What If The Other Driver Doesn’t Have Insurance in AL?
As a driver in Alabama, you are probably comfortable knowing that if you are in a car accident that was someone else’s fault, insurance should cover your losses. You know you would file a claim with your insurer after being injured in a car accident and expect the insurer to pay a settlement to cover your medical bills and vehicle damage. You may even recognize that your insurer would recover their payment to you from the insurance company that provided the at-fault driver’s auto liability insurance.
That’s how auto liability insurance works. It protects a driver if he or she causes harm to someone else in an accident and it is supposed to reimburse the accident victim for their losses. In Alabama, car owners are required to maintain 25/50/25 liability coverage at a minimum. That means coverage worth up to:
- $25,000 for injury for one person
- $50,000 for all injuries per accident
- $25,000 for property damage
But what if the other driver who injures you doesn’t have auto insurance? Drivers are required It’s required by Alabama law to have liability insurance. But the Insurance Research Council says in its 2021 report that 19.5% of drivers in Alabama were uninsured in 2019. In other words, one of every five drivers on the road is driving uninsured. If you are involved in a collision with an uninsured driver, even if the accident was the other driver’s fault, you may need to file a claim against your own insurance.
An Alabama car accident lawyer from Gartlan Injury Law can explain your legal rights during a free initial consultation. Contact us today to learn more.
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What Are My Legal Remedies If Someone Hit Me and Does Not Have Insurance?
If you have been injured in a car accident and the driver who caused it is uninsured, you may be able to turn to your own insurance coverage for help with your accident bills.
Uninsured motorist (UM) coverage and underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage pays expenses for you and your passengers if you’re in a car accident caused by a driver who does not have auto liability insurance or who does not have enough auto insurance. UM coverage applies to hit-and-run accidents as well, since there is no liability insurance available. Your UIM policy covers your losses if you have exhausted an at-fault motorist’s liability coverage and you still have uncovered losses.
Do you have UM/UIM coverage? In Alabama, insurers must offer it to you when you buy auto liability insurance. It’s not required, but you have to formally turn it down if you don’t want it.
If you don’t reject it, standard UM/UIM coverage in Alabama provides personal injury coverage equal to your liability coverage – 25/50 – unless you bought additional liability coverage.
Twenty states and Washington, D.C., require drivers to have UM coverage, while 14 require UIM, and others require one or both to be offered, as in Alabama. Broader coverage may be required elsewhere, as well, such as for property damage (UMPD).
If you have good health insurance, you may not think you need the minimal UM/UIM coverage offered in Alabama. But rolling UM/UIM into your auto insurance may be worth considering if your health plan has a high deductible, copays, and/or coinsurance.
What If I Cannot Reach a Settlement with the Insurance Company After my Accident?
If you cannot reach a satisfactory insurance settlement, you also have the legal option to sue the driver of the car that hit and injured you. A personal injury lawsuit may seek compensation for:
- Medical expenses
- Property damage
- Lost wages
- Pain and suffering.
Most lawsuit verdicts are paid with insurance money. Legally, other assets could be seized to satisfy a jury verdict, but a defendant who does not buy the minimal amount of auto insurance required in Alabama is likely to have few assets.
To explore your legal options, you would need to discuss your accident with a personal injury lawyer. A car accident attorney at Gartlan Injury Law in Dothan, AL, can discuss your legal options and handle your insurance claim to ensure that you pursue all of the compensation available to you.
Why Should I Call a Lawyer If I Have Been Injured in a Wreck?
If you have been injured in an accident, an experienced personal injury attorney can help you seek a proper insurance settlement and investigate to determine whether there are other sources of compensation available to you.
When there is little or no insurance money available from the at-fault driver in a car accident, the next move is to determine whether other parties are responsible for that driver.
Such third parties might include:
- A young driver’s parents. Parents are generally not liable for a child’s negligent operation of an automobile, but the owner of a car is legally responsible for the acts of anyone who drives their car. This “vicarious liability” means a proper car accident investigation determines who owns the car and may therefore hold insurance coverage instead of throwing in the towel because there’s no insurance in the driver’s name.
- A working driver’s employer. If the driver who hit you was on the job at the time of the accident, their employer’s insurance may cover the accident. This applies to the employers of people who drive for a living, such as deliverymen, as well as businessmen on the road between meetings or ferrying clients from site to site.
- A drinking driver’s server. If the driver who hit you had been drinking and their intoxication caused or contributed to the crash, the business or social host that provided alcohol to the drunk driver may be liable for your injuries. Alabama’s dram shop law allows claims against anyone who sells, serves, or otherwise provides alcohol “contrary to the provisions of law” to someone who later causes injury. This generally makes a person or business liable if they provide alcohol to underage drinkers or adults who are already visibly intoxicated.
It’s important to understand that only a car accident attorney will investigate to identify third parties legally responsible for a car accident. Police don’t have authority over civil claims, and insurance investigators are pushed to pay low-ball settlements or deny claims and close them as quickly as possible.
A car accident attorney is paid according to the amount of money he or she recovers for the client. There’s an incentive to identify every party that may legally be held liable for your injuries and losses in a car accident.
Contact an Alabama Car Accident Lawyer Today
Contact Gartlan Injury Law about a car accident in South Alabama if you are not absolutely sure how you will recover every cent of what the crash has cost you in medical bills and lost wages. We’ll review your case for free and won’t charge you anything for our legal work unless we recover money for you. Phone 334-600-1835 or contact us online now.
Aaron Gartlan is a graduate of Troy University and the Thomas Goode Jones School of Law who focuses his practice exclusively on representing those injured by the wrongdoing of others. He is member of the National Trial Lawyers Association’s Top 100 Trial Lawyers, Million Dollar Advocates Forum and Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum. In addition to his legal practice, Aaron teaches Business Law as an adjunct instructor at Troy University’s Sorrell College of Business and serves as a field artillery sergeant in the Alabama National Guard.
