People look at their insurance policy (and after reading my other posts) have some idea about what their insurance policy covers. Comprehensive pays for damage to your car caused by something other than a collision. Collision pays for damage to your car caused by a collision. Liability pays for damage to someone elses property or an injury to someone else caused by you. And then you have this uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage. What is that?
Basically, uninsured motorist coverage pays you the damages that you would be entitled to recover if the person who hit you had insurance. So, some person with no insurance hits you. You can either sue them or use your uninsured motorist coverage to collect from YOUR insurance company. And this happens – a lot. Some people estimate that 50% of drivers are uninsured in California. And in certain parts of the state, its higher than that.
Joseph Tomasik, an attorney in the Bay Area and a fellow CAOC member, wrote an excellent article about uninsured motorist coverage. It should be mandatory reading – not just for attorneys, but also for individuals and insurance agents. His practical tip, one which I agree with 100% and have been advocating for years – buy as much uninsured motorist coverage as you can.
And when your agent argues with you, print out Joseph’s article and hand it to the agent.