What is the importance of Uninsured Motorist Coverage?
As a personal injury lawyer in Venice, Florida who represents people who are injured in car accidents in Venice, Sarasota, Englewood and surrounding communities, I often encounter a scenario that is terribly unfortunate: my client was involved in a collision and suffered serious injuries, is losing time from work and needs surgery – but the driver who caused the car accident had no “bodily injury coverage” on their insurance policy. How can this be? Unfortunately, Florida law does not require most drivers to purchase bodily injury insurance coverage. And often times, when someone has caused a bad accident, we come to learn that their insurance policy was cancelled due to non-payment of premiums.
Estimates are that approximately half or more of all Florida drivers carry absolutely no bodily injury insurance coverage on their car insurance policies; instead, they buy only the basic minimum coverage of property damage and personal injury protection coverage, a/k/a “no-fault” insurance coverage. In the event you have a car accident with one of these drivers with minimal coverage in Venice or Sarasota, what are you to do?
Many Florida Drivers Lack Sufficient Insurance Coverage
The answer comes down whether you purchased or rejected the right to purchase uninsured motorist coverage at the time you met with your insurance agent and purchased coverage. It seems that, more often than not, drivers choose to “reject” uninsured motorist coverage for their family, while not fully understanding the importance, significance and the potential ramifications of failing to have it available on their insurance policy following a car accident. The sole purpose of uninsured / underinsured motorist coverage is to compensate you for those damages you would ordinarily seek to obtain from the at-fault driver, in the event that driver either fails to have bodily injury coverage entirely or has minimal limits that are not sufficient to fully cover your losses.
Given the high percentage of drivers in Venice, Sarasota, Englewood and throughout Florida who maintain no bodily injury insurance coverage or nominal limits of coverage, it certainly makes a lot of sense to buy as much uninsured / underinsured motorist coverage as you can afford so you are fully protected in the event you suffer injury in a car accident.
Have Questions?
If you have been involved in an automobile, motorcycle or trucking accident, have questions concerning your insurance coverage or want to know what to do after a car accident, please feel free to call me, James Keim, Attorney at Law, for a free, confidential consultation at (941) 485-7600. As a Venice car accident injury lawyer, I can assist you as you seek to get your medical bills paid and lost wages recovered. All cases are handled on a contingency fee basis; you pay no fees or costs unless I am successful in making a recovery on your behalf. Attorney fees and costs are simply deducted from the recovery that is made at the end of the case.
