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In this article, you will discover:
Underinsured motorist coverage is additional coverage you purchase to protect yourself in the event you’ve been hit by an at-fault driver who carries the state’s minimum mandated insurance or something above the minimum but not enough to cover your full damages. Those damages would include medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering.
If you receive an offer for the full policy limits from the other driver’s insurance company, you have a right to claim additional benefits from your underinsured motorist coverage. Your UIM will pay you in addition to what you received from the other driver.
UIM is not required in Arkansas. You have to reject it if you don’t want it, but it’s not like liability coverage you must carry to register and tag your vehicle. UIM is not expensive, and more full-service and experienced insurance agents add it automatically. The good news: if you need it, you can use it if an underinsured driver hits you.
This is where an experienced car accident attorney is helpful. There is a required process to utilize your underinsured coverage; you don’t get it automatically. You must receive a policy limit offer from the at-fault insurance company to pay you the full amount of their policy.
Once you receive that offer, your attorney will send the offer plus the declarations page to your insurance company to prove the at-fault insurance company is offering all they have to offer. Your attorney will include your medical bills, medical records and any other proof of damages, such as lost wages or a pain journal.
Your insurance company will evaluate your claim. Suppose they agree the at-fault party’s insurance isn’t enough to compensate you fully. In that case, you accept the at-fault insurance and begin negotiating for additional money on your underinsured motorist policy.
If your insurance company decides the at-fault insurance is sufficient, you receive the full amount of their policy. You then can sue your own insurance company for additional benefits. However, that’s a rare situation that an experienced car accident attorney can help you avoid.
Attorney Bradley Mullins is an experienced lawyer based in Arkansas who has helped countless clients like you navigate the intricacies of personal injury law. With more than 13 years of experience, he is prepared to assist you with the complexities of your underinsured motorist accident claim so that you can receive full compensation for your injuries, lost wages and pain and suffering.
Still have questions? Ready to get started? Contact Mullins & Blake today to schedule an initial consultation.
Many people think the only service a personal injury attorney provides is fighting to get you the most money possible. That’s an essential part of the job, but another essential part of the job is almost like detective work. It involves searching for additional coverage. If somebody hits you who doesn’t have enough coverage, there are three solutions your attorney can pursue.
First, they can check to see if the at-fault driver has an umbrella policy that might provide extra coverage. Second, they can also do an asset check on the at-fault driver to see if, even with limited insurance, they have a job that pays six figures a year. Maybe they’ve got a vacation house. In that case, you could get a judgment against them and garnish their wages or put a lien on their home to pay your full damages.
The third option is to look at your policy and any insurance coverage you have that will help make your situation better.
We represented a client in a motorcycle accident. The driver that hit him had limited insurance that wasn’t enough to pay his medical bills, let alone compensate him for lost wages, pain and suffering.
In this situation, we were able to use an underinsured policy from somebody else in the client’s household. After he received money from the at-fault driver’s insurance company, his wife’s auto insurance policy provided additional benefits from her underinsured coverage that also applied to our client’s motorcycle.
It wasn’t a solution that was obvious at the start. We dug around, discovered the policies our client had and exhausted all remedies against the at-fault driver. We were still able to get our client more money than he thought he was entitled to or able to recover when he walked into our office.
For more information on underinsured motorist claims in Arkansas, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (479) 337-7077 today.
Attorney Bradley Mullins is an experienced lawyer based in Arkansas who has helped countless clients like you navigate the intricacies of personal injury law. With more than 13 years of experience, he is prepared to assist you with the complexities of your underinsured motorist accident claim so that you can receive full compensation for your injuries, lost wages and pain and suffering.
Still have questions? Ready to get started? Contact Mullins & Blake today to schedule an initial consultation.
