Truck Accident Lawyer Blog

Imagine that you are driving down the road, minding your own business and obeying all the traffic laws. A tractor trailer makes an illegal turn, and slams into you. You've done nothing wrong - but you have sustained horrific injuries. You will never walk again. You can no longer work. You can't earn an income. You are in excruciating pain every moment of your life. Within a matter of weeks, your medical bills total in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Those medical bills continue to grow as the weeks and months pass.

As much as we don't want to think it can happen to you, let me tell you, it can happen to you.

Now, imagine that the tractor trailer has liability insurance, but that liability insurance doesn't come close to covering your losses. (After the truck driver and trucking company spend two or three years blaming you for the wreck they caused, they finally pony up). The tractor trailer's insurance only pays for just a small fraction of your medical losses. Meanwhile, the fly-by-night trucking company goes out of business. But your damages go far, far beyond just a fraction of your medical bills. What about your past lost income? Your future lost income? The rest of your medical bills? Your future medical bills? Your mental anguish and suffering? Your physical pain?

The good news is that you can do something to protect yourself against this kind of financial nightmare. You can make sure that you have plenty of your own underinsured insurance coverage. Underinsured insurance is commonly referred to as UIM.

You see, there are lots and lots of people on the roads who don't have enough liability auto insurance to cover catastrophic losses they might inflict on you. What can you do to protect yourself? You can purchase UIM coverage. Believe me, you should. UIM protects you and your family, and you should purchase as much as you reasonably can - for each and every vehicle in your household. UIM coverage can often be accessed for each covered vehicle in your household - and that's protection that you could one day need in a big, big way.

Many injured people (and the families of someone lost to a wrongful death) who come to me to represent them after a motor vehicle accident simply don't have adequate UIM coverage. The ones who do, however, sure are glad when the unthinkable happens. Enough UIM coverage can keep you from financial ruin.

In South Carolina, you can buy UIM coverage in an amount up to the amount of auto "liability" coverage you have, but no more. So, to get adequate UIM coverage, it may be necessary to pay for additional auto liability coverage, as well. Even so, I strongly recommend that you purchase as much UIM (and also UNinsured - UM) coverage as you can reasonably afford.