• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our Team
    • Firm Overview
    • Lawyer Referrals
    • General Referrals
    • Podcast
    • Newsletters
    • Careers
    • Communication Policy
  • Personal Injury Cases
    • Car Accidents
    • Tractor Trailer Accidents
    • Drunk Driving Car Accidents
    • Motorcycle Accidents
    • Faulty Products Causing Injury
    • Dog Bite Injuries
    • Pedestrian Accidents
    • Slip and Fall Injuries
    • Workers’ Compensation
    • Medical Malpractice
    • Wrongful Death
  • Disability Insurance Denials
  • Results
  • Reviews
  • Blog
    • Personal Injury
    • ERISA Disability
    • Workers’ Compensation
    • Medical Malpractice
    • Wrongful Death
  • Free Info
    • Free Injury and Disability Books
    • Personal Injury Settlement Calculator
    • Win Your Own Personal Injury Case
    • Personal Injury FAQ Videos
    • ERISA Long-Term Disability FAQ Videos
    • Client Portal
  • Contact
    • Book Now!

Virginia Personal Injury and Disability Lawyers

Trial Lawyers.

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
CALL TODAY : (434) 515-2807
Free Strategy Session
Call
Contact
Blog
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our Team
    • Firm Overview
    • Lawyer Referrals
    • General Referrals
    • Podcast
    • Newsletters
    • Careers
    • Communication Policy
  • Personal Injury Cases
    • Car Accidents
    • Tractor Trailer Accidents
    • Drunk Driving Car Accidents
    • Motorcycle Accidents
    • Faulty Products Causing Injury
    • Dog Bite Injuries
    • Pedestrian Accidents
    • Slip and Fall Injuries
    • Workers’ Compensation
    • Medical Malpractice
    • Wrongful Death
  • Disability Insurance Denials
  • Results
  • Reviews
  • Blog
    • Personal Injury
    • ERISA Disability
    • Workers’ Compensation
    • Medical Malpractice
    • Wrongful Death
  • Free Info
    • Free Injury and Disability Books
    • Personal Injury Settlement Calculator
    • Win Your Own Personal Injury Case
    • Personal Injury FAQ Videos
    • ERISA Long-Term Disability FAQ Videos
    • Client Portal
  • Contact
    • Book Now!

How Much UIM Will My Insurance Company Pay?

8 Jun 2022

Many wonder how much they can earn from the insurance company in a personal injury case. Well, that’s an easy and a complicated question at the same time. I always ask the certain questions, “What’s the liability policy limit” and “what is your UIM?”

A policy limit is the maximum amount that the insurance company will pay under any circumstances. In Virginia in 2022, the mandatory amount for what the policy limits should be is $30,000. Ultimately, that’s going increase over the next couple years, but right now it’s only $30,000. However, many of the policies that we see are $100,000 policies.

If you have a $100,000 policy and the insurance company has this insurance policy, then they will say that the most that they’re going to pay is $100,000 per person and up to $300,000 per accident.

For any one person, they will only pay $100,000; if you’re going get up to $300,000 per accident, multiple people must be injured. If you have three people who are injured, then each person can get up to $100,000 from that policy.

But if five people all have massive cases, then the insurance company can’t pay more than $300,000. In that case, all five people are not going get $100,000.

Underinsured Motorist Coverage

The other thing that we always look at is your underinsured motorist coverage. Underinsured motorist coverage ensures you, it’s your car insurance. It says that to the extent that the defendant is underinsured as compared to you, then this underinsured motorist coverage carrier will pay what is in excess of that policy.

In other words, if you have a liability policy for the defendant, the person who hits you has a $100,000 and you have a $100,000 policy. Then the defendant is not under insured as it relates to you, he’s insured in the same exact amount as you. If your underinsured policy was a $250,000 policy, then the defendant is under insured as compared to you by $150,000. Then your underinsured motorist coverage would pay up to $150,000 on top of the $100,000 paid by the defendant’s insurance policy for a total of $250,000 in coverage.

Now, the good news is that all of this is about to change. It will change in 2023 in our recent legislation this year through the general assembly in Virginia, enacted it to essentially eliminate the liability credit.

The underinsured motorist carrier gets a credit against their underinsured motorist coverage for what the liability policy carrier has. That credit is ultimately going away.

Minimums Increase

The minimums are also going up, which is a really good thing.

In the future when these laws kick in, the rules are going to be completely different. At that point, your car insurance company no longer gets a credit for the $50,000 liability carrier policy. At that point, you can stack those two on top of each other. In the future, there will be at least $100,000 in coverage for every car accident case that in Virginia.

That’s a really big deal. So many car accident cases come into our office and we must say that you’ve only got $25,000 in coverage. You may have a million dollar case, but the defendant is judgment proof, which means that they don’t own anything. They don’t have any assets, and they don’t have any resources. You have no way to satisfy a judgment if you were to go to court. So why go through that great expense, that great turmoil, if you’ll never get any money on the back end? If they’re judgment proof, and if they only have $25,000 in coverage, and if you only have $25,000 in coverage, then the most you can get is $25,000. Even though you sustained catastrophic injuries, that’s really a tragedy in Virginia.

