The Importance Of Uninsured And Underinsured Motorist Coverage

It’s estimated that 10% of all vehicles on Iowa’s roads are uninsured. And many of the vehicles that are insured have minimal insurance coverage, often the minimum required by Iowa law. Let’s discuss how you can protect yourself from such drivers.

If you’re injured in an accident that’s not your fault, you’ll look to the other driver to pay your medical expenses, lost wages, and other types of damages that are recoverable in personal injury claims. That’s usually handled by the other driver’s auto insurance. Iowa requires all vehicles to have liability coverage in the minimum amount of $20,000 per person ($40,000 per accident). But not everyone complies with that law, and those that do may only have the minimum amount of insurance required, which will very likely be insufficient to cover all your damages from the accident.

An accident with an uninsured driver and, even more frequently, a driver with minimal and insufficient insurance are common events. But there is a way to protect yourself from such drivers – Paying for uninsured and underinsured motorist insurance coverage. Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage is something that all drivers should consider obtaining through their auto insurer.

Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage applies if you’re in an accident with such a driver. You’re buying coverage that’ll take the place of the other driver’s insurance if that driver is uninsured or lacks sufficient coverage to fully compensate you for your injuries. In other words, you’re paying to protect yourself from other drivers’ irresponsibility, coverage that they’re not willing to pay for, but it’s better to expend the money to protect yourself from uninsured and underinsured drivers rather than finding yourself seriously injured in an accident with little or no insurance available to compensate you for your injuries.

Such coverage is much more important for underinsured motorists. You have little chance of being in an accident with an uninsured driver. You have a very good chance of being in an accident with a minimally insured ($20,000) driver. Except for only the most minor injury-causing accidents, $20,000 will be insufficient to cover the various types of personal injury damages available under Iowa law. If you don’t have underinsured motorist coverage in such circumstances, you’re unlikely to receive the full compensation that you might be entitled to except in the rare circumstances in which the other driver has the independent financial ability to pay such damages.

I recommend that drivers buy as much uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage as they can afford. Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage with $100,000 per-person policy limits ($300,000 per accident) is the minimum that should be secured. Limits of $500,000 per person and $1,500,000 per accident would be better. Many personal injury claims require more than $100,000 in compensation. Thus even $100,000 in coverage may be insufficient for a serious accident. And the per-accident limit is a coverage aspect that’s often overlooked until several people in the same vehicle are injured in the same accident. If that happens, you’ll want a higher per-accident limit on your uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage to ensure that there’s sufficient coverage for everyone in the vehicle.

And as always, if you’d like to talk to an experienced car accident lawyer in Des Moines, just give us a call.