San Jose Uninsured Motorist Accident Attorney

The time surrounding a serious car accident is frightening and stressful, and this is especially the case when an uninsured motorist is at fault. If you have suffered serious injuries because of an uninsured motorist, you are probably wondering who will pay your medical bills and who will cover the damage done to your car. At Habbas & Associates, a San Jose uninsured motorist lawyer at our firm is capable of helping accident victims find the compensation they need to recover from their accidents.

We are highly experienced at handling all types of personal injury claims in the San Jose area, and we are here to advocate for you during this trying time. We take the time to help review your insurance policy with you and identify all other policies that may extend coverage to you. You may actually have uninsured motorist coverage that insures you and the passengers in your vehicle who suffer bodily harm caused by a driver with no insurance. Whatever your situation may be, you can find the help you need when you call our firm.

Uninsured Motorist Compared to Underinsured

An uninsured motorist is someone who does not carry any insurance at all. Although this is a crime in California, it does not deter people from still driving with no insurance, which means they will not provide you with any coverage later. An underinsured motorist is someone who carries insurance but the amount they carry does not provide enough to cover all of your damages.

In California, the minimum coverage limit that all drivers must carry is:

• $15,000 for bodily injuries suffered by one party
• $30,000 for bodily injuries suffered by all parties
• $5,000 for property damage experienced by all parties

Imagine that you incurred $50,000 in medical bills after an accident. The liable driver’s insurance caps at $30,000. There will be another $20,000 in bills unaddressed, which technically makes that driver underinsured.

Do You Have UM/UIM Insurance?

The first thing you should do after getting into an accident with an uninsured or underinsured motorist is to check to see if you have uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) insurance. California does not make it mandatory that you purchase UM/UIM insurance, so it might not be in your policy. If your policy does include UM/UIM coverage, though, then you are in a better position than many other drivers who have been hit by an uninsured motorist.

Through a UM/UIM policy, your own insurance company will provide for your unpaid damages after being hit by an uninsured or underinsured driver, up to the cap of your policy. However, having UM/UIM insurance does not guarantee you will get the owed coverage. Your insurer might try to challenge the claim, meaning you could need to file a lawsuit against your insurance company instead of a third-party insurer.

Hit-and-Run Drivers are Uninsured

What happens if you were hurt in a hit-and-run accident and no one had a chance to identify the other driver? Again, an UM/UIM insurance policy can be a saving grace. Under most policies, a driver who cannot be identified is equal to a driver who has no insurance, so your UM policy could provide some coverage even if the other driver is never located.