Where are the Sources of Money and Insurance to Pay for your Car Accident Injury Claim
Show Me The Money $$$
What are the types of Insurance available to pay you for your personal injuries after a car accident?
Knowing what insurance coverages, and the types of coverages are available to you is the first step in knowing your ability to make a full and fair recovery for your Tampa car accident. There are two general sources of insurance.
This section of the Definitive Car Accident Injury Guide (2023) by Matt Powell
I share the answers to your question of "who will pay for my damages caused after a serious car accident injury?"
By knowing how much insurance coverage there is to recover payment for your:
- Lost Wages
- Medical Bills
- Future Loss of Earnings
- Future Medical Bills
- Pain and Suffering
- Loss of the Enjoyment of Life
- Disfigurement
- Aggravation of your Pre-Existing Injuries and Conditions
- and Inconvenience
MattLaw™ and you are on the way to determine the full and fair value of your car accident injury claim.
If you have more questions, please call me, Matt Powell at 813-222-2222 and I will be glad to give you a free consultation about your injury claim.
FIINDING THE INSURANCE AND MONEY TO PAY YOUR CAR ACCIDENT INJURY CLAIM
#13 Sources of Money to Pay You For Your Personal Injuries Caused by a Car Accident
Who should pay for my injuries
What are the types of Insurance available to pay you for your personal injuries after a car accident?
Knowing what insurance coverages, and the types of coverages are available to you is the first step in knowing your ability to make a full and fair recovery for your Tampa car accident. There are two general sources of insurance.
Sources Of Money For Your Personal Injuries Caused by the Car Accident
WHO
Who has insurance to pay your damages and losses:
First we look to Personal = Your Insurance:
1 – Your own car insurance that you insure yourself,
2 – Your resident relatives insurance policy which may provide coverage for you,
3 – The insurance covering the vehicle you are riding in, as well as;
4 – The insurance covering the driver of a vehicle you are riding in
Second we look to At Fault Driver and others who may be liable for the at fault driver’s negligence:
1 – The at fault Driver’s insurance
2 – The Vehicle Owner(s) of the at fault vehicle are liable for the negligence of any driver who operates their motor vehicle.
3 – The Employer of the at fault driver is responsible for their employees negligence.
4 – The Parents of the at fault Driver: if the driver was under the age of 18 at the time of the car accident, the parent who signed their child’s driver’s license is liable for their child’s negligence.
5 – The Contractor: any company who contracted with the at fault Driver, such as Uber or Lyft to drive for them, is responsible for the negligence of the driver while working for the contractor.
6 – The Friend who asks for a Favor: If the driver who causes a crash is doing something for another person, the person being served may be liable for the negligence of the person running the errand.
#14 Insurance That Covers You Personally
What will My Insurance Pay
INSURANCE THAT COVERS YOU PERSONALLY:
What are the types of car insurance policy coverages you may be entitled to recover from Your own Personal Insurance:
- Uninsured / Underinsured Motorist Coverage (UM). This is the most important and most valuable insurance you can have to protect you and your family!
- Is the Uninsured Motorist Coverage Stacked? if so,
- How many vehicles have UM coverage?
- Is the Uninsured Motorist Coverage Stacked? if so,
- PIP – No Fault coverage. This is mandatory insurance for all car owners and all Florida insurance policies, which pays the first $10,000.00 of medical bills, and or lost wages, regardless of who is at fault.
- Did you purchase more than the mandatory minimum of PIP insurance
- Medical Payment Coverages which pays for medical bills above and after your PIP insurance.
- How much Medical Payment coverage do you have
- Is there other non motor vehicle insurance to pay your losses
- Disability insurance
- Health insurance
- Life insurance
What are the types of car insurance you may be entitled to be paid from, because of the negligence of the at Fault Driver and others who are liable for the at fault driver’s negligence?
- Bodily Injury Insurance
- Umbrella Insurance above the Bodily Injury Insurance limits
- Excess Insurance above the Umbrella and Bodily Injury Insurance limits
- General Commercial Insurance
- from any business responsible for the at fault driver’s negligence
- General Commercial Umbrella insurance
- Excess General Commercial insurance
Once you know what insurance coverages are available to you from your own insurance coverages, AND coverages available from any and each of the at fault parties, then you have a good grasp on the total amount of insurance available to pay your car accident injury damages.
This is what I call “Collectability”
You may ask, how do I find out about all of the available insurance coverages to pay for my car accident injuries?
There is a Florida law that requires some insurance companies to tell you what coverages are available and the policy limits. However, the law requiring the policy limits disclosures are rather weak, and should not be relied upon because there is only a small penalty if an insurance company fails to answer, or gives inaccurate information.
The Florida law only requires insurance disclosure in a few limited circumstances, typically from the at fault car owner only.
Florida Law does not require the at fault driver to tell you if they were working at the time of the crash.
However, hiring MattLaw™ to file suit and ask the driver under the penalty of perjury if they were working at the time of the crash is a sure fire way to get the answers to this and other important insurance coverage questions.
Sadly, Florida law does not require vehicle owners or drivers to carry any bodily injury car insurance.
This is why purchasing Uninsured Motorist Insurance is so important.
UM is the only insurance that actually pays you money, rather than your medical bills and wages.
For example, Imagine a crash where your daughter looses an eye.
The medical bills are paid by your health insurance,
but not a penny will be paid for her:
- disability,
- pain,
- inconvenience,
- mental anguish or
- disfigurement
she will experience these losses for the rest of her life.
