Many people in Florida drive without bodily injury insurance coverage. It has been estimated that 25% and 33% of all drivers have no bodily injury coverage. If they run a red light or they slam into the back of your car and they cause you to have a permanent injury, there may be no bodily injury insurance company that you can look to compensate you for the very real losses that you have suffered. Often those people have no assets from which you can get compensation directly. So frequently people are out of luck in terms of trying to get compensated for their real losses from the person who caused the accident.
Insurance That Provides Coverage When The Other Driver Has No Insurance: UM
You can purchase what’s called uninsured motorist coverage. Uninsured motorist coverage is probably the most important supplemental type of coverage that you can purchase.
Uninsured motorist coverage is coverage that covers by its definition an uninsured or underinsured motorist so that if the at fault person either had no insurance for bodily injury or too little insurance, your uninsured motorist coverage then stands in the shoes of what they should have had. You then make a claim against your uninsured motorist coverage to cover you for your losses.
Requirement To Offer UM Coverage
The law requires that any insurance company in Florida which sells you bodily injury coverage must offer you uninsured motorist coverage at the same limit. So for example, if you’re a responsible driver and you want to be sure that you’re fully covered to protect your assets in case you make a mistake and hurt someone, you buy bodily injury liability insurance for that purpose. When you buy this insurance the insurance company is obligated to offer you uninsured motorist coverage at an additional premium, of course. They are not going to give you coverage for nothing. We suggest strongly that you buy uninsured motorist coverage because there are so many people who have no insurance to cover you when they hurt you. Thus you will have some pool of money to fall back on in the unfortunate event that you are seriously hurt and you end up having a permanent injury through no fault of your own.
