What Every Driver in South Florida Needs to Know About Car Insurance

florida rear ender

Check Your Car Insurance Coverage!

Many people are driving around Florida with only the minimum required car insurance coverage completely unaware of how dangerously exposed they are. I will briefly discuss the types of insurance coverage required in Florida and the optional types of coverage you should, but may not, have.

Personal Injury Protection and Property Damage Liability

In Florida, by law you must maintain car insurance if you own a vehicle in the State. Specifically, the law requires you to have car insurance with two types of coverage: (1) “No-fault,” often referred to as Personal Injury Protection (“PIP”) and (2) Property Damage liability (“PD”).

PD pays other people for damage you cause to their car or property in a collision. PIP is complicated but a simple explanation is that it pays 80% of your reasonable medical expenses and 60% of your lost wages, up to $10,000, which are sustained as a result of a collision. PIP is available without regard to whether you were “at fault” for (i.e., caused) the collision or not.

These are the only two types of coverage drivers are required to carry by law in Florida. Consequently, a significant number of Floridians on the road are driving with only PIP and PD coverage. Unfortunately, these are woefully inadequate to protect you, your family, and others in the event of a crash.

Surprisingly, Florida does not require you to carry Bodily Injury liability coverage, which covers claims made against you by people injured in a crash that you cause. Nor are you required to carry Uninsured Motorist coverage, which covers you for injuries caused by a driver who does not have Bodily Injury coverage. Both of these types of coverage are optional in Florida.

Bodily Injury Liability Coverage

If you cause a car collision and physically injure others, they can sue you. Also, if their insurance company pays them for their injuries under an Uninsured Motorist policy, their insurance company can sue you. That is why Bodily Injury liability (“BI”) coverage is so important. BI covers medical expenses and lost wages not covered by PIP, as well as, pain and suffering sustained by other people in a car crash that you cause.

Insurance companies offer BI coverage in varying amounts. The lowest amount of protection you can buy in Florida is a $10,000/$20,000 policy, referred to as a “10/20 policy,” under which the insurance company would pay up to $10,000 per injured person or $20,000 for any one collision regardless of the number of injured people.

Why would you want to pay for insurance that gives other people money? Well, if being sued by the injured party is not a concern, than you might have a point. What you really want is Uninsured Motorist coverage, which is discussed next. However, if you want UM coverage, most insurance companies will only give it to you if you also get matching BI coverage. In other words, if you ask for $10,000 in UM coverage, you also have to get $10,000 in BI coverage.

Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Coverage

The most important, but legally optional, type of car insurance coverage is Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist (“UM”) coverage. UM covers medical expenses and lost wages not covered by PIP, as well as, pain and suffering sustained by you in a collision caused by uninsured or underinsured driver. UM applies if the other driver is (1) “uninsured,” meaning they do not have any insurance, do not have BI coverage, or the driver cannot be identified; or the other driver is (2) “underinsured,” meaning they have BI coverage but the coverage, typically a 10/20 policy, is not enough to compensate you completely.

Insurance companies are required to offer UM in Florida. However, you are not required to purchase it. UM coverage is so important, that Florida requires that you to sign a special state-approved form if you reject it. Nevertheless, since it is optional and getting it increases the total insurance premium, many Floridians do not get UM coverage. Insurance companies do not like selling UM coverage, and they will try to get you to reject it. Some agents or insurers send you a new UM rejection form each year and simply advise you to sign it and send it back. Be careful of what you sign.

Add Uninsured Motorist Coverage to Your Car Insurance Policy

Many clients I speak with believe that they have all the insurance coverage they need. Insurance agents often misinform customers that they are getting “full coverage” when they have only PIP and PD. “Full coverage” to the insurance agent means the PIP and PD coverage required by law. When a client tells me they have “full coverage,” usually I have to give them bad news.

Many clients think that because Florida is a “no-fault” state, they don’t need BI coverage. Admittedly, I thought the same before I got into personal injury. However, this is wrong. The “no-fault” only refers to PIP, which as stated, covers 80% of medical bills and 60% of lost wages, up to $10,000, for injuries sustained in a car crash. The idea is that people injured in car crashes can begin seeking medical treatment immediately following a crash, regardless of who is “at-fault” for causing the collision.

PIP and PD are minimal and insufficient for almost everyone. Medical bills in this Country can be ridiculous. A hospital visit alone can cost you several thousand dollars. So for people seriously injured, $10,000 for medical bills does not go very far. Additionally, most people cannot get by on only 60% of their wages. To recover anything beyond the PIP benefits, including pain and suffering, you must look to the “at-fault” driver whose negligence caused the collision.

However, if the other driver does not carry BI coverage and if you do not carry UM coverage, you are essentially screwed. While you still can file a lawsuit against a driver with no insurance, if the driver did not have insurance, they very likely do not have any money to pay a judgment. That is assuming you even get a judgment and the driver doesn’t file bankruptcy to get it discharged. UM coverage is extremely important for you and your family because so many drivers in Florida don’t have BI coverage or they have inadequate BI coverage.

Go to top

Contact Gulisano Law

An initial consultation is free and most matters are handled on a contingency fee basis, which means there is no attorney fees unless you win.

Want to speak to a lawyer for free about a legal issue or potential case?

Talk to Gulisano Law Today!