As a seasoned Maryland auto accident and injury lawyer, I commonly hear clients discussing or mentioning the fact that they have “full coverage” on their insurance policy, so they certainly have enough coverage. In reality, there are many misunderstandings about what full coverage actually means on a Maryland automobile insurance policy, and some of this information could have you in a tough situation if you were involved in a serious auto accident in Maryland or one of the surrounding States like Delaware or Pennsylvania.

What is full coverage?

Full coverage is a term that roughly refers to having all of the possible coverages available on an auto insurance policy. It does not refer to how much coverage you have in each of these areas. The really deceptive thing about full coverage is that most of the types of coverage are actually mandatory in Maryland, so if you have a valid insurance policy, you’re going to have these coverages.

Liability coverage, Uninsured motorist coverage, and PIP coverage for passengers is mandatory in almost every Maryland auto insurance policy. The coverages that fill out the idea of “full coverage” include having full PIP that actually covers the owner/driver of the vehicle and his/her family members, collision coverage, and comprehensive coverage.

What’s missing from this idea of “full coverage”?

I explain to most of my clients, or individuals who take advantage of one of my free Maryland auto insurance policy reviews, is to think about buying a cup of coffee at a coffee shop, or a fountain drink at a fast food restaurant. At these establishments when you order the cup, it’s going to be given to you full. The difference here, is what size is that cup? If you order an 8oz cup of coffee and a 32oz cup of coffee, and both are given to you “full” are they really the same thing? Absolutely not!

When we buy auto insurance in Maryland it’s very similar. You can have full coverage, and it can be filled with the State’s minimum liability and uninsured motorist coverages. If you were to be seriously hurt in a Maryland auto accident by a driver with no insurance, or the State’s minimum insurance coverage, you may have no choice but to resolve your case for the State minimum liability amount of $30,000, when your medical bills could be well over $100,000.

Navigating these situations can be very tricky, and having our office handle the negotiations, or asset check to see if there is a potential for an excess recovery will be essential to ensure that medical bills are satisfied, and that some money is left over for pain and suffering.

Additionally, taking a few moments to let our office take a look at your insurance policy and provide a free review will allow you to know whether or not you’re covered or not before you need to be.

If you or someone you know is in one of these situations, or wants to avoid the difficult situation of having bad insurance, reach out to our Maryland auto accident lawyers by calling OR texting 667-220-6500. Getting our free Maryland Auto Insurance review before an accident is step one in maximizing recovery.

Reports circulated quickly midday February 23, 2021 on all major media and social media outlets about the single vehicle accident that Golf Pro Tiger Woods was involved in that morning in Southern California. As you can see from the Associated Press provided photo, damages to the 2021 Hyundai SUV were extensive, and most likely a total loss. Injuries were also reporting, including possible fracture to the leg or ankle, and other leg injuries.

We wish Tiger the best in his recovery from this, but will take the opportunity to answer important accident related question as to who will likely pay for the damages that occurred here. This information can be useful in analyzing your own insurance policy to make sure your coverage is adequate. As always, my office offers free auto insurance evaluations, where we’ll provide our “auto insurance report card” and break everything down for your specific situation, just call or text our office any time 667-220-6500 and we’ll take care of you.

Probable damages from this loss:

2021 Hyundai SUV. We’ve priced this vehicle with all of the upgraded features, low mileage, and in excellent condition for the purposes of this look into the applicable insurance coverage. We’ll have to look to Tiger’s own insurance coverage here, since there are no other vehicles reported that could be responsible for these payments. Even will all the bells and whistles, and low mileage, what we assume this vehicle is maxes out it’s value around $28,000. The next question becomes collision coverage. First, if you were in this accident and did not have collision coverage, you would be 100% out of pocket for the cost of the vehicle, or continue to pay the car loan. If you did have the coverage, the question becomes how much?

If this were a Maryland registered and insured vehicle, the minimum coverage for property damage is only $15,000. If you only had that minimum coverage, and you owed close to $28,000 on this relatively new vehicle, you’d still be on the hook for over $13,000!

This is why we take the extra time to look at anyone’s vehicle insurance policy, and provide our absolutely free review.

Physical Injuries to Driver. Reports indicate potentially serious injuries, and there is hint of a surgery. These medical bills could be upwards of $100,000. Perhaps more with follow-up recovery, physical therapy, and otherwise. Who pays for this? The primary would be the vehicle’s Personal Injury Protection(PIP) coverage, and any applicable Medpay. This is another area we look very closely at when offering policy reviews. In Maryland, the most PIP you can buy is $10,000, but there is no limit to how much medpay an insurer is permitted to offer you, but some companies place their own caps on this coverage. If you didn’t have the coverage here, the next step would be to utilize health insurance, subject to any co-pays, co-insurance, or deductibles for the plan.

