Everyday several thousand people are involved in motor vehicle accidents. These accidents cause both significant and sometimes less severe injuries. Quite often these injuries become more severe overtime. Unlike most injuries, injuries sustained in an automobile accident sometimes take months before the full force and effects are felt.

If you are involved in an automobile accident you should immediately contact the Police. Most of the time at the scene of the accident the person who has caused the accident is willing to admit that the accident was their fault. However, as time goes by most individuals try to rationalize their actions and ultimately justify some reason why the accident is not there fault. Thus, the best course of action if you are involved in any type of accident is to immediately contact the Police and have them take an accident report.

When you are injured in an automobile accident in Pennsylvania, your insurance covers your medical expenses and wage loss. If you do not have insurance then insurance of a family member in your household may apply. Remember, your insurance premiums cannot be increased based on if the insurance company has to pay money whether it is for medical, wage loss or for any other reason. The only way an insurance company can increase your insurance rates is based on “risk.” That is if the accident is more than 50 % your fault then you are more at “risk” and only then may the insurance company increase your or a family members insurance premium.

Normally if the accident is another driver’s fault you will be able to recover money from that driver’s insurance company. In Pennsylvania you cannot recover money for pain and suffering if you are limited tort unless certain exceptions apply. For instance, if you are “seriously injured” or if you were driving or were a passenger in a commercial vehicle , is convicted of a D.U.I., or if they were driving a commercial vehicle. Thus, it is of the utmost importance that you have Full Tort on your insurance policy.

Further, remember, if other family members live in your household and do not have an automobile insurance policy they are considered to have the tort option the person with insurance has elected. For instance, if you have children and they are involved in an automobile accident, then they will be considered to have the same tort option as a family member in the household with automobile insurance. 

Another very important insurance that you should always have on your vehicle is underinsurance and uninsured insurance. Uninsured insurance means that if someone hits you and they do not have any insurance and you are injured there is a very good chance that you will not be able to obtain any money from the uninsured driver because as they say “ you cannot get water from a stone.” However, if you have uninsured motorist insurance, then you would be able to go to your own insurance and recover money. Again, your insurance premiums would not be able to be increased if it was the other driver’s fault.

Also, if a driver caused an accident and left the scene without providing you their information the law considers that person to be uninsured. So, for instance, you are driving down the road and another driver comes into your lane causing you to swerve. You swerve hit a pole and are injured. The other driver never stops. You immediately contact the police they take a report and you contact me your attorney. I will be able to get you the money you deserve from your insurance company and again your rates cannot be increased.

Underinsurance motorist coverage means that if you are injured as a result of another driver’s negligence you first can recover money from them. However, depending on your injuries the other at fault driver may not have enough money to cover all of your injuries. In this case you can go to your underinsurance to recover the difference from what the person who injured you paid and what the rest of the value your injuries are worth.

The importance of underinsurance can be shown in the below examples. I once represented a person whose daughter was killed in a motor vehicle accident when the person she was driving with rolled over his vehicle. The person who was driving only had $25,000 worth of insurance. The Mother and rest of the family where the daughter lived had no underinsurance. Since the person who was at fault had no assets, the Mother only received $25,000 for the death of her daughter.

In the same month I also represented a person who was injured in a rear-end car accident. The person had herniations in his back, which caused pain and prevented him from working. My client received $25,000 from the person who was at fault and injured him. Since my client had underinsurance in the amount of $400,000 he received a total amount of $425,000. As you can see, it is very important for you to make sure that you have under and uninsurance coverage on your automobile insurance policy.

You should be sure to realize that this area of the law is very complicated. There are exceptions and technicalities that if you do not know the law can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars. It has been proven that personal injury victims obtain far more money once they hire an attorney. It is the insurance adjusters job to pay you the least amount of money to settle your claim. So do not be forced to take a quick settlement.

Just recently I had a person contact me. The daughter’s injuries were severe. She had scaring on her face and other serious injuries. The Mother had said that the insurance company had offered her $50,000 to settle her case. According to the insurance company this was the maximum amount that she could recover. She was hesitant to hire me knowing that I would take a percentage of the proceeds she would obtain.

After speaking to her she decided that it would be in her child’s best interest to hire me to make sure that her interests were protected. I took the case and found out that the insurance company could not produce the documents showing that they only had $50,000 insurance. Since the insurance company could not produce the documents the family had a maximum $200,000 insurance as opposed to $50,000. We settled the case for the $200,000; a significant amount of money more than the insurance company said they had on their policy. The moral of the story is that you should always contact an attorney before you settle a case to make sure that your interests are being served.