What happens if someone at fault in a car accident does not have Bodily Injury and Liability insurance?
Your worst nightmare comes true and you find yourself involved in a car accident. It may be your fault or the other party’s. You get out of your car and are confronted by the news that the guy who hit you does not have insurance, or whatever insurance he has does not cover you.
Why?
Because the law in Florida does not require that you have insurance to cover the other party, that is, Bodily Injury and Liability Insurance. It only requires Personal Injury Protection and Property Damage or PIP/PD.
It’s true.
The law in Florida states that one only has to buy PIP/PD. This insurance covers your own medical bills and the other person’s property damage. That’s the only thing you have to buy.
You’re not obliged to buy any type of insurance if you hit a bicyclist, if you hit a pedestrian, run a stop sign and hit somebody in the other car. You can injure somebody, kill them, they may lose an arm, have a leg amputated, and it doesn’t matter if you don’t have insurance for that!
Even if in this case it turns out that they do have coverage, you may find out the guy who hit you only has $10,000 in Bodily Injury and Liability insurance. And that’s not a good sign. Especially if you have been injured severely enough as to require a one week stay in the hospital and medical bills alone will reach $50,000 or more.
What happens if the individual at fault for this accident does not have more than $10,000 in Bodily Injury Liability Insurance?
The reality is that you’re going to have to see if it makes sense economically to go after the person that caused the accident.
Most of the time, unless the person has substantial assets, maybe some millionaire, it’s not worth it. Why? First of all, the individual that drives around with only $10,000 in insurance is not a millionaire, that’s a fact. If he was, and if he had properties, investments, etc., he would have a policy for 1 or 2 million, precisely so that you won’t go against his assets. The chances of you being hit by a millionaire, a billionaire, Donald Trump or a movie star who would be at fault for an accident are very slim. And if by some miracle it happens, you won’t be able to go after their assets, because when you have assets you buy insurance to protect yourself.
An individual who has a $10,000 policy may have a house, but don’t even think about taking that away from him, you can’t. Plus, he probably doesn’t even own it but has a mortgage and each month makes a payment to the bank.
The most important thing you need to figure out in this case is who is going to pay. You have to know what kind of insurance the individual that caused the accident is carrying.
Talk to your Personal Insurance Attorney about this or any other legal subject that might be on your mind. He’ll tell you what to do or where to go, and even if it’s worth it for you to do anything about it.
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