People often have no idea what coverages they have paid for with their own auto or truck liability policies and that can prove quite costly when they are injured in a collision.
Just today I spoke to a prospective new client who is facing a follow-up back surgery due to a bad crash. He informed me that he had full coverage and it was clear to me that he may have " full coverage" to the extent that he has all the coverages required by Maryland law.
But to quote Inigo Montoya " I do not think it means what you think it means." Full coverage is not remotely full.
In this era of Liberty Mutual's " Only pay for what you need" that often translates into get the cheapest policy available that only includes the Maryland required basics. You see, the Maryland state legislature followed virtually every other state in the union in requiring drivers to have a smallish amount of insurance to protect both the policyholder and the driving public.
Which is to say if someone negligently runs into you there is at least $30,000.00 in liability insurance to pay for your injuries and a total of $60,000.00 for all injuries they bring about.
So hypothetically, a bad driver rear-ends your SUV and injures you and your three kids significantly and that means four people divide up $60,000.00. Medical bills can soar and you might find that there is nothing left for your lost wages or any other accident-related expenses.
Fortunately there is a separate requirement for property damage but that is merely $15,000.00 and in the era when the average cost of a new car is said to be $45,000.00, you can imagine how inadequate $15,000.00 often is and our hypothetical SUV driver might lose literally tens of thousands of dollars in property damage.
That is conceptually what the problem is with this " Full Coverage." It's full if you never have an accident where more than $15,000.00 in property damage is involved or where any lasting personal injury is involved. We see a lot of cases where our clients are injured to a degree that they expect greater compensation than $30,000.00 and they are fully justified in their expectations.
The problem is of course that most of the time the drivers who caused their injuries have Maryland minimum coverage and they too are laboring under the illusion that it will be sufficient. The victims of these crashes generally don't realize that they can protect themselves from just such a situation by purchasing more than the Maryland minimum coverages on their own policies.
Using our hypothetical above the same bad driver rear-ends you and injures you and your three kids and totals your late model SUV. But you have purchased more than the Maryland minimum and can make up for the inadequacies of the at-fault driver's " Full Coverage."
You have at least property damage coverage equivalent to the replacement cost of your SUV say $50,000.00. You also have $10,000.00 in PIP or personal injury protection coverage to take care of medical expenses and lost income.
Lastly you have at least Uninsured Motorist Coverage in the amount of $100,000.00 per person and $300,000.00 per accident. What this means is once the at-fault driver's insurance has paid out its $30,000.00 per person and cumulative $60,000. maximum per accident, you can collect up to another $240,000,00 in uninsured/ underinsured motorist benefits.
Your policy can ensure that your vehicle is fully repaired or replaced, your immediate medical bills or lost wages are paid by PIP and instead of splitting $60,000.00 four ways for personal injury compensation you can split up to $300,000.00. Yes it costs more but protecting your family in the event of a bad crash should be your goal when you but truly " Fuller Coverage."
