What Is Personal Injury Coverage

What Is Personal Injury Protection

Personal injury protection , also known as no-fault insurance, is a component of an automobile insurance plan that covers the healthcare expenses associated with a car accident. PIP covers medical expenses for both injured policyholders and passengers, even if some dont have health insurance.

If the cost of necessary medical care exceeds the auto insurance policys PIP limits, health insurance sometimes covers further expenses. Policies have a per-person maximum, meaning that coverage is limited to a certain amount per person if multiple people are injured in an accident.

Minimum Pip Requirements By State

PIP insurance is sometimes called “no-fault insurance,” since a minimum amount of PIP coverage is required if you live in a no-fault state. In these states, your own insurance policy will cover your expenses â even if another driver caused the accident â unless a certain threshold is met. These thresholds, called “tort thresholds,” may be either monetary or verbal, depending on your state.

Monetary thresholds require medical expenses for an individual or accident to exceed a state-designated amount before you can sue another driver. Verbal thresholds specify a certain type of injury that must be met before you file a lawsuit. Although the language varies by state, verbal thresholds typically say an individual must have sustained significant and permanent loss of a bodily function, injury or disfigurement, or death. Other variables, such as if a driver was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, can also change how tort thresholds are applied.

In addition to the 12 no-fault states, four fault-based states also require PIP coverage. Other states allow you to purchase it as optional coverage. Here are the PIP insurance requirements for the states that allow you to purchase it:

*Kentucky, New Jersey and the District of Columbia are optional no-fault states. Policyholders may elect either to operate under the no-fault system or under a tort liability system that allows them to file a lawsuit immediately.

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What Does Pip Not Cover

PIP coverage will not reimburse for:

• Damage to other peoples property or vehicle
• Medical care that exceeds the policy limits

To provide for damage to vehicles, you need to add comprehensive or collision coverage to your policy. In some states, you can file a lawsuit against the at-fault driver to recover costs over PIP coverage.

PIP coverage is different than liability coverage. Every state except Virginia and New Hampshire require minimum liability coverage.

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Pip Insurance Vs Liability Insurance

Bodily injury liability insurance is required in nearly every state, and it covers damages faced by others after you cause an accident. In no-fault states where each persons damage is covered by their insurance provider, its commonly known as residual liability car insurance.

Drivers typically use their own PIP insurance to cover medical expenses after an accident, regardless of who was the at-fault driver. Bodily injury liability insurance only applies in the most serious instances, when drivers may still face lawsuits.

If your vehicle is damaged by another driver in a no-fault state, the other motorists insurance provider will still be required to cover repair costs. Thats because PIP insurance covers medical bills, lost wages and funeral expenses while property damage liability insurance covers vehicle-related charges.

How Much Does Pip Insurance Cost

To give you an idea of how much PIP insurance costs, below is an example of driver with a clean record, living in Tampa, Florida. The rates are for a policy including PIP insurance for up to $10,000, $100,000 for bodily injury liability, up to $300,000 per accident, and including comprehensive and collision with a $500 deductible. The average rate for PIP for a full coverage policy in Tampa was $366, among the insurers analyzed. That turns out to be about 16% of the total rate.

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What Is Included In Personal And Advertising Injury Coverage

Personal and Advertising Injury Coverage will cover your business for any legal fees, judgements, or settlements resulting from lawsuits claiming the following offenses:

False arrest, detention, or imprisonment. This offense refers to holding someone against their will and denying their personal liberty in an unlawful or unjustified manner.

• Example:You own a convenience store and suspect a customer of shoplifting. You force the customer to the back office and keep him detained until you review the security footage. After reviewing the security video, you realize youve made a mistake, and, in fact, the customer did not steal anything. The customer sues you for false imprisonment.

Malicious prosecution. This offense involves bringing criminal or civil legal action against someone without probable cause and with the intention of doing harm. The defendant in the case must show that the claim ended in his or her favor.

• Example:You run a driving instruction school, and over the weekend, five of your company cars were stolen. You suspect the culprit is a recent client, who you recently had a disagreement with. You have him arrested and charged with theft. A few weeks later, the police track down your cars and are able to arrest the real thief, who ends up having no ties to the customer you suspected. All charges are dropped against the customer, who, in turn, sues you for malicious prosecution.

