No-Fault Insurance Doesn’t Cover Everything
Michael Babboni
Insurance Coverage
Florida is a state that uses the “No-Fault” insurance mandate. This means that every driver who is street legal on the road has a Personal Injury Protection insurance policy. The PIP ensures that regardless of who is at fault, insurance is always there to pay out for the coverage of medical costs if there are injuries.This approach was decided upon in an attempt to reduce the number of lawsuits in Florida courts from people trying to get the compensation they were owed to cover the costs of medical treatment. In theory, as long as insurance was always there to help people pay for medical expenses, there would be less likelihood of people immediately trying to secure compensation in court.
However, while No-Fault insurance has reduced the number of smaller cases that might have ended up in court, it doesn’t solve every problem. There are many instances where No-Fault insurance is not a simple, catch-all solution.
Limited Protection
No-Fault insurance does not care who is at fault, hence the name of the policy. If you are injured, even if the injury is the fault of another person, your No-Fault insurance policy will automatically pay out, but only if you make a claim within 14 days of the accident. Lawsuits for car accidents have a statute of limitations of up to four years, but insurance claims for medical costs must be made within two weeks if you don’t want to pay for the expenses yourself.
It’s important to keep in mind, however, that PIP policies have an upper limit. PIP does not provide total coverage for medical expenses, only 80% of that cost. And that 80% only goes up to a total of $10000. Unfortunately, this means that if injuries exceed over $10000 in costs, then some financial problems creep in.
Additional Compensations
If a driver already has some existing injury insurance and is not at fault, this might provide additional cost coverage if the medical expenses exceed $10000. However, if this is still insufficient, then the driver who is at fault—assuming they are insured—will have their insurance coverage provide additional compensation. Of course, this scenario only plays out if the other driver has already admitted to being at fault and has an insurance policy.
There are some situations where an accident involves an uninsured driver or, more commonly, an under-insured driver where coverage is the bare minimum and not sufficient for the compensation required.
In these cases, if an accident victim has an uninsured driver policy, then even this contingency will be covered by an insurance company, even if the accident victim is not at fault.
The Legal Solution
Of course, one alternative always at play for higher-cost compensation is a legal settlement. If the person responsible for causing an accident and injury has already admitted fault, it’s possible to negotiate compensation with that party and their insurance company to arrive at an agreed-upon amount.
However, if the other party claims that they are not at fault, and refuses to be held accountable, then the only recourse left at that point is a lawsuit. It’s time to talk to a legal professional such as an auto accident attorney and start thinking about what needs to be done to convince a jury that your compensation claim is a fair one.
In most cases, especially if the evidence of the accident is strong, the responsible parties will not want to take things as far as a lawsuit and will be willing to negotiate an out-of-court settlement.
However, there is no 100% guarantee that everyone will be reasonable about this or that the other party is convinced the evidence is not in their favor.
This is when you must be prepared to follow your attorney's advice and prepare for a legal battle