A Virginia Beach, Virginia Car Accident Lawyer Reports On Automobile Insurance Limits

In my 23 years of practicing personal injury law in the Virginia Beach, Virginia law area nothing is sadder than seeing a severely injured person who has been hurt by someone who is running around on minimum insurance. It is not that uncommon to have a client who has permanent catastrophic injuries, like paraplegia or quad-paraplegia, which leaves them unable to use their arms, legs, or both and way too little insurance to handle the past medical bills well enough for future medical needs of the person who was hurt.

The minimum insurance in Virginia is $30,000 per person, $50,000 per accident. This means that the many people running on our roads with only minimum liability coverage can render somebody paralyzed from the neck down and only have to pay them the $30,000 on their car insurance policy even if the person has millions of dollars of hospital bills, surgical bills, and a lifetime of pain and suffering expected.

This is why it is so important that you protect yourself and your family by carrying the highest insurance limit that you can afford. If you carry higher limits on your own automobile policy then your insurance will stand in and provide additional coverage beyond the policy of the at-fault driver if it is more than the bad driver was carrying. So, for instance, if you are carrying $300/$500 policy limits on your family automobile policy and some person seriously injuries your child but they only have $30,000 of coverage, you may able to seek up to another $275,000 of coverage for your injured son or daughter from your own insurance company under the un-insured/under-insured part of the policy.

Many insurance companies do not really bother to explain this to people when they are buying insurance coverage. You are not just protecting yourself from being sued, but you are protecting yourself and your family if they get hurt in any vehicle by a driver running around with minimal insurance.

The Norfolk, Virginia Beach and Hampton personal injury law firm, Cooper Hurley, handles automobile, truck, and motorcycle injuries as well as wrongful death, railroad injury cases and medical malpractice. John Cooper and Jim Hurley have more than 40 years of combined experience in specializing in auto injury as well as other accident claims. Attorney John Cooper has been named to Virginia “Super Lawyers” since 2010. Cooper Hurley represents people hurt in accidents in Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News and throughout VA, and always put the best interests of our clients first. The firm is recognized by other lawyers as “AV” by Martindale-Hubbell, a national attorney rating service, for our top level of legal skill and highest ethical standards. Our motto is: “Your Injury. Our fight.” If you need help or advice about a serious injury, please call us at (757) 455 -0077 or contact us through this website.