Difference Between Pip And Bodily Injury Coverage

PIP covers medical costs associated with a car accident. Some of the items it may cover are:

• Ambulance costs
• Rehabilitation and therapy
• Funeral and burial expenses

Bodily injury liability coverage covers the medical costs for others if you are at fault for causing an auto accident. Almost all states require bodily injury coverage for drivers. Bodily injury can include:

• Cuts and bruises
• Traumatic brain injuries

Bodily injury policies may cover other serious injuries, including spinal cord injuries and other physical injuries resulting from an accident.

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Compensation In A Personal Injury Lawsuit

Although the amount of compensation available in a personal injury lawsuit is highly dependent on the specifics of the case, in general, the following damages may be available to personal injury victims:

• Loss of enjoyment of life

If you lost a family member due to injuries suffered from another persons negligence, you may be entitled to compensation in a wrongful death lawsuit. Wrongful death lawsuits have a different set of damages that the surviving family may be able to recover.

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What Kind Of Damage Is Personal Injury

Many accidents are caused by carelessness, misfortune and negligence in everyday life.

Personal injury includes:

• You are busy with your smartphone and run across the street without paying attention to the traffic. You donât see a motorbike coming. The driver avoids you but collides with another vehicle. On impact, he is seriously injured and has been paraplegic ever since.
• Since you are late, you run a red light. A car avoids you but crashes into a cyclist who is killed in the collision.
• In order to earn a little money on the side, your 16-year-old daughter works as a babysitter. She falls asleep with the baby in her arms. The child falls and lands on his head on the parquet floor.
• On a narrow cycle path, you try to overtake another cyclist. You accidentally knock him down. He falls and suffers a serious head injury.
• Your son is riding his skateboard. He can’t stop in time and bumps into an older man. The man breaks his arm in the fall.

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Pip Insurance: A Valuable Asset

If you’re in an accident and don’t have PIP insurance, you may be responsible for paying for your own medical expenses. This can be a costly expense, so it’s important to ensure adequate coverage.

PIP insurance is a valuable asset if you’re in an auto accident. It can help pay for your medical costs, lost wages, and other costs associated with the accident. If you live in a state with PIP laws, it’s important to ensure adequate coverage.

Do You Need Pip If You Have Health Insurance

If you live in one of the 16 states where PIP coverage is required, you must file a claim under that policy before you turn to your health insurance. But even if it isn’t required in your state, PIP insurance offers several benefits that you won’t get from a health insurance policy, such as coverage for lost wages and funeral costs.

A few states, such as New Jersey and Michigan, have provisions so that your PIP coverage will work in conjunction with your health insurance policy. For example, if you’re injured in a car accident in Michigan, your health insurance policy may cover your physical injuries and your PIP would cover additional economic losses, such as wages you lost while you were in the hospital.

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What Does Bodily Injury Liability Cover

Medical expenses: This includes emergency care services, hospital fees, ongoing care costs, and more.

Legal fees and legal counsel: If the other party decides to file a lawsuit against you, Bodily Injury Liability coverage can help cover the cost of your legal defense and any associated court fees.

Loss of income: If the injured parties need to miss work or are unable to perform their job functions due to their injuries or ongoing medical care, bodily injury liability coverage can help provide compensation for work missed due to accident-related reasons.

Pain and suffering: In some cases, claims may involve payment when there is emotional stress or prolonged pain from an accident.

Funeral costs: In the unfortunate event that an accident results in a fatality, bodily injury liability coverage will help pay for any associated funeral costs.

Why Is Personal Injury Coverage Important

You do not want an accident to drain your financial resources. Many accidents can occur on your property, whether you are aware of the hazards or not. From slips and falls to falling objects to dangerous materials on your property, many dangers are present and you never know when an accident will occur.

Consider a standard slip and fall case that results in broken bones and other injuries. The injured person will have to receive medical care, which could lead to thousands in medical costs over time. He or she may have to receive surgery or physical therapy, which could increase his or her medical expenses. In addition, the injured person may need to take time off work to recover, resulting in weeks or even months of lost wages. Combined with non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering, emotional trauma, and disability, you could be on the hook for thousands more.

Without personal injury coverage, you will need to pay for these expenses out of pocket. However, if you do have coverage, your company will cover the vast majority of these expenses, if not all of them.

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What Is Personal Injury Coverage On A Homeowners Policy

Personal Injury

If you own a home in Arizona, you need several forms of insurance coverage to protect you, your family, and your possessions. One type of coverage that many homeowners may not know that they need is personal injury coverage. When an injury occurs on your property, you could face thousands of dollars in liability costs. With personal injury coverage, you could protect yourself against these incidents.

How Much Bodily Injury Liability Insurance Do I Need

Depending on where you live, your state may have a minimum liability coverage requirement that you will need to prove you meet when you register your vehicle. Even if you meet your state requirements, you may want to consider opting for even more coverage to protect yourself and your assets financially.

