What happens if you are a injured as a passenger in a car accident while riding in someone else’s car or as a passenger in a rideshare vehicle? What happens if the driver does not have enough insurance to cover all of the costs associated with the extent of your injuries? Injured passengers almost always have a valid personal injury claim in any car, truck or motorcycle accident.
My name is Rivers Morrell, and after more than 40 years as a personal injury attorney serving all of Orange County, Los Angeles and the Inland Empire from our offices in Irvine and Mission Viejo, I can tell you for a fact – injured passengers always have a valid personal injury claim, unless they were personally responsible for causing the accident in question.
There are usually multiple sources of insurance available to fully cover all past, present and future medical expenses, lost wages due to missed work, as well as just compensation for having to endure and recover from your injuries. This is true, even if the responsible driver(s) do not have the levels of required insurance coverage.
In a recent case, Progressive Choice Ins. Vs. Calif. State Automobile Inter-Insurance (CSAA), the court helped to answer this question. In this accident Progressive was insuring the car in which the injured party was a passenger. In addition, the passenger injured while riding in someone else’s car had his own automobile insurance with CSAA. The person that caused the accident only had $25,000 of insurance coverage. The plaintiff’s injuries and resulting medical expenses, lost wages and just compensation for having to endure and recover from their injuries was much higher than $25,000.
Luckily for the person injured as a passenger/plaintiff, the driver responsible for the accident had Underinsured Motorist (referred to as UIM) coverage in the amount of $100,000 with Progressive. In addition, the passenger/plaintiff had his own automobile insurance with CSAA, and he also had UIM coverage in the amount of $50,000.
What amount was the passenger entitled to under the 2 UIM policies? Was he entitled to the remaining coverage under the $100,000 (or $75,000 since he had already received $25,000), or was he entitled to the remaining coverage under the $50,000 policy (or $25,000). And were both Progressive and CSAA responsible?
The court concluded that the passenger was entitled to avail himself to the higher of the 2 UIM policies, and therefore collect $75,000. Both Progressive and CSAA had to share in this payment, on a pro rata basis. This would mean the Progressive would pay $50,000 and CSAA would pay $25,000, since Progressive’s UIM policy was twice as large as CSAA’s UIM policy.
I cannot stress enough the importance of having plenty of UM/UIM coverage. Too often we have seen a client receive very significant injuries, but the person who caused the injuries either has no insurance, or very little insurance. With UM (Uninsured Motorist) and UIM (Underinsured Motorist) coverage the injured person has a much better chance of being fully compensated for his or her injuries.
If you are injured as a passenger while riding in someone else’s car I invite you to review the strong recommendations of our clients and the legal industry as well as our successful verdicts and settlements and contact Rivers Morrell or call today to speak with Rivers personally for a free, substantive consultation at (949) 305-1400.
