LAWYER- If the Other Driver Says “I Don't Have Insurance”- SAY THIS!.

You get rear-ended at a stoplight and you've just found out the other driver doesn't have insurance. Your car's totaled, you've got some neck and back pain, and you're stuck wondering who is actually going to pay for all this. Clearly it should be the other guy, he's at fault, but what do you do since he doesn't have insurance? If you don't act fast, you could get hit twice. First in the crash, and again when the bills start showing up and there's no coverage to fall back on. I'm Chris Blackburn, and this is Chad Romey. We've handled hundreds of cases just like this in Indiana, and we're here to walk you through exactly what is an uninsured motorist claim, who to call, which cover to use, and what options you have so you know what to do if you find yourself in this exact spot. So you can protect yourself, protect your claim, recover faster, and avoid footing the bill for something that wasn't your fault. So Chad, first thing, what do you do when you find out, well, I take that back, you get into a car accident. We've made a few of these videos, and it seems like we go over this one a little bit. Obviously after an accident. Because you guys have seen them all. Yeah, you've seen this, you've heard it, so it sounds like I'm on the repeat. I am a little bit. So obviously right after an accident, try to stay calm as much as you can, because there's a lot that goes on at the scene of an accident that can impact how the whole claim unfolds. But get first responders there, check on everybody, obviously move your vehicle if it needs to be moved to get it to a safe area. If it's a relatively safe area as it is, leave it there, because that is part of the evidence. Get names, take pictures, do all the stuff you can to gather the evidence. Many times in an uninsured claim, that's the most typical situation where somebody's going to leave the scene. So if you can, get identifying information from that vehicle before it leaves the scene. I'm not saying everybody who's uninsured is going to flee the scene, but people who flee the scene usually are uninsured. Staying calm is good too, because if you get, if you're heated and you start yelling at the other person or anybody in general, sometimes some of the words you say could be used against you or construed against you. So you just remain calm is always going to be in your best interest, especially if your case actually was to go to a trial. Yeah. I had a case where my client was hit, rear-ended, they got out, both people got out and talked to each other. Then they said, okay, let's move our cars to the safe area. My client got back in her car, the other person got back in their car and just drove away. And there's video of it. It was right next to the library. So we have video of this all happening. And we eventually tracked the person down and found out who it was, but it is one of those things that, again, get identifying information as early as possible. So document everything. Yeah. We're obviously big proponents of documentation, every step, because most of these cases aren't going to go to trial, but you have to prepare your case from the beginning as if it was going to go to trial. And in the same vein, when you make a claim against an insurance company, whether it's the person who caused it and it was at fault, or whether it's your own insurance company, which we'll talk about, they're going to look at a lot of the documentation. And then in their mind, they'll say, well, you're making a claim. Give me the proof. Give me the documentation I need so that I can make it easier to get the money from my boss to then give it to you. Now, that kind of leads us to the next step, which is filing the insurance claim. And it's when we talked about getting the identity of the other person, that is really important. It's especially important in uninsured claims, because one of the things you have to do is prove that the other party was in fact uninsured. And so having that identity is certainly helpful there. So after an accident like this, you got to call your own insurance company to set up a claim. How's that go? Well, before you get there, always call 911, because Chad said you have to prove that the other driver was uninsured. And it gets harder and harder without the documentation. So if you get into an accident and the other driver's there and you decide not to call 911, it gets harder. A lot of times they'll run off. But that's important because it's going to be easier to prove because on the police report, the first thing the cop's going to do is ask for a license and registration and insurance. And then that officer will then indicate and put that on the police report. Regardless of that, when you set up your claim with your own insurance company, it's as simple as calling them, letting them know you were in an accident. There will be some prompts that you'll have to walk through and then you can open a claim. But just because you open a claim doesn't necessarily mean that there is going to be coverage. They will then investigate the coverage at that point and determine exactly what type of coverage is available to you. And if you are in one of those situations where the other party has fled the scene, a hit and run, it is your duty under your policy to notify your insurance company immediately. Otherwise, you might void your coverage. And the reason for that, in theory, is it gives the insurance company the opportunity to try to find that other person. Typically, you need to