable–and that means that often, when someone in a car injures you, there’s a good chance they are only carrying this minimum policy.

So what happens if your injuries are worth more than the policy? So, as an example, if we assume that a driver has the standard, minimum $25,000 policy, and your settlement or jury verdict is $100,000–what happens to, and how do you get paid, the additional $75,000 which is over and above the policy limit?

Waivers of Liability for the Driver

If that is truly all the insurance coverage available–that is, there is no other responsible party in the accident, and you have no other insurance–then you may be stuck just accepting the $20,000 if you settle.

That’s because if the insurance company offers you money as a settlement, they will almost always want you to waive your rights to collect the balance against their insured (the negligent driver that injured you).

Going to Trial

That’s if you settle–if you do go to trial, and you won the $100,000 there, you would have the right to both collect against the insurance company for their $25,000 policy, and to pursue the driver, individually, for the balance that exceeds the insurance policy. But of course, that does entail the time and risk of going to trial in the first place.

Of course, most people–especially those carrying the smallest insurance policies–don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars laying around just in case they get sued for negligence. That means that in any scenario where you go after the other driver individually, you would have to go through a collections process of identifying and seizing assets, or garnishing bank accounts or wages, and only against those that are considered non-exempt–some assets cannot legally be collected against.

Third Parties

In some cases, there may be third parties to include in your lawsuit, which may provide other means of recovery. Other drivers may have been involved in the accident. Or, a negligent driver may have co-owned the vehicle with someone else, who can be included in the lawsuit as well, as being someone titled on the vehicle.

Uninsured Motorist Coverage

The other option is for you to carry what is known as uninsured motorist or UM coverage.

Your UM coverage will make up the difference between what the other negligent driver’s insurance policy is, and what you are owed through a settlement or verdict. You can add your own UM, onto the policy of the negligent driver. To do that, you must make a claim against or sue your own UM carrier, along with the negligent driver.

Call our Boston personal injury lawyers at The Law Office of Joseph Linnehan, Jr. today at 617-275-4200 after your car accident for help with compensation for your injuries.

Source:

mass.gov/info-details/basics-of-auto-insurance