Auto Insurance Coverage Las Vegas - Insurance Court

A question I'm often asked is, "Do I need under-insured motorist coverage in Las Vegas?", and the answer I always give is, "Absolutely!". Especially in this economic time where we're finding now, more than ever, people on the roadways of Las Vegas have no auto insurance coverage, and as a result, if you're hit by someone without insurance, your only recourse is to use your under-insured motorist coverage. If you haven't spoken to your agent recently about what coverages you have, I strongly recommend you talk to your agent about obtaining at least $15,000 worth of under-insured motorist coverage per person. This will protect everyone in your vehicle in the event you're unfortunate enough to be involve in an accident with an under-insured driver.

One of the most important reasons to have under-insured motorist coverage is you'll rely on it to pay medical bills, which aren't covered by health insurance, that you incur as a result of injury sustained in an accident with an uninsured or under-insured motorist. Also, if you miss time from work under-insured motorist coverage can compensate you for that time you missed from work as a result of being insured. Also, compensation for pain and suffering: Without under-insured motorist coverage, if you're involved in an accident with someone who doesn't have liability insurance, you have no recourse whatsoever. I strongly recommend, if you haven't spoken to your agent recently about your auto coverages, first and foremost - make sure you have under-insured coverage on your policy. Also check the limits of that coverage. In this day in age, with the cost of medical expenses going up yearly, it's important to have a sufficient amount of under-insured coverage. This is an expense well worth it, and one that we strongly recommend you take a look at. Make the change sooner rather than later.

One of the things I'm often asked by clients, or people in general, is, "How much insurance should I have? What are the Las Vegas car insurance laws?" That has actually been set by statute. In order to drive legally in Nevada, you have to have at least $15,000 per person in liability coverage. It's funny, that limit was set back in 1958, when the dollar went a lot further than it does now. I encourage all my clients, and everyone I talk to, to get higher limits. It doesn't cost much more; usually just a few dollars more per month can dramatically increase your liability coverage. The other thing that you need to remember, though, is we're having a severe economic crisis in this country, and Nevada has been hit particularly hard. Conservative estimates are that 1 in 6 drivers don't even have car insurance right now. That means that if you're hit by somebody and you're hurt and they don't have coverage, typically they don't have any assets, so you're not going to be able to get any money from that person or that person's insurance company, because it doesn't exist, and you're going to be on the hook for all your medical bills and all your problems, and the cost of your vehicle.

So I encourage all of my clients to get what's called "Uninsured Motorist Protection". Simply stated, that just means that if I get hit by somebody that doesn't have insurance, my insurance company is going to step in and cover it as if they insure that other person. Uninsured motorist carries another benefit: If I'm hit by somebody that has insurance but doesn't have much, and it isn't enough to cover all my harms and my losses, I can turn to my uninsured carrier, and they supplement the insurance the other driver has. It becomes under-insured coverage. I encourage everyone to talk to their insurance agent, and he or she will answer all those questions in more detail, but uninsured motorist is definitely something everybody should have.

I'm often asked, "If I make a claim with the insurance company, or if I hire an attorney to do so, does that mean, automatically, that I'm going to have to go to court?". The short answer to that question is "no". Much of what we do as Las Vegas court attorneys is help those injured as a result of someone else's fault deal with the insurance company for the at-fault party. Insurance companies are billion-dollar companies that have many people that work for them whose sole job is either to deny claims or pay less that someone's entitled to as a result of being injured by the insured. Part of what we do is help the insurance company to appreciate the gravity of our client's injuries, appreciate the impact those injuries have had on our client's life, and convince the insurance company that it's actually in their best interest as a business to be fair now, as opposed to incurring court costs and being forced to be fair by a judge or a jury down the road.

In a typical personal injury practice, probably less that 2 in 10 cases that start out as claims actually end up in the litigation room or the court process. Just because you hire a lawyer, and just because you make a claim against an insurance company for injuries or other damages you've incurred, certainly does not mean that you'll end up in the court system. It can't be guaranteed that you won't, but most of the time cases as successfully resolved without the need for litigation.