I’ve recently been handling two personal injury cases that involved fairly serious injuries.  The problem is that in both cases, the party responsible for the injury did not have enough insurance.  In fact, in both cases, the responsible party had $25,000 in car insurance.  Needless to say, my clients were not very happy about this fact but in both cases, they luckily had “uninsured” motorist (UM) coverage.  In most cases, that also means “underinsured” motorist (when the other party doesn't have ENOUGH insurance).  In fact, they had $100,000 in underinsured motorist coverage.  That means if the other party doesn’t have “enough” you can turn to your own insurance company for additional coverage. 

However, that probably still isn't enough to compensate them for their injuries.  My clients were upset about this.  However, the amount of UM coverage one has is completely within your control.  Therefore, while you can’t control the amount of insurance the other party has, you can control the outcome to some extent by carrying a large UM policy.  There are so many people driving out there without insurance or in some cases, not enough insurance, to it behooves you to explore adequate UM coverage.  Ask your insurance company or broker about it.  It’s probably the single most important piece of auto insurance coverage you can get.

In my opinion, the most valuable part of any auto insurance policy is Uninsured Motorist! Time and time again, I have represented clients in auto accidents and we find out the other party either did not have insurance or did not have ENOUGH insurance. The Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist policy becomes critically important when that happens. Check your insurance policy and make sure you are properly protected.   A good insurance agent can explain the differences in coverage but you need to make sure you ask about UM Coverage.  It’s one of the single most important insurance coverage plans you can have.  You will be glad you have it when you get hit by an uninsured motorist or underinsured motorist.