Uninsured and Underinsured Motorists claims are sometimes difficult for drivers to understand. Suppose you are driving to work one morning. It seems to be the same normal daily experience when suddenly you are involved in an auto accident. Unfortunately, the at fault driver has no insurance or too little insurance to cover your significant damages. When a Myrtle Beach driver refuses to purchase or is unable to purchase car insurance, that driver puts everyone at risk. When this hypothetical at fault driver injures another person, his insurance will be inadequate to cover the damages. Injured parties like yourself, however, may be covered by their own insurance policies. The key is to carry uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage on your own policy. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage protects accident victims in situations such as the hypothetical above. If you have been involved in an accident with an uninsured or underinsured driver, contact The Lovely Law Firm, in Myrtle Beach, SC, and schedule a consultation with a Myrtle Beach auto injury attorney.
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Uninsured Motorists
Even though South Carolina requires all drivers to carry auto insurance, the driver who injured you or your passenger may not have had insurance. Another common accident is a hit and run accident where the at fault driver cannot be located.
Uninsured motorist coverage will activate to protect your interests in these situations. Your insurance company will act as if it were the at-fault driver’s insurance company in compensating you. Your Myrtle Beach personal injury attorney can file your claim on your own policy.
Underinsured Motorists
When the at-fault driver is underinsured, this means that the driver has purchased an auto insurance policy that does not provide enough coverage to compensate you for your damages. If you have underinsured motorist coverage as part of your insurance policy, you may be able to collect, from your own insurance company, the amount of your damages that exceeds the at-fault driver’s insurance coverage. This type of insurance is inexpensive and should be part of your insurance coverages.
Collecting Insurance Benefits Under an Uninsured or Underinsured Motorist Policy
To recover benefits under an uninsured or underinsured motorist policy, the injured party typically will need to show that the other motorist was at fault. The injured party will also need to prove that his or her bodily injuries were significant. To collect benefits under an underinsured motorist policy, the injured party must have received the entire amount of insurance coverage available from the at-fault driver’s insurance company before the injured party can make a claim against his or her own insurance company under the underinsurance coverage provision.
Stacking Insurance Coverage
In some situations an injured driver may be able to stack policies to increase the amount of available recovery. These scenarios are fact specific. Contact the Myrtle Beach injury lawyers to determine if you are able to do this.
