Michigan Car Accident Insurance Coverage
My law firm specializes in Michigan car accident cases and we review a substantial number of these cases every year. In many cases, the negligent driver that caused the accident and injured our clients is insured to compensate our clients for their serious injuries. However, in other cases, the negligent driver either did not have insurance or did not have enough coverage to compensate our client.
When the negligent driver did not have insurance or did not have enough insurance (for example, our client had a brain injury or spinal cord injury and the negligent driver was only insured for $20,000.00, the minimum limit), there is still often the possiblity of obtaining a fair settlement for our client. This can only happen if our client, a family member, or the owner of the car had uninsured motorist benefits or underinsurance motorist benefits.
Uninsured and under insured motorist benefits are contractual benefits a person is entitled to if they are involved in a motor vehicle accident where the at fault party is either uninsured or has a minimal insurance policy and is deemed to be under insured.
Both uninsured and under insured benefits are contract driven, which means that the terms of the insurance contract control the same. It is always wise to have a personal injury attorney immediately investigate your car accident claims, including the review of your insurance contract. Some insurance companies, such as Farm Bureau, put a one year contractual provision in their insurance contracts which prevents injured victims from bringing uninsured motorist claims after the one year anniversary of the car accident. The Michigan Courts have upheld these shortened contractual provisions. Under insured motorist claims are similar to uninsured motorist claims except that the at fault party in fact had insurance, but not enough to cover the damages sustained by the injured victim. For example, many motorists only carry a $20,000.00 insurance policy and if an insured victims damages exceed $20,000.00 then there is a possibility of pursuing an under insured motorist claim with your own insurance carrier.
Most insurance contracts require that the injured victim provide notice to their no-fault insurance carrier and that they obtain permission to settle the claim with the at fault parties insurance company. Failure to obtain permission to settle the case could result in the insurance contract being voided. Again, the Michigan Courts have upheld these provisions in the contract.This coverage is extremely important and I always encourage friends, family members, clients, and blog readers to review their auto insurance policies to see if they have this coverage. If they are not sure, they should contact their insurance agent to find out and add the coverage to the policy if they do not have it. The additional coverage is very inexpensive but extremely important.
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