Many people often panic thinking about filing a claim after a car accident. For states having a “No-fault accident” law, it becomes traumatizing for the insured to manage the after-accident finances when these claims couldn’t support the finances.
According to the Florida Auto Insurance Policy Laws, a person must have two mandatory coverages under an auto insurance policy. These are:
- PIP (Personal Injury Protection) with a minimum coverage of $10000. This cover is for any fault or non-fault accident by you, which will pay you the expenses of treatment or loss of your salary that you will face after the accident.
- PDL (Property Damage Liability) with a minimum coverage of $10000. This cover is for the damage that you may have caused to the vehicle or property of the person involved in the accident with you.
Though these minimum covers are never sufficient for the medical expenses or your loss of pay, what’s the use of this, right? But it is what the rules say.
So, you shouldn’t get in a wreck without insurance. Although to ensure that your Auto-accident Insurance fully covers your expenses, it is always beneficial to have certain additional coverage that saves you from a financial crisis. These include: –
- Body Injury Liability Coverage (BI) – This coverage is for the situation wherein the other person involved in the accident has critical injuries, permanent disability, or any severe damage to his body for which he can sue you. In that case, if you don’t have BI coverage, it can cost you a huge loss of money or asset as the average value of such claims is much higher, and you’ll end up losing a lot from your savings or assets. The lumpsum coverage advised should be a minimum of $100,000/individual or $300,000/accident.
- Underinsured or Uninsured Motorist Coverage (UIM) – Consider yourself in a situation where the at-fault driver is uninsured or their insurance coverage has no BI (Bodily Injury) coverage or has low BI coverage around $10000. So, it doesn’t matter if you get a severe injury or critical condition, you won’t get enough after a car accident from the other person, and then you are left with the option of suing the other person.
But what if you had bought the UIM coverage along with your auto insurance. So, this UIM coverage will come into the picture. It will ensure you the rest of the claim amount, which would depend on your coverage amount and thus, save you from the financial crisis if you are critically injured due to an uninsured or underinsured driver’s fault.
Since it is a crucial expense after a wreck, it is advised to have as high UIM coverage as you can afford. Still, there is a limit to your UIM coverage according to Insurance Companies that your UIM coverage cannot be higher than your BI liability coverage. So, if you have purchased, let us say $100,000/individual or $300,000/accident BI liability coverage, then the amount of UIM coverage should be less than or up to $100,000/individual.
Note – Though there is a technique by which you can increase your UIM coverage, it is by “stacking” your multiple cars’ UIM coverage. Consider you are having 3 cars and insuring all 3 under the same policy; if your UIM coverage for one individual is $100,000, then for 3 vehicles, it will be $300,000 even though at the moment only one car will be involved in a car accident.
So, it is always guided to purchase stacked policies while purchasing auto- insurance.
- Collision Coverage – This coverage comes into the picture for saving you from the expenses of damage for your car. This coverage doesn’t depend on the situation, whether it was a non-fault car accident or even if there was your fault. The collision coverage comes with a deductible amount; let’s say you have a deductible amount set at $1000, and you get into a wreck costing you around $3000. In this case, you will have to pay the initial $1000, and for the remaining $2000, your collision coverage will take care of it.
- Extended PIP Coverage – The PIP coverage that is mandatory to purchase only covers 80% of your treatment expenses and 60% of your loss of salaries after a car accident. That is up to a minimum of $10,000. This won’t be sufficient for your loss of pay and medical expenses. So here, what you can do is purchase an extended PIP. It is always advised to increase your PIP coverage to a minimum value of $100,000.
- Med Pay or Medical Payments Coverage – Since your PIP coverage will cover 4/5th or 80% of your treatment expenses, it doesn’t matter whatever the value of your PIP coverage is. Only you will be liable to pay the rest 1/5th or 20% bill. But still, you can have a Med Pay coverage to cover the rest 20% of your treatment bill. The minimum amount of Med Pay coverage advised for an insurance policyholder is $5000.
Can I claim for an accident after 3 years?
Florida law allows you to file your claim at any point within four years after a car accident. However, this does not necessarily imply that you should wait four years to submit a personal injury claim. First and foremost, keep in mind that you may require immediate access to the funds from that claim. Once you start filing your claim, it could take months before you receive the funds you require. Following catastrophic injuries sustained in a car accident, you may have medical costs to pay, other financial concerns to address, and a life to rebuild.
I hope this blog will be helpful to get all your doubts cleared about auto insurance and how it will be beneficial after a no-fault auto accident. So, if you haven’t purchased auto insurance, make sure to buy one before it gets late because nothing can be more traumatizing than getting in a car wreck uninsured. Hence, mark my words and start looking for options to lock one of them as soon as possible.
I’ve seen people asking, “what can I do if I met an accident uninsured?”. It only means you are now into a huge problem that is going to cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars from your pocket. So easy answer to your question is that before it gets too late, make sure you are fully insured with the best coverages you can afford.
