Over the past few weeks, I have had clients who were injured in significant car accidents. Unfortunately, these clients were hit by
someone who was carrying no insurance at the time of the accident. Florida law requires that you only carry property damage ($10,000.00) and PIP – Personal Injury Protection of $10,000.00 for your lost wages and medical bills.
The uninsured motorist coverage is elected by you when you meet your agent. You must ask that agent to give you uninsured motorist coverage so that you can collect for your pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life if you are hit by an uninsured motorist. The policy will only be written for the value of your bodily injury and I recommend that you get as much bodily injury and uninsured motorist as you can afford.
The second scenario is when someone is underinsured – does not have enough insurance/bodily injury insurance. I had a case where the individual broke his arm and the person who hit him only had $10,000.00 of bodily injury coverage. The broken arm case was worth multiple six figures and the $10,000.00 would not adequately compensate my client.
Therefore, we accepted the $10,000.00 from the bodily injury insurance and we presented a claim against the uninsured motorist/underinsured motorist. This resulted in a significant recovery for my client which would not have been possible without the client purchasing uninsured motorist coverage.
If you have any questions about your policy or while visiting with an insurance agent, please do not hesitate to contact me at my website www.frankeidson.com or call me at 407-315-2182 or toll free at (888)245-2855.