call within 24 hours of the accident happening or you might void the coverage. So that's really important. So the claim you're filing, there are several different parts of your policy. There's uninsured coverage, which really goes to pay you for medical bills and pain and suffering and lost earnings. There's your collision coverage, go to fix your car. Then there's med pay coverage, which goes to pay just a small portion of your medical bills up front. So lots of things to look at on your policy when you're making that claim. The crux of this coverage is one, it's paying four out of your monthly premiums and it's there to protect you in the event someone doesn't have insurance or not enough insurance. Today, we're talking about when someone doesn't have insurance. So it's there to protect you. However, what's unique about these claims is the insurer. So your own insurance company gets to step into the shoes of the defendant and a lot of our claims don't understand that. They're thinking, hey, my company's Erie, worked with Erie for 30 years and I've been talking to my agent and so they're going to take care of me. But then they find out later on that maybe they're disputing how the accident happened or they're disputing all of the medical coverage and this is the first time they're wondering and finding these things out with their own insurance company. So it gets a little frustrating for them. Yeah, the insurance company is not there just to hand you the amount of your policy. They're there to negotiate or process the claim and they are processing it as if they are on the opposite side of the table from you and they are. So if you've got $100,000 in uninsured motorist coverage on your policy, does that mean that, oh well. Or just write the check. Write the check for $100,000. You have to prove you have a claim that's worth $100,000 to get that and I've had that discussion with a lot of clients. Well, why aren't they just giving me my policy? Well, sir, you have a claim that's worth $8,000. They're not going to write you a check for your $250,000. So you still have to work your claim and work your case up just as you would in any situation. So where a lot of clients are really, really bothered is that they get in this accident, it wasn't their fault. The other person seemingly just gets off scot-free. And I don't think the other person's ever getting off scot-free. They usually get some sort of charge against them for not having insurance. But what can be done? Because now I'm using my own insurance and I'm the one still in pain. What can be done? It's all their fault. My car is totaled. I didn't have a car for four weeks. I couldn't get to work. I'm behind on bills. These are the frustrations that our clients are going through. So can you sue that other person? A hundred percent. And so, unfortunately, you can. Is it a great remedy? Probably not. If you want to try to hold the defendant, the other person, responsible, you're going to have to file a lawsuit and take your case all the way to a trial, either a bench trial in front of a judge or a jury trial in front of a jury, assuming the defendant has actually showed up and defended themselves. They may not even show up to the first hearing. And you can get what's called a default, where the judge enters a default against them. Then you can go and have a hearing on damages and you can get a judgment. Same concept. If you go to trial and you win, you get a judgment. It doesn't mean you're going to collect from the defendant. Now you just have basically a little piece of paper that says you've got a judgment against the defendant. How do you collect on it? And that's always the tough part, because as personal injury lawyers, we can go get a judgment. And there's a lot of lawyers who will advertise big, big, big judgments, but there may not have been insurance. Collection is always the issue. Yeah. I mean, if you go get a $1 billion judgment against somebody who couldn't afford automobile insurance, and then that judgment is good, it's worth whatever the paper it's written on, because you're never going to get that. And it's sometimes a really tough pill to swallow. You were wronged. The other person's completely at fault. It's changed your life. And at the end of the day, what you're doing is you are making a financial decision. How much does it cost me to go get a judgment against that person who may or may not ever be able to pay me? And sometimes trials are expensive. You could spend $10,000, $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 to present your case to the jury. If you have really serious injuries, you have to hire your doctors to testify for you. If you've got a bunch of doctors or a really difficult theory of liability, you're hiring people to come testify, and it gets very, very pricey. You still have to prove your case because the burden is on our clients to do that. Yeah. So you can sue. One thing that is important to talk about when asking or considering whether you can sue somebody is certainly we talk about the cost. Does it make sense to spend a lot of money to go get a judgment against somebody? Again, it's a tough pill to swallow when you're looking at you're the harmed party, you were the wronged party, and the other party could potentially get off scot-free. How much money are you willing to spend to go get a judgment against somebody that you might not be able to collect from? The other thing to consider is when you sell your claim with your insurance company on the uninsured portion, you might be giving up