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What Is Personal Injury

If the physical integrity of a person is impaired, this is personal injury. Personal injury includes injuring another person, impairing his health or causing his death. Consequential damage resulting from personal injury, such as financial losses, is also included. It is not always necessary for another person to be involved. An occupational illness, for example, is also considered to be personal injury.

In the context of private liability insurance, the damages that you accidentally inflict on a third party are decisive. For example, a person could be injured or killed by your hand. In this case, you are liable with all of your present and future assets according to § 823 BGB:

“Anyone who wilfully or negligently injures the life, body, health, freedom, property or any other right of another person unlawfully, is obliged to compensate the other person for the resulting damage.”

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How Personal Injury Protection Differs From Bodily Injury Liability

PIP helps cover your medical expenses, regardless of who was at fault for an accident. It can cover things like ambulance bills, emergency room charges, follow-up medical visits, lost wages, prescriptions, and transit to and from your appointments.

Liability coverage for bodily injury helps pay medical costs for someone else if you’re at fault for injuring them in an accident. If you drive, you need this protection nearly every state requires drivers to carry bodily injury liability insurance.

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Seek The Full Financial Compensation You Deserve

Do you know what to do and how to seek compensation after an accident in which you were injured? When you are injured in a car accident or other accident someone else caused, the financial impact of the accident should fall onto their shoulders, not yours.

A Chicago personal injury lawyer at The Kryder Law Group, LLC may be able to help you receive the compensation you deserve after fault and financial liability are accurately assigned. Call to speak to a team member and start preparing your compensation claim today.

Why Is My Medical Doctor Refusing To Bill Health Insurance After A Car Wreck

Liability insurance companies usually want to settle the case all at once, not in parts. So they generally will not pay your bills as you go. This results in a delay in the bills getting paid. Many doctors are aware of the delays in getting paid when an auto collision is the source of the injury. As a result, your primary care doctor who has treated you for years may refuse to treat you because she knows that the health insurance company is going to deny payment. Your doctor might be able to submit his bill to the auto liability carrier and get paid, but why would he want to waste his time and resources chasing payment? Instead, we often see doctors refuse to treat patients who have been injured due to a car wreck making it necessary for them to hire a personal injury attorney to file a lawsuit and force the insurance company to accept responsibility for their insureds actions.

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Which States Require Pip Coverage

Different states have different requirements when it comes to insurance. Always check with your states Office of Commissioner of Insurance or a local insurance agent. For now, these states require PIP insurance coverage:

You can also get PIP in the District of Columbia, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, and Washington but its not required.

In states that require PIP, file a claim under the PIP policy first before filing a claim with your health insurance for accident-related injuries.

Make sure you understand the PIP policy rules and procedures. If you fail to follow proper procedures, such as not providing a doctors treatment plan, youll end up paying a higher co-pay.

Contact a personal injury lawyer to help you with the process if you dont understand it or you think you should sue another driver.

What Isn’t Covered By Pip Insurance

No-fault insurance won’t cover you for expenses unrelated to personal injuries after an accident, such as:

• Damage to your vehicle: For protection against damage to your car, you’ll need to add comprehensive and collision coverage .
• Theft of your vehicle: If you carry comprehensive coverage, your insurance will help repair or replace your car if it gets stolen.
• Damage to someone’s property: If you’re found responsible for an accident, property damage liability coverage can help pay for another person’s damaged vehicle or property.

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Personal Injury Protection Will Not Cover Injuries Caused By The Following:

• Recreational or off-road vehicles

It also will not cover intentional injuries caused by the insured, organized racing activities, or while in the commission of a felony.Personal Injury Protection will not cover services that your insurance company decides are not:

• Washington D.C.-$50,000 per person

What If My State Doesn’t Offer Pip

In states where PIP isn’t available, you’ll have the option to select medical payments coverage on your policy. Medical payments typically won’t cover lost wages but will cover funeral expenses and hospital bills for you and passengers in your car, regardless of who is at fault. Coverage amounts vary by state, but they’re typically $10,000 or less, so medical payments should only be used as a supplement to your health or life insurance and not as a replacement.

Medical payments can also be used for deductibles, copayments, and out-of-pocket expenses related to an auto accident. You have the flexibility to decide how to apply your medical payments. You might consider using your health insurance for your medical bills and medical payments for your high deductibles and copays.

Looking for more information about auto insurance? Our car insurance resource center has you covered.

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