Historical December 1983 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
(Editor’s note: Last month we began a column for readers to ask questions concerning insurance.
Two questions have been submitted for this month; the column will continue to run as long as there are questions of community interest.) Q: You mentioned in your column the terms “uninsured motorist” coverage and “underinsured motorist” coverage; would you please explain what these coverages mean? A: The state of Missouri does not require anyone to carry effective liability insurance as a prerequisite to driving, but it does state that if you are going to carry auto liability coverage that the lowest limits are $25,000 per person and $50,000 per occurrence bodily injury coverage. Problems occur when you, the innocent driver, are struck and injured by an uninsured motorist.
The coverage pays your bodily injury damages (medical bills, lost time from work, etc.) if you are struck and injured by an uninsured motorist.
The uninsured motorist must be totally at fault.
In essence, the coverage allows you to bring the same claim that you could have brought against the uninsured motorist, but because of his/her lack of assets, you actually present the claim to your own carrier. Underinsured motorist coverage acts as an excess coverage.
If you are struck and injured by an insured motorist, but his liability limits are not sufficient to settle your injury claim, then the excess can be collected from your own carrier once the liability limits of the underinsured motorist are exhausted. Again, fault is a key point.
The state of Missouri operates under the Contributory Negligence Doctrine which is intended to bar recovery to those people whose negligence contributes to the cause of an accident. Contribution to the cause of an accident can bar recovery under both these coverages. Uninsured motorist coverage is automatically part of a policy while underinsured motorist coverage is purely elective. Q: Auto insurance premiums seem to be rising. What can I do to keep the costs down and still protect myself? A: The main reason that the cost of auto insurance is rising is an increase in litigation and the legal costs for insurance companies to defend cases.
From a logical standpoint, it makes sense to purchase high liability and underinsured motorist coverage since these two exposures contain the greatest unknown in potential costs.
The way to offset the cost is to increase deductibles for comprehensive and collision coverages and to carefully scrutinize the value of the automobile as it will eventually become less valuable and may make comprehensive and collision coverage less cost effective.
This requires that you continue to monitor your coverages and ask your agent about your policy and how to obtain the greatest amount of protection for the lowest possible premium.
Originally published in The Paper, December 1983.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1983_12.pdf, printed page(s) 11; PDF page(s) 11.
