Michigan DUI.com
                              Help is Here!  

                                                           

Welcome to Michigan DUI
Be informed on Michigan Drunk Driving News and Issues on Protecting Your Rights, Avoiding a DUI Arrest, handling Police Traffic Stops and locating Affordable Car Insurance Options. Browse the Links and Categories for Comprehensive Drunk Driving Resources, State of Michigan Links and MORE...

What Type of Auto No Fault Insurance Should I Buy?

Print the article

This entry was posted on 3/1/2006 6:40 PM and is filed under DUI Car Insurance.

Source: http://www.michiganautolaw.com/index.php

 

By: Steven Gursten

The short answer is to choose any insurance company that offers you the ability to purchase underinsured motorist coverage. Underinsurance is the greatest coverage that most Michigan auto owners know nothing about - until it is too late. If you are hit and injured by an underinsured driver i.e. a driver whose insurance policy limits are lower than the full nature and extent of your injuries - you can then turn to your own insurance company to collect the difference between the inadequate insurance policy of the underinsured at-fault driver up to the full amount of the underinsured motorist coverage policy limits. For example, if someone with a $500,000 underinsurance policy limit is injured by a driver with a minimum $20,000 liability insurance limit, that person would have an additional $480,000 to recover up to the full extent of his or her injuries.

Insurance companies generally do a terrible job informing the public that this important protection exists. In large part this is to perpetuate the fiction when someone is sued in a Michigan courtroom that the defendant does not have insurance (the defendant almost always does, but under Michigan law lawyers are forbidden from telling the jury that insurance exists and the amount of the policy limit). This is in contrast to more progressive states like Alaska, that do tell jurors that insurance exists and the amount of the policy, but that they are not to consider the existence of insurance when determining whether a plaintiff is entitled to recover.


Which Insurance Companies Offer Underinsurance?

Almost every insurance company in Michigan with two important exceptions:

AAA and State Farm.

Both AAA and State Farm, the two largest and most successful automobile insurance companies have made the decision not to offer underinsurance in Michigan. Both insurance companies have put profits over protecting their own insureds. It is largely inexcusable, and the only conceivable reason is because Michigan is one of a small minority of states that does not require an insurance agent to disclose that this important type of insurance even exists.

That means even if someone asks for "the best" insurance protection, or "full" insurance, and they have AAA or State Farm, that agent does not have to inform them that the coverage exists but is not offered. So if someone is killed by a driver with minimum liability policy limits of $20,000 by a negligent driver, the most that can be recovered for the family is usually the inadequate $20,000 policy limit.

This minimum policy limit is the minimum amount that a driver must purchase in bodily injury liability coverage in Michigan. And this is the same $20,000 policy limit that was required when the No Fault law was enacted in Michigan back in 1973. In today's dollars, it is slightly more than $6,000 dollars.

The other insurance company that I routinely recommend people to avoid is Farm Bureau. Although Farm Bureau does offer underinsurance, I find that Farm Bureau treats its own insureds terribly. I have found it is almost impossible to get Farm Bureau to give permission for one of its own insureds to accept a defendant's policy limit so that its own insured can then recover from his or her own underinsurance policy that the insured paid good money for (in Michigan, the underinsurance company must give permission before its own insured can settle with an at-fault driver). In effect, Farm Bureau forces its own insureds through a trial even when the defendant wants to settle and pay its insurance policy. Farm Bureau also has the worst contractual provisions on notice and filing of lawsuits - which again is deliberate and which unfairly takes advantage of its own insureds.

If you have any questions about a policy of insurance or insurance company, please feel free to contact MichiganAutoLaw. We will be happy to help you.

 

What did you think of this article?




Trackbacks
Trackback specific URL for this entry
  • No trackbacks exist for this post.
Comments
    • No comments exist for this post.
Leave a comment

Submitted comments are subject to moderation before being displayed.

 Name

 Email (will not be published)

 Website

Your comment is 0 characters limited to 3000 characters.



  
Copyright 2007. http://MICHIGANDUI.COM. All rights reserved.