How The Other Party’s Insurance Coverage Can Affect Your Personal Injury Case?
In the minds of most accident victims, it seems like the person with the most serious injuries would receive the largest compensation. However, that is not always the case.
Factors that determine the potential size of a settlement
• The nature and extent of the victim’s injury
• Any limits on the other party’s insurance coverage
A question that victims should ask after getting hurt, due to an accident
What is the dollar limit on the defendant’s policy? If the defendant has a low limit, then the insurance company might reduce the size of the offered compensation. On the other hand, if it is a high limit, then the insurer should be expected to make a more generous offer. A listing of victims’ rights would not include the right to learn the exact limit on a given defendant’s policy. Still, if you happen to get hit by someone that is known to have lots of money, you can safely assume that the same driver does not have an especially limited insurance coverage.
Understand though, if the reverse is true, then the victim has the option of filing a lawsuit against the responsible driver. Of course, if the responsible driver does not have many assets, then the victim’s chances for obtaining more money, simply by filing a lawsuit, with the help of a personal injury lawyer in Rocklin seem rather small.
True, that approach might be a reasonable option, if the insurer has claimed that the injured party/victim is partly responsible for that injury. Victims that feel ready to fight such an allegation might elect to file a lawsuit. Still, the same victims should also ask themselves this question: Do I feel confident of winning a court battle, or should I accept the present offer?
Consider an alternate situation:
Suppose that you were to hit by another driver. What could happen then? That other driver would have the right to file a lawsuit against you, if he or she was not satisfied with the compensation that had been offered during the negotiations.
If you had purchased an automobile insurance policy with a generous level of liability coverage, you should not have to be concerned about the outcome of such a lawsuit. Your policy should cover the cost of compensating the victim at a level that matched with what the court might have ordered. Yet the outcome would be quite different, if you had not chosen to spend much money on liability coverage.
If that were the case, then the insurance company would not be able to provide the full extent of the requested compensation. That would mean that you would have to carry the burden of that debt yourself, even if you lacked the ability to come up with that much money.
