What is underinsured motorist coverage? Well, good question, I get it all the time. So, if you’re injured in a car crash case and the defendant only has a low amount of insurance but your damages are a lot high, you have a claim against your own policy for how much the defendant who hurt you was underinsured.
So, the Missouri and Illinois minimum insurance is $25,000. So, if you’re injured in a car crash case because the defendant violated the rule of the road, acted unsafe and injured you or a family member or a friend, then you’re entitled to a claim against them, and if you settle that case for the full amount of that person’s insurance — you can’t take any less — you can pursue your own claim for the amount that you’re underinsured in that claim.
So, if you have a $100,000 in damages but the defendant only has $25,000 in insurance coverage, you have a claim for that $75,000, that difference against your own insurance company, and we file those cases all the time. You might think that because it’s your own insurance company that insurance company will roll over and pay those easily; we find that not to be the case.
So, it’s important to come right away to a lawyer like me. I’ll personally handle your case. My name’s Gary Burger. I’m at www.burgerlaw.com, 314-542-2222, in Illinois it’s 618-272-2222, and 866-599-2222. I’ll personally handle these cases.
We litigate aggressively, make the demand against the main defendant, get that money, and at the same time, if your damages are extensive — and we have many cases like that, taking care of a lot of folks with great recoveries — we will put your insurance company on notice of the underinsured claim, give them all the documents and information, give them a demand to settle the case if they refused to settle the case. We file suit in Missouri and we file an arbitration action in Illinois. Illinois has mandatory arbitration for those actions. That’s okay, though; we get a decision on that really quickly. In Missouri we file a lawsuit and stay cord on that.
So, if you have any questions about that, call us. Thank you.