UNINSURED OR UNDERINSURED MOTORISTS ACCIDENT LAWYERS IN ROCHESTER, NEW YORK

So how can Parisi and Bellavia help when our clients are injured by someone without or with too little insurance coverage? In a typical car accident, it is the at-fault driver’s liability insurance coverage that covers the associated medical, loss of wage, and pain and suffering costs associated with the injuries sustained in the accident. In this situation, however, we will review your own insurance coverage to evaluate what’s called your uninsured or underinsurance coverage or what the insurance industry refers to as Supplementary Uninsured Motorist (“SUM”) coverage.

Supplementary Uninsured Motorist Coverage kicks-in when the at-fault driver has no insurance or when the at-fault driver has too little insurance. A few important points here. First, you should evaluate your own auto insurance to understand how much SUM coverage you have. It’s common when you go to buy auto insurance that you review your own liability limits in case you injure someone else, but people all too often overlook the SUM coverage to ensure that they and their family are adequately protected in case someone else injures them and the at-fault driver is not adequately insured. Second, in the instance when the at-fault driver is under-insured, we will need to obtain an offer for the at-fault driver’s limit before we pursue your own insurance company to supplement the coverage. For example, say you’re injured by a party that has the minimal required insurance coverage of $25,000, but you have $100,000 in SUM coverage and $100,000 in damages (medical costs, lost wages, etc.). We’ll first need to obtain the $25,000 coverage from the at-fault party before pursuing your own insurance company for the remainder.