I have spent a couple of past posts talking about the issues in underinsured motorist (UIM)coverages. If you ride a motorcycle, make sure you didn’t buy a different of the limits policy. If you are having issues in getting your coverage dealt with, the new good faith law may help you. Also, the importance of having as much coverage as you can afford.
But it seems with each new policy, there is a new way that UIM carriers are trying to get out of paying.
– There is a USAA policy out there that reduces the coverage for your family members in the car down to the state minimum. So you buy $100,000 in coverage and some tragedy hits and injures your children. They only get 25,000 in coverage.
– There are a couple of companies that are trying to enforce car’s use for work policies, where if you are using your car to deliver products, you may not have any coverage. So you buy $100,000 in UIM coverage, and are hired out to deliver books for a library, your coverage doesn’t exist at that time.
– One company is changing words such as "relative" to bizarre meanings so that injured parties can’t collect under those policies. In cases where you are injured in a car that isn’t yours, the Minnesota law allows you to recover from the largest resident relative policy in the house you live in for UIM, except under this policy’s twist on the English language.
All of these issues have been and continue to be subject of court fight and later appeals. In some cases, the legislature has been helpful to correct the policies to at least the basic mandatory required coverage. The problem is that most people have no idea that what they paid for isn’t what they received, so make sure you have a good agent who understands what it is you want and gets you that coverage. And if you are unfortunately involved in an accident, make sure you talk to attorneys who understand the coverages and know how to get you what you paid for.
A founding partner with Bradshaw & Bryant, Mike Bryant has always fought to find justice for his clients—knowing that legal troubles, both personal injury and criminal, can be devastating for a family. Voted a Top 40 Personal Injury "Super Lawyer" multiple years, Mr. Bryant has also been voted one of the Top 100 Minnesota "Super Lawyers" four times.
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