Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Claims

LEE KELSO

One of the most important things you can do to protect your family is to make sure you have adequate insurance coverage, particularly when it comes to auto insurance. We're here today with attorney David Farnbauch, a long time lawyer from Fort Wayne, whose going to talk to us today about some of the most important insurance coverage you should include on your auto coverage. David thanks for being with us today.  

DAVID FARNBAUCH

It's great to be with you today.

LEE KELSO

David most of our viewers probably carry uninsured or under-insured motorist coverage on their auto policy. I'll bet some of our viewers do not fully understand the distinction between uninsured and under-insured coverage. Could you explain?

DAVID FARNBAUCH

Well uninsured motorist coverage is coverage that motorists purchase to protect themselves against another driver that causes an accident and that other driver does not have any auto liability insurance whatsoever. That's known as uninsured motorist coverage. Under-insured motorist coverage is protection that you purchase to protect yourself against a driver who has auto liability insurance, but do not have enough coverage to fully cover all the damages that are caused in the accident. For example: in Indiana a motorist is required to carry at least twenty-five thousand dollars per person in liability coverage. frequently we see accidents in our office where the damages, the medical bills alone are a hundred- thousand, two-hundred thousand, three-hundred thousand dollars, so if the other driver's only carrying twenty-five thousand dollars worth of liability insurance coverage, that driver's not carrying enough insurance to fully cover all of your damages from the accident. So you have to look to your own policy to provide additional coverage over and above what the other driver was carrying.

LEE KELSO

David in Indiana is it mandatory that you have uninsured or under-insured motorist coverage as part of your own auto-insurance coverage?

DAVID FARNBAUCH

No it isn't mandatory, in fact its one of those things that we always recommend to our clients. Whenever they renew their auto-insurance coverage we ask them to take a look at both their uninsured and under-insured motorist coverage to try to purchase as much uninsured and under-insured coverage as they can afford because there are many situations where accidents are caused by drivers who are carrying very low limits like twenty-five thousand or fifty-thousand dollars worth of auto-insurance coverage.

LEE KELSO

What are the typical policy limits for coverage sold to consumers in the State of Indiana? 

DAVID FARNBAUCH

The typical policy that we see sold in the State of Indiana is a policy that provides a hundred thousand dollars coverage for injuries to any one person or three hundred-thousand dollars for all of the occupants in the vehicle or what we call per accident coverage. So with a hundred-thousand dollar policy limits for the at fault driver commonly we see situations where there is a serious accident even the medical bills alone will exceed the two hundred-thousand dollars that's available under the at fault driver's auto insurance coverage that's why it is important to check your own policy and try to purchase more under-insured motorist coverage so that if you are involved in a serious accident you can recover damages on your own policy.

LEE KELSO

So why would a person want to add uninsured or under-insured coverage to their policy?

DAVID FARNBAUCH

Well I think the big reason that you would want to have coverage as I mentioned before is because so many drivers in the State of Indiana that are carrying lowland policies. you see advertisements all the time on television for insurance companies that are selling so-called minimum coverage. There is a very significant percentage of drivers out there that are driving around with only twenty-five thousand dollars worth of insurance coverage and it does not take much of an accident or much of a hospital stay to go through twenty-five thousand to fifty-thousand dollars of auto insurance coverage just to cover medical expenses alone, so I think that is imperative every time you renew your policy to talk to your agent about how much uninsured and under-insured motorist coverage you can afford. 

LEE KELSO

How much uninsured and under-insured coverage should a family carry?

DAVID FARNBAUCH

I think that based on our experience and based on current medical expenses a four or five day hospital stay right now will run you around somewhere between fifteen and a hundred-thousand dollars. I would say that once again if your budget will afford it we would recommend the family carry a minimum of two-hundred fifty thousand dollars of under-insured motorist coverage if you can afford it. Purchase an additional umbrella policy of a million dollars worth of under-insured motorist coverage. You'll find if you talk to an insurance agent that an umbrella policy that gives you an additional million dollars of under-insured motorist coverage it doesn't cost more than a few hundred dollars per year. 

LEE KELSO

Give our viewers some idea just how much uninsured and under-insured insurance coverage comes into play in the aftermath of a motor vehicle accident.

DAVID FARNBAUCH

I would say that in the last ten years approximately half of the motor vehicle accident cases that we have in our office will ultimately recover damages under the client's own auto insurance policy, so once again with increased cost of medical care and the number of drivers that are driving on the Indiana roadways with minimum one month policies it's very critical to purchase uninsured motorist coverage for your own protection.

LEE KELSO

If one of our viewers is involved in an accident and has questions about uninsured or under-insured motorist coverage does your firm offer free consultation?

DAVID FARNBAUCH

Our law firm like most law firms who handle accident cases offer free consultation, so if you have questions about whether uninsured or under-insured motorist coverage applies to your situation feel free to call our office and we'll answer your questions for free.   

LEE KELSO

That's good advice. Thanks for shedding some light on this confusing subject and spending time with us today.

DAVID FARNBAUCH

Thanks for having me.