In this week’s edition of our “HCW: How Can We?” Youtube series, there is a discussion about what you can do when the at-fault driver does not have enough liability insurance coverage to properly compensate you for your injuries and damages. This sometimes becomes an important consideration when you have a significant injury and the at-fault driver has minimum limits of liability.

In Connecticut, the minimum limits of liability are what is referred to as 25/50. In other words, the most that anyone driver can collect in an accident is $25,000 and the most all of the injured parties can collect in any one accident is $50,000. So if you are injured through the negligence of a driver who carries the minimum limits of liability in Connecticut and your case is worth $35,000 then the most you can collect from that party’s insurance carrier is $25,000. If there are three people involved in this accident and each person’s case is worth $25,000 then the most all three people will be able to collect is $50,000, which will have to be divided in some way between the three parties.

So depending upon the circumstances, you may be able to turn to any one of a number of insurance policies for UIM protection if your case is worth more than the motor vehicle insurance limits carried by the at-fault party. There are two types of UIM coverage which our standard and conversion coverage. So if you collect $25,000 from the at-fault party’s insurance company and your case is worth $125,000 and you have $100,000 worth of UIM coverage available to you then if there was standard coverage the insurance company would get a credit for this $25,000 that was already paid to you so there would be $75,000 in available coverage for a total recovery to you of $100,000.

If in the same fact pattern, you had conversion coverage then the insurance carrier would not be entitled to the $25,000 reduction so you would be able to collect $25,000 from the at-fault parties insurance company and $100,000 from the UIM carrier for a total of $125,000.

This is a somewhat complicated area of the law and you should contact an experienced Connecticut personal injury lawyer at the earliest possible moment so that you can take the appropriate steps to protect yourself so that you can maximize the amount of money that you can recover for your accident or injury case.

We are happy to provide you with free information and advice so please contact us as soon as possible and we will be happy to assist you.