Motorcycle Insurance Coverage: "What Exactly Do I Need?"
By Paul Colley, Jr. Attorney
Over the years, I have represented literally thousands of people with injuries from all types of accidents. All too often in auto-accident cases I am disappointed when I get involved with a new client and discover the small amount of insurance that is available to compensate them for injuries suffered in a tragic accident. Unfortunately, this bad news is often worse in cases involving clients who were injured while riding a motorcycle.
Most of my clients who find themselves in this unhappy situation have made decisions regarding their own insurance without having the complete facts. They believed they only needed a "minimal" policy for their bike, just enough to be "legal". In some cases, they may have purchased property damage to cover their bike. But they have failed to purchase the personal coverage they really needed. The tragic results are that the person is left with little or no coverage to provide for their own injuries in the event of a bad accident.
When purchasing insurance coverage for your motorcycle, I strongly recommend that you get the following coverage, in addition to liability and property damage coverage: 1) Uninsured/Underinsured (UM) coverage in an amount equal to your liability limit; and, 2) Personal Injury Protection (PIP) coverage in an amount as high as you can get/afford.
A policy that is lacking in UM and PIP coverage can lead to tragic consequences. This is particularly unfortunate since both are very cheap to purchase. So, what do these two coverages provide?
PIP coverage is for you and/or a passenger on your bike and is "no fault" coverage. That means it will compensate you for medical bills and lost wages incurred, no matter who was at fault in the accident . It is coverage that protects YOU!
UM coverage also provides protection to you (or a passenger) in the event the "at fault" other party has insufficient insurance OR no insurance! In other words, you protect yourself from bad drivers with little or no insurance. Limits for UM coverage are usually the same as your liability limit.
I want to give you a quick "real life" example that tragically occurred in my practice, and that could have been avoided. My client was seriously injured in an accident that was caused by the other driver. That driver was insured, but only for the minimum limits. My client's medical bills totaled over $375,000.00. My client had liability limits of $300,000.00 but his agent had convinced him that he didn't need the UM coverage, so he waived that protection. Result? We easily recovered the limits of the "at fault" driver's policy ($25,000.00) but there was no other available coverage for my client and he was left with enormous medical bills and little cash. Had he also secured the $300,000.00 UM limits, we could have collected that full amount to help with his bills and recovery.
Be aware. Get the facts on insurance. Don't leave YOUR future to chance.
