How Does Defendant’s Insurance Affect The Value of Plaintiff’s Case?

The phrase that gets repeated by traffic authorities in Pennsylvania should be on the minds of all drivers. This is that phrase: Drive defensively. It helps to get hit by someone that has paid lots of money for comprehensive auto insurance.

A question that personal injury lawyers get repeatedly: “How much is my case worth?”

A case’s worth is determined by its value, and features of the other party’s insurance can determine a case’s value.

Suppose that the other party did not have any insurance; how would that affect the value of a plaintiff’s case?

Today, many states have a no-fault insurance policy. Lawyers that practice in such states know that clients with only minor injuries should look to their own insurance company to provide their compensation. Those with larger, possibly life-altering injuries do have the right to sue the responsible driver. That usually entails going after the driver’s assets.

Some drivers purchase an uninsured motorist option. The availability of the resources provided by that option free those same drivers from concerns about the chance that an uninsured motorist might hit them. If that were to happen, their own insurance company would have to cover the cost of the damages.

Personal Injury Lawyer in Sudbury know that many drivers buy a further option, one called an underinsured motorist option. That was made available to car-owning members of the public, due to the fact that adjusters always stressed the existence of any limits on their policyholder’s policy. Drivers that have purchased that second option should expect their own insurance to make-up the difference between an injury’s value and the limits pointed to by the adjuster.

Does the above information suggest that a defensive driver should avoid a collision with a cheaper vehicle, but not with one that appears more expensive?

Smart drivers try to avoid getting hit by a motorist in any sort of vehicle. Someone might buy a new car, and plan to have it insured as soon as possible. Yet that might be too late, if the same car were to become involved in a collision just minutes after it had been driven from the dealership.

Then, too, no one can tell for sure if a given car has been purchased, leased or rented. The rules that relate to insuring the drivers in those different vehicles are no more alike than the vehicles themselves. Even the knowledge that an automobile had come from a rental agency would not reveal all the needed information. Renters have a chance to buy an added amount of insurance, or to assume that their own would suffice. Those that had made an incorrect assumption could not fill the role of “ideal defendant” for the plaintiff with a personal injury case.