Insurance Coverage
For many people, understanding insurance coverage is like trying to file a tax return. Insurance is a complicated thing. We pay for insurance, but there are a lot of misconceptions about how it works. We’ll try to explain it to help you understand how insurance works after an injury.
How Insurance Works
In Pennsylvania, insurance policies cover you in different ways. Your car insurance covers you and your passengers. Sometimes, it also covers the other driver and their passengers. Your homeowner’s insurance covers damage to your property. But, it also covers people that are injured on your property. These links provide detailed information for each.
How Car Insurance Works
How Homeowners Insurance Works
Misconceptions About Insurance
There are many misconceptions about how insurance works. Let’s take a look at a couple of these misconceptions.
Whose Insurance Pays The Bills After An Injury
In Pennsylvania, your car insurance covers you and your passengers first. It doesn’t matter who caused the crash. You can rely on your insurance up to your policy limits. If someone else caused the crash, you can pursue a claim against the at-fault driver.
Related Articles:
Uninsured And Underinsured Coverage
State Minimum Car Insurance
Personal Property
Many people think that injury lawyers seize houses, bank accounts, and personal property. That’s not true. Personal injury cases deal almost exclusively on insurance coverage. Most injury settlements come from insurance coverage.
Serious Injuries Are Worth More
This is true to some extent. But, compensation for any injury claim is limited to how much insurance is available. People often learn the hard way that state minimum car insurance doesn’t cover their treatment costs. Sometimes several policies cover the same injury. Let’s look at some generic examples.
If an at-fault driver has $15,000 of coverage available, that’s it. $15,000 is all an inured person could hope to collect from that driver’s insurance. It wouldn’t matter if you have a broken wrist or are completely paralyzed. The most you might collect from that driver’s insurance is $15,000. But, there might be additional coverage under other policies, including your own.
On the flip side, if an at-fault driver has $1 million in coverage, that is the maximum amount someone could collect from that coverage. Meaning, if you have a minor sprain, insurance will pay up to the amount of your medical bills and expenses. But a major injury or death could only recover up to $1 million in compensation.
Case Studies
To further illustrate, let’s take a look at some of our actual cases. Click on any of the links to read more about the case.
Foot Injury – $3.8 Million
A construction welder was injured when a loaded tow motor backed up into his foot, crushing his heel. The at-fault operator worked for another subcontractor.
Head Injury – $1.5 Million
A woman was crossing the street. A distracted driver wasn’t watching the road ahead and hit her at high speed. His auto policy had umbrella coverage of $1 million. We exhausted the at-fault driver’s coverage and the pedestrian’s own uninsured/underinsured coverage.
Motorcycle Injury – $300,000
A driver pulled his car into the lane of travel right in front of a motorcycle. The motorcyclist had broken ribs, scarring, and more. We exhausted the at-fault driver’s coverage in a settlement agreement.
Getting Money From Insurance
Having affordable insurance is important. At the least, you should have the minimum coverage. But, cut-rate insurance is only a good deal for the insurance company. Make sure you have insurance that will cover you in the event of a serious injury. Getting insurance to actually pay for your injury can be difficult. If you live in Pennsylvania, we can help you.
Free Insurance Policy Review
Call us to arrange a free insurance policy review. A member of our legal team will review your current insurance coverage and offer suggestions. We want to make sure you have coverage that helps you after an injury. This offer is available to Pennsylvania residents only.
Call us at 717-397-3200 for a free insurance policy review.
We offer free consultations for any injury or insurance questions. Call or text our office. Or, schedule a free consultation using our online form.