Uninsured Motorist Coverage

Transcript: Hi. I’m Indiana personal injury attorney David Holub.

This video discusses the importance of having uninsured or underinsured motorist insurance.

Many times we have clients that come to us who have simply had the basic insurance coverage on their automobile.

They have not considered putting what’s called uninsured motorist coverage as well as underinsured motorist coverage on their vehicle.

Consequently, if they’re in a crash with a motorist who is at fault but has no insurance, they are without any recourse to obtain damages for what has happened to them in that crash. For example, we had a situation where a woman was driving along, and a drunk driver, in broad daylight, crossed the center line and crashed head-on into her vehicle. The combined speed of the collision was probably 75 miles per hour and injuries were extremely serious.

Yet, the drunk driver had stolen the car and was twice the legal limit, had no insurance coverage whatsoever. Our client fortunately had underinsured and uninsured motorist coverage. It was minimal, approximately $100,000, and her damages and injuries were probably valued at $1,000,000. But it was something, at least, that could pay some of the medical bills and help her in that particular situation.

So, when you’re buying insurance, make sure you get coverage that protects you. Uninsured motorist and underinsured motorist coverage does not cost very much, but it protects you or your family members that are the occupants of your car.

Another item of coverage to get is something called med pay. This means that any medical bills that are associated with the accident are paid by your car insurance company, up to the limits of the coverage that you select. Basic med pay coverage is $5,000, but it can be set at $25,000, or $100,000. Today when there’s so high deductibles on regular health insurance, it’s critical to have med pay coverage as well as uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage.