What Is Underinsured Motorist Coverage and Do You Need It?
In Brandt Shelbourne’s role as a Dorchester County Magistrate Judge, he sees hundreds of cases each year involving charges of driving without insurance. What can a driver do to protect against losses when hit by an uninsured or underinsured driver?
South Carolina requires you to have uninsured motorist coverage, which covers you when an at-fault driver does not have insurance or causes an accident and leaves the scene. This requirement makes sense because, according to the Insurance Information Institute (www.iii.org) 2022 data, more than one in nine drivers in South Carolina is uninsured.
But the state does not require underinsured motorist coverage, which covers you when the at-fault party doesn’t have enough insurance to pay for all of your losses. Because South Carolina requires a minimum of only $25,000 in coverage, if you are hit by a driver that has only that minimum limit of insurance and are injured, the most their insurance company will have to pay you is the $25,000, regardless of whether you are just shaken up or catastrophically injured or killed. And with the current cost of medical treatment, it is easy to have medical bills that quickly exceed that coverage, leaving no money for pain and suffering.
You can address this by making sure that you opt for as much Underinsured Motorist (UIM) coverage as you can afford. South Carolina requires that an insurer provide Uninsured Motorist (UM) coverage and this should also be as high as you can afford. However, South Carolina allows drivers to opt out of UIM.
Brandt Shelbourne believes this is a very risky mistake in light of the minimum limits that drivers are allowed to have. “I have handled lots of cases where our client is seriously injured in an accident, the at-fault driver only has minimum limits, and the medical bills exceed $25,000. It is tragic when that is all that is available because the injured client chose years before to opt out of UIM coverage or opted to go with the minimum limits of UIM coverage in order to save a few dollars.”
UIM coverage insures you individually if you are injured by a driver that is “under-insured” or does not have enough insurance to cover your injuries. It is not dependent on your driving. You can be a passenger or even a pedestrian injured by a driver with not enough automobile insurance and your UIM coverage would apply. And while it does not automatically pay like a life insurance policy does, it does provide the additional funds should you have injuries and damages warranting payment.
Get Immediate Assistance after a Summerville Auto Accident
If you or a loved one has been injured in a car accident, contact the dedicated and experienced auto accident attorneys at Shelbourne Law in Summerville for a free consultation at 843-871-2210. There is no fee unless we recover for you.
