Jividen Law Offices PLLC issued the following announcement on June 28.
Every West Virginia driver is required to carry a certain amount of insurance coverage to cover them financially in the event they are at fault for an accident. However, this minimum amount is often rarely enough to cover the total cost of a serious accident. If you are involved in an incident with a driver who has minimum insurance, it’s important to know what that means.
Minimum Insurance Coverage in West Virginia
West Virginia requires all drivers operating vehicles on public roads to carry the following minimum liability coverage:
At least $20,000 in bodily injury coverage per person
At least $40,000 total maximum for injuries per incident
At least $10,000 in property damage coverage per incident
But what exactly do these limits mean? Essentially, for each accident, you are required by West Virginia law to be covered for up to $20,000 worth of injury-related expenses per each other party involved. For all injury expenses combined, you must be covered for up to a total of $40,000. In other words, you can cover two people up to a total of $20,000 each. And lastly, you must be covered for up to $10,000 in property damage you may cause.
How Can This Affect Me?
If you are involved in an accident with a driver who has minimum liability insurance, these limits may not be enough to fully cover the extent of the damage. This can leave you to struggle with expenses through no fault of your own.
Say you drive a luxury car worth $40,000 and you are hit by a driver with minimum insurance only, totaling your car and causing you extensive injuries. The other driver’s insurance will only cover up to $20,000 of your medical expenses, and if your injuries exceed that you may not be covered. If you had a passenger in the car who was similarly injured, their medical bills will only be covered up to the same $20,000, and any further passengers may not be covered at all.
What about your car? The other driver’s insurance will only pay for up to $10,000 of your car’s value before being exhausted, so what about the other $30,000? Minimum liability insurance doesn’t cover it, and, unless you have uninsured/underinsured insurance, it may be time to call a skilled West Virginia personal injury lawyer. Proper counsel can either assist by taking action against the insurance company who has refused to properly compensate you or against the negligent driver themselves.
Original source can be found here.