When you’re in a car accident, certain expenses can pile up like regular bills, office visits, potential procedure costs, and on top of that you had to miss work. But what is your personal injury case value?
How to determine your personal injury case value?
The first thing we do, when we see that the medical records and bills exceed 12,500, is to send a letter to the insurance company and ask for the policy limits for what that particular insurance policy has. And then, we’ll get a letter back, usually within 30 days from the insurance companies, saying we have X number of dollars in what we call policy limits.
What are insurance policy limits?
Now, what are policy limits? When you buy an insurance policy, the insurance company agrees to pay for the damages that you cause, up to a certain limit. The insurance company is not agreeing to pay for everything under the sun. They are basing their premiums that they charge you, based on how much exposure they have for the injuries that you might cause.
We see a lot of insurance policies that have a $100,000 policy limit per person, and a $300,000 policy limit per accident. We also see some policy limits that are $25,000 per person/$50,000 per accident.
So, what does that mean exactly?
If you have someone who hits you in a car accident and they only have the minimum, the very bare minimum state minimum that is required in Virginia, which is $25,000 per person/$50,000 per accident. This will affect your personal injury case value
What does that mean for you?
Let’s say that you have a $100,000 case and the defendant only has $25,000 in insurance coverage.You’re only going to get $25,000 from that insurance policy. So insurance policy limits affect your case value.
Now, if we find that there is only one insurance policy and it’s the bare minimum, a lot of times what we’ll do is we’ll go out and look for other insurance policies. If we can’t find any that might insure the person who hit you, the next step would be looking at your car insurance policies.
Underinsured motorist policy limits also affect personal injury case values.
“Well, what does my insurance have anything to do with this accident? You shouldn’t rely on my insurance, I didn’t cause the accident, it’s the other person’s fault.”
After figuring out the defendant’s policy limits, we look at your policy limits on your car insurance policy.
With every insurance policy that you buy, there’s also a line for uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage.
Underinsured motorist coverage occurs when a person hits you and they don’t have enough coverage to cover your case. So, in the earlier example, if you have a $100,000 case, and there’s only $25,000 in liability coverage, you are underinsured by $75,000. Your car insurance would come in to pay as long, as your limits are high enough.
Usually, your underinsured motorist coverage limits are the same amount as your liability limits. So, if you have a $100,000/$300,000 policy, then you will get paid your entire $100,000 case. The first $25,000 comes from the person who hits you, the liability insurance policy. And, the other $75,000 comes from your insurance policy. If you have a $200,000 case, but you only had a $100,000 in UIM coverage, then you’re still only going to get that $100,000. Unfortunately, you are never going to see that extra $100,000. Do you see how this affects your personal injury case value?
Alternatively, you could go against the defendant personally, and try to collect against his or her assets. If you’ve got a judgment for $200,000 then the only way to collect is from the defendant.
The problem with that is most people don’t have an extra $100,000 sitting around to give you. If they did, they would have a larger insurance policy. Most of the people who have an extra $100,000 sitting around, will have a $250,000, $500,000, or a $1,000,000 policy.
The chances of that being true, are slim to none. Then, what if you do go get a judgment for $200,000 and this person is judgment proof? That means they don’t have the money or the assets or the resources to pay that extra $100,000. So, what are they going to do? The answer is not good. They are going to go to bankruptcy court. They’re going to bankrupt your judgment and you’ll still never see that extra $100,000.
So, is that all I can get?
Unfortunately, your personal injury case value depends on a lot of factors including insurance coverage. When people say, “Are you sure that I can’t get more than a $100,000 in this case?” Well, the answer is, it depends. It depends on the facts and circumstances of every single case, and it depends on what your insurance policy is. If you have a good insurance policy with high underinsured motorist coverage, then you will be able to recover more. Perhaps you can get all of your expenses and your pain and suffering covered.
But if you have bad insurance, that’s just as bad or worse from the defendant’s insurance company. Then you’re not ever going to see that money.
Even if you do go get a judgment, that’s a super expensive piece of paper. The next thing the defendant’s going to do on the advice of his or her attorney, is to go to bankruptcy court.
If you feel like you need clarity in figuring out how much insurance is available for your case. We will love to have a conversation with you and talk to you about your case in particular. Give us a call, send us an email or send us a message on Facebook, we’d be happy to talk to you.
