What Is The Best Way To Protect Your Family In A Car Crash?

Our motto is "Protecting You And Your Family." Both of the lawyers at Shulman DuBois are dads, and being a dad is the most important thing in our lives. We are worried about protecting our families, which makes our job to help you protect yours that much more important.

What can you do if someone else crashes into your car and causes you or your family $150,000 worth of injuries, but the person who hit you only has $25,000 worth of insurance?

Well, you could settle for $25,000 and be satisfied. Plenty of people do that. Plenty of lawyers do that. It's perhaps the most convenient option, but you'll still be stuck with $125,000 worth of medical bills that nobody is paying for. (Read for tips for paying your medical bills after suffering a personal injury.)

You could try to collect money directly from the person who hit you. If Bill Gates happened to crash into your car, this would probably be a good option. In general though, people are very hard to get money out of, and trying to get money from somebody who doesn't have much tends to cost you more than it's worth. You end up paying lawyers or collection agencies a lot of money, without any guarantee that you'll be able to successfully collect from the person who hit you.

Your third option is by far the best: first collect the $25,000 from the insurance company of the person who hit you, and then collect the rest from your own Underinsured Motorist or "UIM" coverage.

UIM covers you in the case that you get hit by someone who is underinsured-someone whose insurance covers less than the damage they actually caused. In the example we've been working with, your UIM should pay the $125,000, since it is the amount by which the person who hit you was underinsured.

To get that $125,000 from your UIM, however, you have to have paid for that amount of coverage. If you've already been in a collision, it's too late to buy more UIM for that collision.

If, on the other hand, you have not already been in a crash, or if you have but want to be better prepared in case you get in another one, you should purchase more UIM coverage.

If you do not already have at least $250,000 of UIM, call your Oregon insurance agent. Now. It is worth paying, and the coverage is cheaper than you might think. A member of our firm personally pays $40.00 every six months to have UM/UIM coverage of $250,000 / $500,000 instead of the minimum of $25,000 / $50,000 (the first number is the maximum amount payable to each person, and the second is the maximum amount that the insurance company will ever have to pay for a given accident).

We write about UIM in more detail in our book, which we offer free to anyone injured in an Oregon auto accident. If you would like us to rush you a copy of Seven Common Mistakes That Can Wreck Your Oregon Car Crash Case, just click here.

Important questions to consider when hiring a lawyer:
Does the lawyer understand how to help me pay my medical bills after an accident?
What about testimonials?
What kind of time limits are involved?
What if I have a smaller case?
Are there any hard rules to follow when looking for a great personal injury lawyer?