by Guest » Thu Nov 16, 2006 05:25 am
hi, a few days back I did hit a car and a person got injured as a result of it. Now, a claim worth $15000 has come up against my insurance company. But my insurance policy would suffice to cover for $10000 only in terms of any bodily injury caused to someone. Is it possible that my company can agree for something greater than this limit and force me to pay the excess ?
regards, Anthony D'Souza
regards, Anthony D'Souza
Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 06:45 am Post Subject:
hey Anthony, I understand that according to your contract insurance your insurance company is obliged to protect you for atleast the amount mentioned. Its become natural that people now-a-days maintain an excess of their basic liability limits, since they wanna avoid risking their home and other valuables in the event they commit an accident and are at fault.
thanx, Sasha T.
Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 08:28 am Post Subject:
Hi Anthony, stay at ease!
I can surely empathize your situation!
Rest assured, that your company can never force you to bear this expense on your own. Yes, they could surely offer an amount to your claimant which is not exceeding that said amount in the policy. This settlement could only be offered by the company if it is your fault.
Don't make an unnecessary move and invite avoidable problems. Craig Howler.
Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 09:44 am Post Subject: highest limit
hey there, if the company pays the entire amount upto the highest limit mentioned in your policy then they won't anymore have any other financial obligation towards your case. Also remember that the only reason why they might look forward to help you at your case is that you're insured with them for such a long time. welcome, coolgirl66
Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 11:58 am Post Subject: Jus to get you free!
See, I feel its time for you to understand that your insurance company is not bound to pay anything in excess of the agreed value of $10000. So they won't be paying more towards this accident at all. So under these circumstances, your insurance company might advise you to hire an attorney if the deal is not settled at $10000.
Its almost that easy to word a release agreement, but the company would definitely ask for your consent before accepting it and also make sure that the release is meant to get you off the clutches.
thanks a lot! Fatman
Posted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 01:12 pm Post Subject:
To be brief, your carrier will make every attempt to settle for your policy limits. That is, offer your limits _only_ if the other party will sign a release stating they won't go after you for any thing more. If the other party won't accept this, they can go after you directly. If this happens (and it would only happen if you had some real assests they could collect), your carrier would provide you a defense (attorney). It it went to suit, your carrier might just lay the $10k on the table and offer whatever defense they could.
Again, this almost _never_ happens. If the other party is an insurance company they will run an assests check on you, find out you have less then $10k in easy to get assests and simply accept your carriers $10k in return for a release.
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 05:29 am Post Subject:
In addition to liability coverage, consider buying collision and comprehensive coverage. You don't decide how much to buy. Your coverage reflects the market value of your car and the cost of repairing it.
Decide on a deductible—the amount of money you pay on a claim before the insurance company reimburses you. Typically, deductibles are $500 or $1,000; the higher your deductible, the lower your premium.
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 06:02 am Post Subject:
Hi Lucky,
Welcome to the community. Please take some time to let the members know more about you by introducing yourself here:
http://www.ampminsure.org/community/share-introduce.html
Look forward to your active participation in the forums.
Thanks,
Lakemen
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 01:11 pm Post Subject:
We drug up a 4 month old post about an excess liability claim to recommend comp and collision coverage? How about health insurance?
(What about $100 and the most typical, $250 ded)
Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 04:36 am Post Subject:
In my experience if it goes over what your coverage is you will be responsible..however sometimes you can work out a payment plan of sorts to pay the rest. Also do your homework find out how much the claim really is get proof and an attny is not a bad idea if you think it is going to go over...you just have to figure out if that is going to cost you too much as well.
Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 04:48 am Post Subject:
A carrier has the obligation to use the policy coverage to protect their insured. As such, they won't just fork over the policy limits and allow a 3rd party to still pursue their insured (this would be "bad faith"). Instead, they will only offer the limits if the other party is willing to sign an injury release, which releases their insured from further obligation. If the injured 3rd party won't agree, the carrier won't issue the payment.
If the injured party has an attorney, the attorney will usually perform a simple asset check to see if the at-fault party has any real assets. Unless they have a million dollars sitting in the bank, the attorney will just convince the client to take the money... as the attorney wants to get paid right away.
If the injured party does not have an attorney there are two choices... take the money or go to court. If court is chosen, they will need an attorney. See above.
If the case went to court for whatever reason (and it's _highly_ unlikely that it would) the carrier would provide their insured a defense (this is in addition to the policy limits) but most likely would just offer up their policy limits to the court to address any judgement. In _this_ case the insured could be left hanging in the wind. But as I mentioned, this is almost never the case and really only happens when their is some other assets out there to be had.
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