New Georgia Law Will Help People Seriously Injured in Automobile Accidents
The state of Georgia recently enacted law that allows the victims of automobile accidents to access more insurance coverage. Under the new law, car owners can purchase uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage that can be "stacked" on top of liability insurance of the driver who caused the accident. This is helpful when you are injured in an automobile accident by a negligent driver and the negligent driver does not have enough insurance to fully compensate you for your personal injuries.
As an experienced Georgia Injury Lawyer, I can't over-emphasize how important this is here in Atlanta, where many drivers on the road carry minimum insurance limits. What is especially troubling about this situation is that these are usually the very same drivers that cause catastrophic wrecks and do not have the personal assets to satisfy a large judgment against them.
The new law enables you (the injured driver in an automobile accident due to the fault of someone else) to collect the other driver's liability insurance and then access your own uninsured motorist coverage after the other driver's insurance coverage is exhausted. Prior to the new law, many Georgia motorists who had paid premiums for uninsured motorists coverage would not be allowed to collect these benefits because their coverage would only "kick in" if the uninsured motorists coverage exceeded the at-fault driver's liability coverage.
We think the new law is great and long overdue. It should help compensate auto accident victims who otherwise would not be able to recover. However, there is much more you can do to properly protect yourself against catastrophic injury. We urge you to discuss you insurance limits with your insurance professional and to make sure you are taking full advantage of the new law. Be sure to ask what the monthly rates are for additional amounts of uninsured motorist coverage. Many times the cost is nominal yet provides you with critical coverage that comes into play only after you have been badly injured.
Robert J. Fleming, P.C. specializes in representing clients who have been injured in automobile accidents. Over the years, we have been approached by many clients who have been badly injured. Many times, the at-fault driver is under-insured and the client has limited amounts of underinsured motorists coverage. In these situations, it is critical to act quickly by thoroughly investigating the facts of the case to ascertain whether there are any potential additional defendants (i.e., the Georgia Department of Transportation or the City of Atlanta for unsafe road conditions or the car manufacturer if there was faulty equipment that caused or contributed to the wreck). Equally important and time-sensitive is to exhaustively investigate the at-fault driver to find other sources of insurance or personal assets that could be used to satisfy a judgment.