Fortunately there were no reported passengers in the Woods vehicle. In this instance, there would be a potential claim for injury related damages by the passenger against Woods and his insurance policy. Our office is adept at handling these single vehicle injury claims for passengers, and recently resolved one such claim for the policy limits of $100,000.

If you were a passenger in an accident, whether multiple vehicle or single vehicle, do not hesitate to call, or email, our office for a free, no obligation consultation to discuss potential options. We’re available at any time via phone or text at 667-220-6500. Our team is always ready to discuss these options with you, and push to have your medical bills and other damages paid for, as well as time missed from work, and pain and suffering payments.

Every year we encourage our clients, as well as the general public, to have our office review their automobile insurance policies absolutely free of charge. This free resource is invaluable to finding holes in your auto policy, as well as keeping our connections up to date with any important changes in insurance laws or offerings throughout Maryland. In the past few years, we’ve seen new laws such as the Enhanced UIM provision that is available to new policies, or if you specifically ask for it.

In many situations, our guidance to clients is to add an umbrella policy to protect them beyond incidents that may happen related to the automobile. One question that often comes up from some of our more savvy clients, is whether or not they can purchase an umbrella policy that also includes underinsured motorist coverage.

What is underinsured motorist coverage? It’s a coverage on your auto policy that steps in when you’re injured by another driver’s negligence, but their insurance policy is not large enough to cover all of your damages.

What is an umbrella policy? An umbrella policy is an added layer of protection, usually in a liability situation, that will step in and further protect you should you or someone driving a vehicle you own cause a significant injury to another. These umbrella policies often cover more than just losses that occur using your insured automobiles.

Traditionally, personal liability umbrella policies (aka plups) were strictly limited to liability coverage in Maryland. Recently my Erie Insurance agent reached out to me to let me know that Erie would be offering umbrellas that also included underinsured motorist coverage.

What does this mean? Simply put, if you are a relatively high income earner who should become victim to an automobile loss that disables you from work for an extended period of time, you’d normally be limited to the limits of the at-fault driver’s liability policy, plus the limits of your underinsured motorist coverage. If you did not have the enhanced UIM coverage, your UIM coverage would get credit for the amount of the liability coverage. If you were to also have UIM on your umbrella policy, you may be entitled to an extra million dollars in coverage from the umbrella, should your injures and time missed from work exceed the value of the underlying claim.

If you’re insured with Erie, and you have an umbrella, call your agent to get some pricing on adding UIM to the umbrella. If you’re interested in a referral to a trusted Erie agent, call, email or text our office at 667-220-6500 and we’ll put you in touch.

Bowers Law, an Elkton Maryland based injury law firm is expanding to meet increased client needs. Frank Natale will join the firm and take on injury matters in litigation and in pre-litigation. Frank is licensed to practice law in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.

“We’ve had an influx of local firms as well as Delaware based firms referring us a large volume of injury casework recently due to our narrow focus on these matters and our track record of significant results in this arena, which brings the need for more attorneys to oversee and handle this increased case load” –Jobeth R. Bowers, founder of Bowers Law.

Previously, Frank was a partner in the Law firm of Cusick, Leymarie, Natale & Long for five years in Pennsylvania where he concentrated his practice in the areas of employment law, personal injury and civil litigation. Subsequently, he started his own boutique civil litigation practice which focused on plaintiffs medical malpractice, employment law and criminal defense. Frank also served as an Assistant District Attorney in Lawrence County, PA for two years, where he was asked to handle arson, vehicular homicide, and felony assault cases.  These experiences helped Frank acquire and hone a keen ability to communicate his client’s cases to juries.  While many cases don’t end up in trial, Frank intentionally worked on cases that required a jury trial.

Frank concentrates his practice in the area of catastrophic personal injury matters and serious medical malpractice, especially the failure to diagnose brain cancers, failure to properly treat brain diseases, and the general failure to meet the standard of care for treatment of congenital brain illnesses and conditions. Frank has achieved large awards and settlements on behalf of clients in complicated cases.

Throughout his career, Frank as secured tens of millions of dollars in settlements and verdicts on behalf of clients in both State and Federal Courts, and has successfully argued cases in the highest levels of courts in each jurisdiction he is licensed.

“We welcome the experience and professionalism that Frank will bring to our firm, and most importantly to our clients. We look forward to what he will add as the need to service more clients continues to grow” – Bowers.

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