Protect Yourself

Lancaster Auto Accident Attorneys Making Sure You are Protected from Uninsured and Underinsured Drivers

These days, car crashes, auto wrecks, motor vehicle accidents or whatever you want to call them are all too common in Lancaster County. To make matters worse, many of the wrecks, crashes and accidents are caused by underinsured or uninsured drivers. If you are injured in a car, truck or motorcycle accident caused by someone else, as part of your claim for monetary damages, you first will have access to the liability coverage under the policy of the owner of the vehicle which caused the crash. If the vehicle is uninsured (which is a violation of Pennsylvania law) or underinsured (the amount of liability coverage is not sufficient to compensate you for your losses), then you can turn to the uninsured or underinsured motorist benefits you purchased under your own automobile, truck or motorcycle policy for additional coverage.

In this scenario, people ask, many times, why their own insurance should “have to pay” if the accident was caused by someone else. Well, the short answer is, just like you pay premiums for life insurance, disability insurance and every other kind of insurance, you are paying premiums to your own automobile insurance company for the protection of uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. Your insurance company does not feel bad taking your premiums, so there is no need for you to be hesitant to avail yourself of the benefits you purchased under the policy.

Also, when engaging in settlement negotiations or trying to obtain a lump sum settlement for your claim, an insurance company from which you purchase uninsured and underinsured motorist benefits owes certain fiduciary duties to you. Therefore, unlike the insurance company for the at-fault party, your insurance company is mandated by law to investigate your claim and provide you with its findings and the bases upon which it is relying, in a prompt fashion, and it must value your claim fairly and reasonably. While these duties and obligations exist for your auto insurance company, it is still critical to have an attorney whose practice specifically focuses on accident and injury law, like Georgelis, Larsen & Sabatino Injury Law Firm, P.C., P.C.