Late last month, I took a case to jury trial in Clay County, Missouri involving a 40-year old man who fell on a white foreign substance in the driveway of a house where he had been  hired by the owners to do some remodeling work.  The owners denied that the white foreign substance was present, but I had another co-worker that testified she had seen it just a few days before my plaintiff worker fell.  In the fall, the worker sustained a contusion or bruise to the spinal cord and also had to undergo a fusion surgery in his neck to relieve pressure from a herniated disc to the spinal cord.  The insurance company for the owners offered $10,000 on the first day of trial, and after four days of trial, the jury returned a verdict of $650,000 less 25% of the fault to the worker.  Given the facts and circumstances, it was a good result.

Last time we discussed the virtues of underinsured motorist coverage.  Another type of coverage that is often overlooked is medical payments coverage.  Medical payments coverage makes payment on behalf of a victim of an automobile accident for all reasonable medical expenses incurred as a result of that accident.  The coverage is often limited to you or any person that is in your vehicle when an injury occurs.  The coverage does not concern itself with the fault of any driver, but simply requires an injury in an insured vehicle.

If medical expenses result from an injury within the insured vehicle, the insurance carrier will pay up to the coverage limits for all treatment.  Oftentimes this payment is in addition to other overlapping insurance coverages that might apply.  Let me give you an example of the practical benefits of this type of coverage.

“Lisa” was driving her insured truck when it was negligently rear-ended by an individual that had been drinking.  Lisa was taken by ambulance to a local hospital where she received several thousand dollars worth of treatment and released.  She had a significant neck injury and followed up with an orthopedic doctor and had many weeks of physical therapy.

The hospital bills and subsequent treatment were submitted to Lisa’s individual health insurance policy.  These medical bills were all paid by this private insurance.  In addition to that benefit, a claim was made against the at-fault driver’s insurance company for Lisa’s damages.  A settlement was entered into with that company for all harms experienced by Lisa including compensation for the medical bills which had been paid by Lisa’s private health insurance company.

In addition to these claims, Lisa also made a claim against her own automobile insurance company under the medical payments coverage provision of her policy.  The medical bills were submitted to her automobile insurance company and, despite the fact that she received compensation for these bills through overlapping insurance, she was able to obtain payment from her automobile insurance carrier directly to her for these bills.  From a practical standpoint this helped her cover deductibles and co-payments that applied to her health insurance and represented compensation for the perceived inadequacies of the liability coverage settlement.

Lisa had paid premiums for all of these coverages and used them to her advantage in order to fully compensate her for her injuries resulting from the automobile wreck.  Don’t make the mistake of purchasing coverages that overlap and then failing to initiate claims to utilize these policy provisions.  Allow your insurance to work to your advantage.  If you have any questions regarding medical payments coverages or any other type of accident related issues, please feel free to give me a call and I will be happy to discuss them with you at no obligation to you.

Our firm has occasion to speak with many individuals involved in car, truck, and motorcycle accidents.  These individuals are often victims of negligent actions on the part of other drivers that have caused substantial injuries to them.  As we discuss the various factual and legal issues involved in their accident, we eventually discuss insurance coverages applicable to the accident.

Obviously, the individual that caused the accident is required under State laws to maintain a certain amount of liability insurance coverage.  The reality is that these minimum coverages often do not come close to covering the amount of damages caused by most automobile accidents.  This places the victims of negligent drivers at severe risk of not being fully compensated for their injuries.

Many times, I have to explain to an individual with a serious injury that the driver that hit them had inadequate insurance coverage to fully compensate them for their harms.  While the at-fault driver can be pursued personally for any damages beyond the liability insurance coverages, the collectibility of judgments in excess of insurance coverage is usually low.  Oftentimes, the cost of collections will outweigh the likelihood of success in finding other assets to satisfy these judgments.

There is an alternative available for every person to consider in order to avoid these gaps in coverages.  Each person has the opportunity to purchase underinsured motorist coverage when purchasing their mandatory liability and uninsured motorist coverage.  Uninsured motorist coverage applies when the at-fault driver has failed to comply with the State minimums for liability coverage.  If the at-fault driver has met the minimums but has insufficient limits to fully compensate the victim, the optional underinsured motorist coverage is available.

When an individual goes to purchase their own auto coverage, many insurance agents and companies don’t explain underinsured motorist coverage and oftentimes do not tout the virtues of this critical gap coverage.  Many people think that they have “full coverage” when they are, in reality, inadequately insured.  Explaining to most insurance agents that you would like “full coverage” often leaves underinsured motorist coverage unpurchased.  In my experience, most people do not carry underinsured motorist coverage because they do not understand the nature of this coverage and its benefits.  What is more sad is that it is relatively inexpensive to purchase this type of coverage.

If this coverage is vital and inexpensive, why don’t insurance agents and companies convince people to purchase this type of coverage.  The answer is because underinsured motorist coverage is not profitable for agents and companies.  Furthermore, because companies do not encourage their agents to sell this coverage, a lot of agents don’t understand the benefits of such coverage and, therefore, do not relay this information on to their clients.

Some States do include mandatory underinsured motorist coverage as a part of the State minimum requirements.  Unfortunately, the mandatory limits are similar to the liability coverage limits which are equally inadequate.

Pull out your policy and see if you have purchased underinsured motorist coverage.  If you have not, I would encourage you to contact your insurance agent and discuss this critical option.  Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you have “full coverage” when you are exposing yourself to potential hardship when someone injures you and has insufficient insurance coverages.

If you have been involved in an accident and have made a liability claim against the at-fault driver, but suspect that your injuries and damages may exceed that coverage, you should contact our firm immediately to discuss whether there are other types of insurance coverage that might be available to you.