What if You Dont Know the Insurance Policy Limits but Your Injurys Exceed 500k
If you cause a car crash in which someone else is injured, your bodily injury liability (BI or BIL) insurance pays for expenses related to injuries they sustain in the crash.
It is 1 of the 2 forms of liability auto insurance coverage that pay for any damage you lot cause other drivers.
Well-nigh every land sets a minimum requirement for actual injury coverage to demonstrate your financial responsibility on the road, such equally $25,000 per person. But consumers take the choice to buy coverage beyond the legal minimum.
- What bodily injury coverage pays for
- How much BI coverage should you have?
- Cost of bodily injury liability insurance
- Filing a actual injury liability claim
What does bodily injury coverage pay for?
Bodily injury liability insurance pays for injuries y'all cause to some other commuter if you are at error in the accident. Information technology includes medical bills likewise as lost wages and even funeral costs if applicable.
Bodily injury does non cover the medical costs of injuries you may arrive the blow. Information technology is considered "third-party" insurance since it only pays for damage to other drivers and passengers (y'all're the "first party").
What is covered under bodily injury coverage
The types of expenses a tertiary party can file against your bodily injury liability policy include:
- Medical bills: For the other party's hospitalization, follow-upwardly intendance and related medical or health care.
- Lost wages: If the harmed political party was seriously injured and unable to work, your bodily injury liability coverage makes up for their lost income. This amount will exist based upon the corporeality of time they are unable to work as a result of the injury, and subject to various limits based on where y'all live.
- Legal fees: This is the ane item where bodily injury pays for your expenses instead of the third party. Your insurer will ordinarily provide legal defense force for you if yous are sued by the other party, and that's paid for under your own actual injury coverage.
- Funeral costs: Pays for costs associated with funeral and burial if someone is killed as a upshot of the crash.
>> Learn More than: Understanding Fault in Motorcar Accidents for Insurance Purposes
How to understand bodily injury liability limits
Your bodily injury coverage is stated in function of a three-number format such as "25/fifty/25." In the three-number format, the first two numbers are the bodily injury coverage limits and the third is for belongings harm, a separate blazon of coverage.
The first number is the amount of coverage for ane person in the accident, while the 2d number represents the amount covered in the entire accident. And then, for example, if you are quoted a 25/50 limit for bodily injury, it means that the insurance policy will encompass upwardly to a maximum of $25,000 per person injured in an accident and a total of $50,000 in claims for a single accident.
Nosotros'll look at two examples to explain how actual injury liability works.
- You were deemed at fault for an accident in which two people in the other vehicle were injured. Person A had medical expenses of $30,000, while Person B had medical expenses of $10,000. While the combined medical bills are within the $50,000 limit per accident, your machine insurance policy will only pay Person A $25,000, and Person B $ten,000. That'due south because Person A's expenses exceeded the per-person limit, leaving y'all on the hook for the $v,000 of the unpaid claim.
- You were at fault for an accident in which two people were injured. Both made medical expense claims of $25,000 each. Because both the individual claims are inside the $25,000 and the combined claim is less than or equal to $50,000, the insurance policy will cover these expenses.
Combined single limit (CSL) is some other — and less common — type of limit consumers may buy. Different the carve up limit, CSL has one limit that applies to the whole blow and is not constrained past the number of injured people. The flexibility of CSL makes this type of limit more than expensive, and not every car insurance visitor provides this option.
Minimum bodily injury liability requirements past state
Each land has a minimum amount of coverage you are required to have every bit part of your auto insurance. The nigh mutual minimum BIL limit is $25,000 per person, but your state may take a dissimilar minimum. Florida doesn't even require this coverage.
Country minimums for actual injury liability are displayed in the post-obit table:
| State | Min. Coverage | Country | Min. Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $25,000/$fifty,000 | Montana | $25,000/$50,000 |
| Alaska | $l,000/$100,000 | Nebraska | $25,000/$50,000 |
| Arizona | $fifteen,000/$xxx,000 | Nevada | $25,000/$50,000 |
| Arkansas | $25,000/$50,000 | New Hampshire | $25,000/$fifty,000 |
| California | $15,000/$xxx,000 | New Jersey | $15,000/$xxx,000 |
| Colorado | $25,000/$50,000 | New United mexican states | $25,000/$fifty,000 |
| Connecticut | $25,000/$fifty,000 | New York | $25,000/$fifty,000 |
| Delaware | $25,000/$50,000 | North Carolina | $thirty,000/$60,000 |
| District of Columbia | $25,000/$fifty,000 | North Dakota | $25,000/$50,000 |
| Florida | None | Ohio | $25,000/$50,000 |
| Georgia | $25,000/$fifty,000 | Oklahoma | $25,000/$fifty,000 |
| Hawaii | $20,000/$40,000 | Oregon | $25,000/$50,000 |
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>> Acquire MORE: Minimum Car Insurance Requirements in Every Land
How much bodily injury liability coverage should yous have?
You lot should get limits that lucifer the value of avails yous have, or the highest limits y'all can beget. That's because if your car insurance isn't enough to pay for the damage yous crusade, the other driver may take yous to courtroom and sue for the remainder. If the judges rule in their favor, your avails volition have to be liquidated to pay for the court amercement.
- If you lot have limited assets — pregnant yous don't have a lot of money stored in bank accounts, retirement accounts or other funds — it'southward likely that the other party will be willing to settle a claim for what the insurance company pays out. Y'all don't have as much take chances in a lawsuit when there are fewer assets to spare.
