As a personal injury lawyer office in Florida, I see all types of accidents and many, many scenarios of what happens following an accident. Something that happens more often that you think is the situation where someone is injured and the other person that causes the accident does not have enough insurance.
Even with smaller injuries, if the at-fault vehicle has $10,000.00 per person and $20,000.00 per accident of insurance coverage, which may seem like enough insurance (the $10,000 per person) when the client has smaller injuries, what about when there are 10 people that have small injuries but the coverage is only $20,000.00 per accident. There are also scenarios where there is a $10,000.00 per person and $20,000.00 per accident where there are 5 or more people with significant injuries which individually may be worth $50,000.00. Of course, in the worst case scenario, there are many cases seen where the at-fault car has NO bodily injury coverage.
In all of these scenarios where there is or may not be enough insurance, there is always the option of suing the at fault owner and/or driver individually. In other words, you can sue them for monies over their insurance policy. The problem is that generally when people have small insurance policies, they are not worth suing individually and may be “judgement proof.” Judgement proof means that you can sue the person but the person would be able to file for bankruptcy and discharge the judgment debt or that even if not discharged that you could not collect the judgment against them. Hence, you hear the cliche’ of “you cannot get blood out of a stone.”
One want to protect yourself from this situation in Florida is to have uninsured motorist coverage. Uninsured motorist coverage, which is also underinsured motorist coverage, generally pays you money when you are in an accident where another car is at fault and that car has no bodily injury coverage or NOT enough bodily injury coverage. You have to buy a certain amount of this coverage, in other words, there is not an unlimited amount of coverage it provides, you have to purchase $10,000 worth, $25,000 … $500,000 worth of this coverage and it protects you to that amount if the situation would ever happen. You cannot buy this insurance to cover an accident that already happened. You generally must have it at the time of the accident.
Of course, every case is unique and has to be judged based on the specific facts of the case. The advice in this blog is intended to be general in nature and should not to be construed to be specific advice for a case, as the most slight difference in the facts could ultimately change the result. Also, this blog is, as the web site suggests, based on Florida law and the laws of any other states or country could vary significantly from Florida.
If you have been in an accident, please call Drucker Law Offices at 561-483-9199 (Boca Raton Main office) or 954-755-2120 (Coral Springs satellite office) or 305-981-1561 (Miami satellite office) for a free consultation. A contingency fee agreement is offered which means fees and costs are only charged if money is recovered for you.
