Your Indianapolis Personal Injury Lawyers

Although many clients believe they are immediately in a personal injury lawsuit once they have hired an attorney for their case, this is typically not true, nor is it usually advantageous for the client! However, there certainly are times when filing a lawsuit for accident victims is necessary.

Most people believe that if they are injured in an accident that was someone else’s fault they will be able to collect all their damages from the guilty party’s insurance carrier. Although there is truth in that statement, it is not completely true all the time.

Indiana law only requires passenger vehicle insurance limits of $25,000. Indiana law does not require YOU to have uninsured motorist (UM) coverage. Nor does it require you to have underinsured motorist coverage (UIM). Let’s break down those laws and what it means to you as an injured client.

The guilty driver that injured you may only have insurance coverage for your injuries for $25,000. If you had to have surgery and/or a lengthy stay in the hospital, all that money would go to pay your medical bills, even if you have medical insurance for those medical bills.

Why is that?

Your health insurance carrier, in almost all cases, will have “subrogation” rights. This means that if it pays your medical bills for injuries that were the fault of someone else, the health insurance company will “stand in your shoes” and be entitled to take part of your recovery for your injuries. “That part” meaning the amount it paid for your medical treatment.

The guilty party may not be insured at all. If the guilty party is not insured, then your only recovery could come from the guilty party’s personal assets. Generally, people who do not have insurance also don’t have assets. This, of course, makes it hard or impossible for them to pay a judgment for serious personal injuries. 

Uninsured Motorists Coverage vs. UNDERinsured Motorists Coverage

This brings us to YOUR insurance coverage if you have uninsured motorist (UM) and underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage.

Then, your policy’s UM and UIM coverage must pay the difference between the guilty party’s insurance coverage limit and your UM or UIM limits. Your UM and UIM limits are not generally in addition to the guilty party’s limits.

They only make up the difference between the two.  Your maximum insurance recovery is determined by the greater limits of the guilty party’s liability limits and your UM/UIM limits. Thus, you must cover yourself and your motorcycle passengers with higher UM and UIM limits.

To buy higher UM and UIM coverage limits, you must also, under Indiana law, purchase at least as much liability coverage for others as you provide for yourself under UM and UIM limits.

By “for others,” we mean if you caused an accident and someone else was injured, they would be entitled to at least as much as the limits you provided yourself under your UM/UIM.

Some clients ask, “Why should my insurance company have to pay anything if the accident was not my fault?” The answer is that you hired them to pay UM or UIM coverage if the guilty party did not have sufficient covered limits. You have a contract with them to protect you and your passengers, and you paid your insurance carrier money for that coverage. 

We also get the question, “Well, won’t my insurance company want to take care of me because I’m their customer?” The answer is NO!

You will become their adversary when you make such a UM or UIM claim. Your insurance company will view you no differently (if as well) as the uninsured or underinsured guilty party. Is it wrong for your insurance company to treat you that way?

It’s just business to them, and it is just the way it is.

The answer is no. 

Why? Generally, an Indianapolis personal injury law firm cannot get you enough money for your property as it would cost to represent you to do so. 

Economically, hiring a lawyer for the property damage does not make sense. Our law office can make a huge difference in your personal injury claim value but not your property damage claim.

The property is worth what it is worth in a value book. We want you to be happy with the total result.

That means you are processing your property damage claim on your own. We can give you some helpful advice from our accident lawyers.

We are required to hold for at least five business days in the trust account.

Indiana has a comparative fault statute so sometimes you can still recover if you have some of the fault for causing the accident. If you are more than 50% at fault, you cannot recover. Learn more about how comparative fault works in Indiana.

Bring as much information about how the accident happened and what the injuries were to your first meeting. However, don’t sweat over information that is not presently available – there is usually time to hunt down information later. Here is a simple checklist if it helps you to prepare.

Your case cannot be properly valued until you have completed all treatment for your injuries. Any Indianapolis personal injury attorney telling you what your case is worth before treatment is completed is just giving you a sales pitch.

We estimate that our clients recover more than they would have gotten on their own over 95% of the time. Dealing with insurance companies can be complicated.