- On the other hand, if you lot are wealthy or have savings or investments, your financial risk and exposure in an accident increases. If you pick low limits, more of your avails are exposed when an accident results in hundreds of thousands of dollars in amercement.
Because wealthier people may be bigger targets for lawsuits, we recommend higher coverage limits for college net worth individuals, as a higher policy limit will cover more than of the claims brought against your actual injury protection. The side by side thing to consider is how to observe the cheapest car insurance for the coverage yous need.
>> Learn More: How Much Liability Coverage Exercise I Need?
How much does actual injury liability car insurance cost?
Actual injury liability insurance gets cheaper the more coverage yous buy. We institute that a country minimum coverage policy in Pennsylvania with $15,000 per person/$30,000 per accident of bodily injury coverage costs $532 on boilerplate. However, buying bodily injury coverage that'due south more than six times more generous ($100,000/$200,000) increased our sample driver's rates by only 18%, to $627 per yr.
Find Cheap Auto Insurance Quotes in Your Area
| BI coverage limit | Almanac cost | Coverage per premium dollar spent |
|---|---|---|
| $15,000/$xxx,000 (land minimum) | $532 | $56 |
| $twenty,000/$forty,000 | $552 | $72 |
| $25,000/$50,000 | $560 | $89 |
| $30,000/$threescore,000 | $585 | $103 |
| $l,000/$100,000 | $589 | $170 |
| $100,000/$200,000 | $627 | $319 |
All quotes are for liability-only policies in Pennsylvania with $five,000 of property damage liability coverage.
How to file a bodily injury liability claim
BI claims are considered "3rd-political party claims," which means you are filing a claim against the at-fault driver's insurance visitor.
In order to make sure a reasonable corporeality of your expenses are paid for, y'all will exist required to document and keep a record of the accident. Before making a claim, you should be prepared to provide:
- A detailed description of what happened
- Photos of the scene and whatever injuries yous sustained
- Records of medical examinations and any bills from doctors and health care providers
- Receipts of all related expenses
- Proof of lost wages: If the injuries you sustained caused y'all to miss work and potential income, documentation of this from your employer is necessary
>> Learn More than: How to File a Car Insurance Merits
After making a claim:
- You should hear back within a ready time frame, every bit determined past your state and policy, or become an explanation for any filibuster.
- Exist prepared to discuss the incident. A liability claim examiner or adjuster may want clarification to appraise the sustained injuries as well as the cost of the claim.
- Your right to collect compensation for your claim may have a time limit too: You may be required to accept a settlement within the required fourth dimension frame every bit regulated by state law. You can either accept the offer or file a lawsuit if you lot do not agree with the settlement.
- Sign the release course only if you are ready: As part of the process, the insurance company volition ask you lot to waive all future rights to pursue the person and visitor for further payments after settlement. Yous should accept into account future medical bills and any expenses that might ascend. Ask an attorney to review the settlement and release.
How much is the boilerplate actual liability claim worth?
Compared with belongings damage liability claims, which accept averaged around $3,600 per claim over the concluding x years, bodily injury claims tend to be significantly higher.
In 2019, the average actual injury claim was $18,417 equally reported by Insurance Services Part Inc. (ISO). Actual injury claims tend to exist relatively infrequent, nonetheless, with merely 1.1% of policies experiencing a claim that year. Based on this data, most bodily injury claims fall within reach of the minimum coverage limits required by the states, with a few exceptions, such as Florida.
>> Learn More than: Cashing a Car Insurance Merits Check
This should not be used as the sole piece of information in determining your limit, however. These numbers do non indicate a wide range of merits amounts, ranging from the fortunately low to catastrophically loftier claims.
| Year | Boilerplate actual injury merits amount |
|---|---|
| 2010 | $xiv,406 |
| 2011 | $14,848 |
| 2012 | $xiv,690 |
| 2013 | $15,441 |
| 2014 | $fifteen,384 |
| 2015 | $16,046 |
| 2016 | $16,149 |
| 2017 | $sixteen,075 |
| 2018 | $17,164 |
| 2019 | $xviii,417 |
Frequently asked questions
What is actual injury liability coverage?
Bodily injury coverage pays for financial damage to others that occurs equally a upshot of a motorcar crash that you're responsible for. This could include medical bills, lost wages and legal fees.
Do I need bodily injury liability coverage?
In most cases, yes. Every land except Florida requires BI liability coverage in club to register a car.
How much actual injury coverage should I buy?
You will definitely need to buy at least enough to meet the minimum required amount in your state, but nosotros recommend drivers buy more based on their net worth and how often they drive, every bit a few extra dollars per year could save you lot tens of thousands if you're ever in an at-fault crash.
Is actual injury coverage expensive?
The cost of BI liability coverage depends on how much you buy, as well equally other factors like your driving history. The more coverage you lot purchase, the amend the deal. For example, while the boilerplate price of a legal minimum insurance policy is $532 per yr in Pennsylvania, we found that doubling your BI coverage merely increases your premium by well-nigh 10%.
Sources
ValuePenguin'due south analysis used insurance charge per unit data from Quadrant Information Services. These rates were publicly sourced from insurer filings and should be used for comparative purposes but, every bit your quotes may exist unlike.
Source: https://www.valuepenguin.com/bodily-injury-car-insurance-coverage
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