#15 How Many Different Types of Insurance Coverages Are Available to Pay You For Your Car Accident Injuries
Types of Insurance To Pay For Your Car Accident Injuries
HOW MANY DIFFERENT TYPES OF INSURANCE COVERAGE ARE AVAILABLE TO PAY YOU FOR YOUR CAR ACCIDENT INJURIES?
There may be more than one insurance policy out there to compensate you.
Here are the general types of insurance that need to be considered:
Bodily Injury Insurance from the at fault driver.
Bodily Injury Insurance from the owner of the car that was at fault
Liability Insurance from the employer of the driver or owner of the at fault car
Umbrella policies covering the
driver,
owner or
employer of the at fault person
Uninsured Motorist from your own policy
Uninsured Motorist from your family or relatives policy
Uninsured Motorist policy from the car owner you were riding in at the time of the crash
Uninsured Motorist policy from the driver of the car you were a passenger in
Umbrella Uninsured motorist policies
Knowing which of any of the above insurance policies exist,
and the limits of coverage
are important to know to make sure you don’t settle your case for too little value.
In a case with serious injuries, if you don’t know about all of the possible policies to compensate you,
you may think you recovered all of the insurance available,
but there could still be other policies that could exist to compensate you.
Why you Should you look further than the crash report for insurance coverages:
How do you know if the driver of the at fault car was running some sort of errand, or acting as an agent for an employer of some sort?
Or driving for Uber or Lyft?
Well, you can ask the driver at the scene, but they may not tell you.
You can ask the bad driver to sign an affidavit swearing under oath they were not running an errand or were in the scope of a job.
Or, ask us as your attorney, to file suit
and we will take the at fault driver’s deposition
under oath and ask them directly if:
They were working for someone,
They were running an errand for some company or person,
They were engaged in some sort of partnership while driving
to fully investigate and confirm under oath if any other party or
insurance policy may exist to fully compensate you for your car accident injuries.
MattLaw™ real life experience of finding more insurance money:
I handled a case one time where a produce employee was leaving work. The employee’s boss asked the employee if he would mind stopping at a restaurant and delivering some vegetables on his way home?
The employee said, sure, I will drop off the carrots at the restaurant because it is on my way home, and not a big deal.
Well unfortunately, on the way home before the employee could drop off the carrots,
he caused a terrible car crash,
severely injuring a young child.
The attorney for the young child obtained the crash report, determined that the employee had low Bodily Injury insurance limits of $50,000.00.
Then determined that the car owner of the vehicle the child was riding in had Underinsured Motorist Policy limits of $300,000.00.
A settlement letter was sent to the insurance company of the at fault driver.
His insurance company promptly paid the $50,000.00.
Next permission to take the bodily injury limits from the Underinsured Motorist carrier was granted.
(You must get permission from the Uninsured motorist carrier in Florida before you sign a release with the at fault bodily injury insurance company) The Underinsured Motorist Insurance Company said okay,
you can take the Bodily Injury policy limits of only $50,000.00 from the at fault driver.
And then a settlement offer was sent to the Underinsured Motorist Insurance Company for the full policy limits of $300,000.00, but the Underinsured motorist company felt that the child’s injuries were not bad enough for the Underinsured Motorist carrier to pay their $300,000.00 policy limits.
So a suit was filed on behalf of the child against the Underinsured Motorist Insurance company to recover the full insurance policy limits.
And during the Underinsured Motorist law suit,
The deposition of the at fault driver who caused the crash was taken.
When the at fault driver was asked under oath
what was he doing at the time of the car crash,
He testified under oath he was on the way to deliver vegetables for his employer.
Well, it turned out that his employer had a commercial general liability insurance policy with $1,000,000.00 of coverage.
When the produce company received a demand for their policy limits, they promptly paid their limits to the child.
So, in this real life example, the injured child might never have learned about the additional liability of the produce company’s Commercial General Liability insurance policy if not for filing suit and taking the deposition of the at fault driver and asking him if he was running any errand, or on any mission on behalf of anyone or any company at the time of hurting the child in the car crash.
Finding the Money To Pay Your Car Accident Injury Case
After being involved in a serious car accident that was not your fault, and having serious injuries caused by the at fault driver, knowing the collectability of your case is KEY to making a full recovery.
At MattLaw™ we want to know about all of the insurance that may pay our client for their car accident injuries.
Here is a simple checklist of what you need to know to determine the value of your car accident injury claim:
1 The insurance coverage policy limits of all the at fault drivers
2 The insurance coverage policy limits for all the vehicle owners
3 The insurance coverage policy limits for all the employers of any drivers
4 The insurance coverage policy limits from the parents of a young at fault driver
5 The insurance coverage policy limits for any contractor paying the driver to operate the car that injured you (Uber or Lyft)
6 Whether the at fault driver was running an errand for someone else, and what the other person’s insurance policy limits are
7 What are your personal insurance policy coverages and limits
8 What are your Uninsured Motorist Insurance policy limits
9 Are your Uninsured Motorist Insurance policy limits stacked
10 Are you covered under any Uninsured Motorist Insurance from
- a) The car owner you are riding in
- b) The car driver you are riding in
- c) The employer of the car you are riding in
- d) From any of your resident relatives that have UM insurance
11 How much Med Pay do you have
12 Do you have PIP No fault insurance
13 Is there a General Commercial Liability insurance policy
14 Are there any Umbrella Insurance Policies
15 What are the Excess Insurance Policies that you are able to collect from
16 What assets are owned by any of the responsible parties if they do not carry adequate insurance
After you can check off each of these insurance coverages off your list, then you have a good start at understanding the collectability of your serious car accident injuries.
If you have questions about any Florida car accident injury case, please call MattLaw™ for a Free Confidential Consultation
Sincerely,
Matt Powell, Esq.
Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer
