Does Insurance Cover A Catastrophic Baltimore Car Accident ?
One of the more important issues involving any personal injury case is whether or not there is enough insurance coverage to fully compensate the victim, or all of the victims, for their losses.
In Maryland, Uninsured Motorist coverage can protect, and compensate, the victims of a serious car accident.
Maryland requires all drivers to have relatively minimal liability insurance of $30,000. As attorney Eric T. Kirk will tell you, Drivers, of course, are free to purchase more should they choose to do so. Many do not. The issue of whether or not there is enough insurance to fully compensate and injured person for all the losses they have sustained looms larger when the accident is a significant or catastrophic one. As a general observation, medical expenses, lost wage claims and non-economic damage components are almost invariably going to be greater when dealing with a serious, catastrophic Maryland car accident. This is certainly not to say that the loss, or the injury suffered, by any person in any accident is not a potentially pivotal event in their lives. Any injury is most certainly serious to the person impacted. Where the at-fault individual lacks any coverage or lacks sufficient coverage to fully compensate the victim or victims, Maryland’s uninsured motorist coverage provisions come into play. Uninsured motorist coverage is “first party coverage”. In other words, it is your insurance. You pay the premiums for it. It covers you, and the occupants of your vehicle [and potentially others in your household] in two circumstances.
One is a situation in which there is an accident, and the asphalt person is uninsured. This typically is a situation where they have no insurance at all, but includes a situation where their insurance carrier has disclaimed coverage under their policy. The other is a situation in which the claims exceed the value of their liability policy. In a unfortunately common scenario, the at-fault individual has Maryland’s minimum $30,000 of liability insurance coverage and the claim of the injured person[s] far exceeds that amount. In this setting, the injured person’s uninsured motorist coverage comes to the fore. This coverage is available to compensate losses amounting to the difference between the at-fault person’s liability insurance and the limits of the uninsured motorist coverage. Do not make the mistake of thinking that this payment is automatic, however. Maryland’s uninsured motorist insurance carriers routinely take the position that their insured is not entitled to benefits, or are not entitled to the full amount of their available coverage.
- Baltimore Personal Injury Trial Lawyer Eric T. Kirk
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A Baltimore car accident and personal injury litigator who has taken hundreds of cases to trial in Maryland, New York and Florida, recovering millions over a 30-year mission to obtain denied compensation for his clients.