Fortunately, our general assembly in Richmond and our governor agreed that that was indeed a tragedy. They’ve all agreed to change the laws to increase the amount of coverage available for every Virginia car accident case. But for right now, the UIM carrier still gets a discount for the liability carrier’s policy. In order to collect anything on your underinsured motorist coverage, your underinsured motorist policy limit must well exceed the policy limit for the defendant or the person who hits you, otherwise there is no UIM coverage.

Underinsured Motorist Coverage Exposure

This personal injury attorney thought that he had an extra $100,000 in UIM money to go after yet because he had two $50,000 policies that stacked together to make a $100,000. Well, the truth is those carriers get a credit for what the liability policy has right now. And because of that credit, that means that the UIM carrier doesn’t have any exposure.

That’s a different word that we don’t typically talk about in non-lawyers speak. But when we do talk about UIM exposure, that is the difference between the liability policy limit and the UIM policy limit. In our example, the exposure of $100,000 liability limit, $250,000 UIM limit, the exposure is $150,000. In other words, your insurance company, the underinsured motorist carrier is only required to pay an extra $150,000 maximum.

We call that UIM exposure, because that’s the only extent that they are, they are liable to you, they’re insured for this particular accident.

Over time, those experiences compound, and it becomes second nature to talk about them and to work through the scenarios in our heads.

What We Do

Our lawyers here at Osterbind Law are well versed in the policies and the laws dealing with insurance companies and how the policies work together and how they don’t work together sometimes. And we can help you walk through those processes. Even though you may have $100,000 in medical expenses, if there’s only $100,000 in coverage and you can’t go get anything from the defendant, there are no assets, there are no resources. They can’t just write you a check for $100,000. If your UIM coverage is $100,000, you get nothing from that company, nothing from that policy.

And really, that’s kind of hard to swallow. It’s difficult advice to give. I’ve had to sit down across from the table from people and tell them there is no more money to go get. Then we have to figure out, how do we pay bills? How do we work things out with just $25,000 or just $100,000 if people have catastrophic injuries? Those are very difficult conversations to have that I’ve unfortunately had to have numerous times because people don’t understand insurance and how it works together.

If you have a question about your coverage or your insurance policies or your car accident, please give us a call. Hope this has been helpful. If you have any questions, send me an email. I’d love to chat.

Primary Sidebar

Free Strategy Session

Download Our Free Book!

Related Blogs

  • The tragedy of personal injury cases

    25 Jan 2023

    Virginia Read More

  • Paying your Medical Bills After a Car Accident

    22 Dec 2022

    In Read More

  • Why was my Virginia worker’s compensation claim denied?

    20 Jul 2022

    Worker’s Read More

Case Results

$940,000 in Settlements For Broken Clavicle and Torn Rotator Cuff

Personal Injury | Workers’ Compensation

View Project
Traumatic Brain injury Results In $395,000 in settlement

Personal Injury | Workers’ Compensation

View Project
$280,000 Settlement for Labral Tear after Rear-End Collision

Personal Injury

View Project

Footer

Free Strategy Session

Legal Awards

Client Reviews


Brandon and his team at Osterbind Law are truly peerless. This is exactly how a modern personal injury firm should operate. The firm is holistic in its approach and thoughtful. It's no wonder why they get such great results for their clients. And no surprise, their clients love them. I've had the pleasure of working with Brandon on a professional level and he levels up, big time. Kudos.
Nathaniel Amendola
3 months ago

Very compassionate and knowledgeable people who helped us with our situation. They worked quickly and I can’t tell you how grateful I’m they were so caring. I would recommend this firm to anyone that anyone
Lori Rudder
a year ago

The entire team at Osterbind Law are incredible. They communicated with us with every step and process that was happening . They provided the knowledge, support, and empathy to us on the case. And when the curve ball was thrown, they dug in deeper. I have nothing but the highest respect for Brandon and Hannah and the entire team. They made us feel more like a family, than a client.
Wendy Shull
a year ago

The staff is caring and very knowledgeable. They help you as quickly as possible, and worked very hard for us. I'm so pleased with the way they assisted us.
Meghan Rudder
a year ago

Brandon and his team did a great job helping me through my case. I'm so glad I chose him and stuck with him through the transition to his own firm. The staff is very knowledgeable and friendly. They feel like family after all this! Thank you for everything!!Amber J
Amber Higby
2 year ago
Read More ReviewsWrite a Review
  • 1216 Greenview Drive, Suite A
    Lynchburg, VA 24502
  • Email Us
  • Call Us
    (434) 515-2807

© 2023 Virginia Personal Injury and Disability Lawyers. All rights reserved.

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Quick Help