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When you are involved in an accident and are at fault, you have a responsibility towards those you hurt physically. A bodily injury liability provides coverage in such a case.

Bodily injury liability insurance provides coverage at times when you cause bodily injury to a third party as a result of an accident that is your fault. It provides medical costs for any physical injury that is suffered by passengers, both in your car and also in the other car in the accident. Not only this, it also covers the cost of legal proceedings (if any) that may be required when involved in an accident.

Bodily injury liability insurance pays for your legal obligations when you are at fault in an accident. These include

• Expenditure in hospital and medical bills
• Funeral cost in case of death
• Wages lost
• Pain and suffering
• Rehabilitation
• Long term care in the nursing home
• Other related damages

However careful a driver you may be you still have the chance of getting involved in an accident. If the accident is your fault, you may be sued for damages and the other party may also claim bodily injury. There could be legal proceedings too. All of these are taken care of by a bodily injury liability. Bodily injury liability provides coverage regardless of who is at fault.

However, not everyone may think they need bodily injury liability. But, there are certain states where a state minimum coverage is absolutely required. Again, if you are sued, the legal fees can cost you a fortune unless you have already saved a fortune that you can afford to spend. Even if an accident isn’t your fault, you may still be sued.

The cost for bodily injury liability varies from one state to the other depending on the auto insurance state laws. There are a few factors that play a big role in determining the price of such insurance. These include:

• Your age
• Your driving record
• The carrier you purchase insurance from
• The kind of car that you drive

Carriers can also put a cap to the amount they pay per person or per accident. Each policy may have its own liability limit. You may purchase a state minimum liability, but that may not be enough for you if involved in an accident. When purchasing bodily injury liability, you must consider buying a policy that has higher limits than what your state requires you to have.

Limits in bodily injury helps determine the amount of money the insurance company will pay you if you make a claim. This is the amount of money your insurer will pay you per person or per accident.

You can opt from amongst the 2 types of limits:

1. Single combined limit (CSL): In this case a total fixed amount is paid after adding up cost of treating all injuries and property damage that was caused by one particular accident.
2. Split limit: This is the maximum amount of money paid per person and the maximum amount paid per accident. As the name suggests this limit is set in two numbers.

Bodily injury has a few restrictions as mentioned below:

• If you own multiple vehicles and one of them has bodily injury liability, then the rest of your vehicles need to have bodily injury liability too.
• All the vehicles you own must have the same amount of bodily injury coverage on a single policy.
• There are state laws that tell you how much bodily injury coverage your state requires you to have. This is the state minimum requirement.
• There may be limits in a policy depending on the radius of operation.
• Extra trailers may be required to give a flat fee for bodily injury.
• Bodily injury policy does not protect you in case the act (accident) has been proved to be intentional.