The real reason to have uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage is to protect yourself, your family, and your passengers in the event that you are injured by someone who either doesn’t have any insurance or doesn’t have enough insurance to cover your damages. Should the responsible driver not have any automobile insurance coverage whatsoever, you might very well be limited to the limits of your own policy. 

Consider if you are involved in an accident with an uninsured driver. Should you have tried to save a few bucks, as many people do, and purchased a minimum limits policy under Virginia law, you would have only a maximum of $25,000 to cover the all the losses of any one indivdual. If more than one person was injured in the accident there would be a maximum of $50,000 to compensate you and your passengers. It is all too easy to think of situations where limits of $25,000/$50,000 would be woefully inadequate. In times of recession, people might just miss that car insurance bill, or put off paying it, for any number of reasons. With an expected increase uninsured drivers on our roads, it makes complete sense to revisit your unisured/underinsured automobile insurance limits. 

In Virginia, every driver receives uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage with the same limits as the liability limits. You can always ask for more coverage, but that is entirely up to you. If the idea is to fully protect your family, you would want the highest limits your automobile insurance carrier offers.Automobile insurance carriers offer different maximums. Some insurers will offer a one Million single limit policy. Other insurance carriers might max out at $500,000.00. It makes absolute sense to get the highest uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage available.  The cost is not prohibitive, and the peace of mind that you receive by purchasing higher limits is worth the cost.

Related posts:

  1. Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Coverage in times of Recession-Part 1
  2. Uninsured Motorists- About one in six drivers in the U.S. might be driving without insurance by 2010
  3. Fatalities on Virginia Roads -2007
  4. Fairfax County leads the State in Car Accident Deaths
  5. 2007 Virginia Car Accident Facts

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 27th, 2009 at 9:05 pm and is filed under Blog, Library, Personal Injury. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.