How Insurance Limits Affect Your Car Accident Settlement

Major injuries from a car accident can result in thousands of dollars of medical bills, and you are entitled to receive compensation for this if the other driver in the accident caused the collision to occur. The problem you might encounter with this situation, though, is that the other driver might not have enough insurance coverage to compensate you for all the bills you have. Here are a few things to understand about this.

The at-fault driver's insurance pays the bills

Car insurance is designed to protect you from damages you cause and to protect others when you cause an accident. Because of the way this works, the person who caused the accident must use their insurance to pay the claims. This can be claims for themselves or for others that were injured as a result. If you did not cause the accident, you should start settling the case by looking into the other party's insurance coverage.

The insurance only provides a limited amount of coverage

While the other party's insurance must foot your bills, there is a chance the person might not have enough coverage. Part of a person's car insurance coverage is for medical payments, and there is a limit of coverage on every policy. If you have medical bills that are higher than the limit on the person's coverage, you will only be able to receive up to the maximum amount from the insurance company.

For example, if you have $50,000 in medical bills and the person's policy offers $40,000 in medical coverage, you will only be able to collect $40,000 from that person's policy, which means you will have a deficit of $10,0000. If this happens, your lawyer can help you pursue other methods for collecting the remaining amount.

You could receive additional compensation through other methods

There are several other methods you can consider at this point. The first is to sue the person for the rest of the money, and this method tends to work well if a person has assets or cash on hand. The other method is to use your own insurance policy to pay for the remaining amount, and you can do this if you have underinsured motorist coverage insurance on your car insurance policy.

If you are in a situation where you have major injuries from a car accident, don't try to settle this alone. Instead, hire a personal injury lawyer to assist you with your case. Reach out to professionals like Dunbar & Dunbar for more information.