some of your rights to pursue that other person. And you really just need to look at the policy about what it says. I've seen some of them say, basically, you can still go after the other person. And then there's other policies, which I think is probably more standard. It's very restrictive on who gets to pursue collections against the at-fault party. Release would be pretty specific and have some language in there too, as well. Yeah. And frankly, I've seen sometimes where the releases do not match what the policy says. The release is more restrictive than what the actual policy. And I don't think that's proper, obviously. In Indiana, do you have to sign off on uninsured, underinsured coverage? Which Chad and I are talking about uninsured, underinsured because they're locked together. This video is about when the driver doesn't have insurance, what do you do? And these types of coverages, they're locked together. Uninsured and underinsured. Yeah. So an uninsured person is somebody who just doesn't have insurance. An underinsured person on the other side is somebody who has insurance, but not enough to cover whatever your loss is. So they might have a lot of insurance, but still not enough to cover your loss. A hundred percent. Yeah. So going forward, if you haven't been in an accident, you're just, for some reason, watching this video, how do you protect yourself going forward? And having uninsured and underinsured coverage on your policy, I've always thought is the most important part of your policy. And sometimes you're going to get an agent who's selling you the policy, who frankly just doesn't understand that because they've never seen the claims side of the process. So talk about what you do when you're buying a policy. Well, when you're buying your policy, the first and foremost, the state of Indiana requires uninsured and underinsured to be part of your policy, and it's going to match whatever liability you get. However, sometimes in order to save costs, people will reject or waive that. Our state is great because it'll actually require a user's electronic signature. So you have to sign off on that. Chad and I would tell you to never do that. Never buy a policy without uninsured and underinsured. They are rejected because what you're doing is you're only protecting yourself if you cause the accident. You have no protection for the opposite scenario where you haven't caused it. And a real standard policy, a minimum coverage in Indiana is $25,000. Probably the most standard policy I see, though, is $100,000 of coverage. So if I cause you harm, I'm covered for $100,000. If you cause me harm but don't have insurance, I'm covered for $100,000. $100,000 is not enough. Think about the catastrophic injuries you can suffer. You need to be buying, frankly, as much underinsured and uninsured coverage you can get because that just not only protects you, that helps protect your family if you are the breadwinner for your family. So buy umbrella coverage. Make sure the umbrella coverage has uninsured and underinsured. Again, I'm repeating myself because we have seen so many lives completely changed physically with the financial half of that equation not matching up even close just because there wasn't enough insurance coverage. So protect yourself. This is all confusing. Uninsured, underinsured. All you have to do is tell your agent, hey, I want to be covered if someone hits me and there's not enough coverage or they don't have insurance. That's why I want to be covered in those situations. And the agent will know what to do at that point. Honestly, some. My agent tried to sell me an umbrella policy without uninsured or underinsured, and he asked me why would I want that. And he'd been doing it 30 years. So sometimes you have to go educate the agent to say this is what I want. I want uninsured and underinsured coverage for as much as possible. And frankly, the more coverage you get, the cheaper it gets. So the next dollar is always cheaper to buy because it's less risky for the insurance company. So. Another thing too we haven't talked about is, you know, you can call our office and we will be able to walk you, even if you don't hire us, we can walk you through all these things in a little bit more detail. You can tell us your specific facts, but talk to a lawyer because a lawyer is a personal injury attorney. If they're doing what we do and they only do this type of work, they're going to know the ins and the outs of how these claims work and what you should or you shouldn't do. One of the folks who works at the insurance company that I use, she says, after I talked to you, Chad, I've been using what you said to inform all of my clients about this type of coverage and why they should be buying. They just never. Again, when you're selling insurance, you just don't think about it. So if you're still here watching this video after all this going off the tracks that we just go in, you are. Yeah. What? You already know that car insurance and accident claims aren't always simple. They're not always straightforward. They're not always easy. That's why you need to check out our next video, which is how does MedPay coverage work or medical payments coverage work and how does it impact my car accident or my lawsuit? And we're going to answer that exactly what happens when you file for MedPay coverage and how it could affect your rights, your recovery and what you do after an accident. So don't miss it. It can make a huge difference and how much money ends up in your pocket. So we will see you over there.