What you need to know about uninsured motorist coverage in Georgia
As a firm focused wholly on personal injury, we routinely help car accident victims. One of the avoidable headaches that we see too often is when someone doesn’t have the proper Uninsured Motorist (UM) coverage.
UM coverage provides protection against an at-fault party when the victim’s medical bills exceed policy limits. In Georgia, drivers have 2 options when it comes to Uninsured Motorist coverage.
Traditional/Reduced
This type of UM coverage is reduced by the at-fault party’s liability coverage. For example, if a driver causes an accident and doesn’t have enough insurance to cover the victim’s medical bills and property damage, the amount of their coverage is subtracted from your UM coverage limit. This option provides less coverage in the event of an accident where the at-fault party is under-insured at the legal minimum requirement.
Add On
On the other hand, this type of coverage is exactly what it implies: it is added on top of whatever insurance the at-fault driver has. This option provides more coverage against underinsured motorists.
In the state of Georgia, the legal minimum coverage is 25/50/25- $25,000 bodily injury liability per person, $50,000 bodily injury liability per accident, and $25,000 in property damage.
Here are examples of how both coverages work.
If you have UM coverage of 25/50/25, here’s how the scenario works in both cases where an at-fault driver with state minimum coverage causes an accident:
Traditional/Reduced UM Coverage toward Bodily Injury: Let’s say you have a total of $75,000 in medical bills, the at-fault party carries $25,000.00 of coverage, and you carry $50,000 of Traditional/Reduced UM coverage.
- Available at-fault coverage = $25,000
- Available UM Traditional/Reduced coverage = $25,000 (reduced down from
$50,000.00 by the amount of at-fault coverage) - Available total coverage = $50,000
Should the insurance companies award you full available coverage, you would still have $25,000 in medical bills to pay out of your own pocket.
Add-on UM Coverage toward Bodily Injury: Using the same scenario where you have a total of $75,000 in medical bills, the at-fault party carries $25,000 in coverage, and you carry $50,000 of Add-on UM coverage.
- Available at-fault coverage = $25,000
- Available UM Add-on coverage = $50,000
- Available total coverage = $75,000
While this amount still doesn’t give you much in the way of wiggle room toward money in your pocket for pain and suffering, you would at least have more available coverage to work with in order to pay your bills – certainly an ideal situation.
In cases where the at-fault driver has no insurance, both options will pay for your injuries and property damage up to the policy limits.
Working with an Attorney
When you’re dealing with car insurance, especially when you are trying to understand how coverage applies after an accident, things can get tricky. And sometimes, there may be multiple policies available to you that only an experienced lawyer would know how to find. They can also talk to your medical providers to lower your medical bills. This means you get to keep more of the money you receive. It’s always a good idea to talk to an experienced personal injury attorney to help you with these things.
No one ever plans to be in an automobile accident. Unfortunately, we can’t control what any other driver does on the road, but we can protect ourselves against uninsured and underinsured motorists. Should you find yourself in a situation where you are the victim of a car accident and injuries are involved, proper uninsured motorist coverage can prevent significant financial loss.