In a city like Atlanta there are a LOT of uninsured drivers on the roads. Even among those that are insured many only carry minimum limits. What would you do if you or a loved one were injured by a driver with no (or too little) insurance? How would you pay the medical bills?
Uninsured Motorist (UM) Coverage is designed to protect you when you are hurt by an uninsured or underinsured driver. Everyone needs to purchase UM coverage. It is cheap and easy to buy and could save you thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars.
New Georgia legislation improves UM coverage for Georgia drivers. Under the old law there was a problem that needed fixing. The problem was this: the old law only allowed drivers to use that part of their UM coverage that was more than the liability coverage of the at fault driver. Now I know that probably sounds confusing (and it is!); hang with me for a moment and I'll explain what I mean.
Prior to the effective date of the new statute (January 1, 2009) let's say you went out and bought $50,000,00 of UM coverage. You then were injured in a wreck and the at fault driver had $50,000.00 of LIABILITY coverage. Let's assume your medical bills totaled $75,000,00. How much could you recover?
Well, under the old law you could recover just $50,000.00! Yes, only $50,000.00, leaving you with $25,000.00 of uncompensated medical bills. Why? Because under the old law your insurance company only had to pay you if your UM coverage was greater than the liability coverage. So in the scenario I've described you could recover $50,000.00 from the at fault driver's insurance company but nothing from your own.
Is this making sense to you? Of course it isn't. It's crazy and makes no sense whatsoever. If you paid for UM coverage you should be able to use it. Under the old law Georgia consumers who had purchased UM coverage often found themselves in a situation where they had paid for nothing.
What the new law does is make it so that consumers get what they pay for.
Next time I blog I'll explain how.
