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What Are Policy Limits? | Car Accidents | Auto Insurance Explained - YouTube
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hey everyone it's drew from champlain
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valley law
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in today's video we'll answer the
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question
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what are policy limits
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any lawyer will tell you that in order
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to have a successful personal injury
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claim
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you have to have three things number one
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an at-fault driver or business number
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two
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damages in the form of measurable harms
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and losses
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suffered by the injured person and
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finally number three
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money to make up for those losses this
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video
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is about the last point money to make up
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for the losses
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you may be wondering how much money will
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the at fault driver's insurance pay
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to cover my injuries now this is a topic
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that can get complicated quickly because
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there are
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lots of different kinds of insurance
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that might come into play
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but let's start with the basics when
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somebody buys car insurance
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it always comes with coverage for harm
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done
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because of negligence we call that
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bodily injury
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or liability coverage the policy limit
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is the dollar amount that represents the
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maximum amount of money
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the insurance company will pay for harm
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done
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to the injured person by the at fault
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driver
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for example let's say you're injured in
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a car crash
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and the at fault driver's insurance has
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a limit
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of fifty thousand dollars well then
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fifty thousand dollars
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is going to be the most money the
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insurance company will pay
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for the harms and losses done to you
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this is true
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even if your medical care lost wages
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and other harms and losses add up to
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much more than the policy limit
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and it's usually going to be true even
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if a jury values your case
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at more than the policy limit every
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insurance policy
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has a collection of coverages and each
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one
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will have its own limit so you're likely
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to see more than one limit
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in the same policy for example a common
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auto insurance policy
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might include coverages for liability or
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bodily injury
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collision coverage or medical payments
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coverage
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and each of these will have their own
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separate limit
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and while each of these is important our
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focus is going to be
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on the liability or bodily injury
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coverage
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because this is the money that pays you
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for
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all of the harms and losses that you've
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suffered that includes lost wages
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medical bills pain suffering and
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all the other harms and losses that you
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suffer as a result of a crash
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every state has a minimum amount of
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insurance coverage
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that a driver must have but this is just
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the starting point
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anybody can purchase more coverage
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it's not uncommon to see liability
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limits
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of a hundred thousand two hundred and
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fifty
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or even more in some cases in vermont
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and new york
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the minimum amount of liability coverage
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is 25 000
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per person with some important
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exceptions we'll talk about in a second
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here's where it gets a little tricky the
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way the law
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is actually written in new york and in
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vermont
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is that it requires 25 000 per person
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and 50 000 per accident in coverage
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and that's the minimum when lawyers or
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insurance adjusters talk about this
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we sometimes refer to it as a 2550
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policy situation what this means
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is that with the minimum coverage if
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there are two people
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injured by negligence in the same
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collision
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each of them can collect up to twenty
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five thousand dollars
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for a total of fifty thousand in the
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same accident
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now there are some policies that are
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written as what we call
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single limit policies meaning that
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there's only one dollar amount
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say 300 000 that's meant to cover
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everybody injured due to negligence in
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the same crash
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with single limit coverage if there are
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several people
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who get hurt in the same crash they may
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wind up fighting each other
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for a slice of the same pie depending on
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how bad their injuries are
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in the case of a 2550 policy though
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two people injured in the same crash
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will never have to fight each other
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because they each have their own
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separate limit but a
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third or fourth injured person from the
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same crash
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may wind up taking dollars from one of
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the first two
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and there's no priority it doesn't
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matter who filed the claim first
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which brings us to our final point what
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do you do
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if your injuries are so severe that
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twenty five
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fifty or even a hundred thousand dollars
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isn't enough
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to cover all of your losses in many
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cases
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the answer is that there's nothing you
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can do about it
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and that's the cold hard truth most
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people
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simply don't have the money or assets
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to pay for the harm that they cause a
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good lawyer
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will spend time and energy tracking down
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other at fault parties and tracing
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insurance coverage that might apply
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and you yourself may have underinsured
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motorist coverage
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that applies to this crash these are
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topics
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that are beyond the scope of today's
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conversation
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but we will talk about them separately
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in an upcoming video
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for now your takeaways from today's
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video are these
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number one in new york and in vermont
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every driver must carry a minimum amount
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of liability coverage that's 25 000 per
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person
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up to 50 000 per collision for harms
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caused due to that driver's negligence
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number two if there are more than two
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people
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injured in the same crash there's a good
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chance
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that some of those people may wind up
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fighting each other
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for the limited insurance dollars
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available
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and finally number three if the value of
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your damages
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exceeds the policy limit of the at fault
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drivers insurance
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you're going to have to look elsewhere
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for money and you may not find it
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that's it for today's video i hope you
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found it helpful
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if you did please click the like button
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and subscribe to the channel
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and if there's something you'd like to
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hear more about please let us know in
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the comments section below
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thanks for watching and we'll see you
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next time
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[Music]
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