One purchases a PIP (personal injury protection) insurance plan to protect against the downsides of a personal injury. Medical bills and lost wages are two things that one would have to deal with almost immediately after a personal injury has occurred. This is why PIP exists. The question is how much will it pay if one does get injured?
Do You Have A Strong Enough Plan?
PIP plans should cover about six months worth of wages or more according to lambergoodnow.com. Most personal injuries do not require one to be out of work for longer than that, but trying to go with a plan that covers less than that is skimping out on coverage that is so very vital.
You will want to check the coverage stipulations in your plan to make sure it is covering at least the six months worth of wages that you could stand to lose if your injury is serious enough. That might take a little bit of work on your part to figure it all out, but it is usually something that you can find easily if you just review your plan.
Required Minimums
Some states have required minimums in terms of how much PIP insurance you must carry if you buy it at all. The state of New York for example requires customers to purchase at least a $50,000 coverage plan if they are going to have PIP insurance. This probably makes pretty good sense as New York is such a costly state to live in. A plan that pays out less than this amount would not be of a whole lot of use to the injured party.
What If The Coverage Is Not Enough?
A good question from many people is what if the PIP insurance is not enough to cover everything that happens as a result of the accident? It is a possibility that this could be the case. If that does happen, then you are able to file a personal injury lawsuit against the negligent party. You would want to hire an personal injury attorney to get that ball rolling.
The personal injury attorney can file for the remaining portion of unpaid medical bills and lost wages. That personal injury lawyer may also determine that there are some other factors for the law to consider in your case as well. It is entirely possible that they may go for other forms of compensation on top of the medical bills and lost wages.
Special Rules Regarding The Government
If you are unfortunately injured by the government, you may have some special regulations to look at regarding that accident. What this means is that if you are injured by a government employee for example, you might have to file your lawsuit sooner than if you were to just be hurt by an everyday citizen out in the country. There are different rules regarding how this works depending on who the party is that is accused of having caused the injury.
An personal injury lawyer can go over these regulations with you and determine which ones apply to your case. As a layperson it may be hard to figure out things such as the statue of limitations or other legal elements to a case. That is why you hire the personal injury lawyer to sort that out for you. They have the training and knowledge necessary to get it done.
Why Carry PIP Insurance?
If you can just go and sue someone who has injured you, why should you bother with PIP insurance? That may be the type of question that comes bursting out of your mind when you think about all of this. It is a fair question to wonder about, but the answer is a lot more simple than you may think. You always have the potential to lose in court.
It doesn’t particularly matter how strong you think your case is, you can always still lose when presenting it to a jury. All juries are different and have different particulars to them. If you get unlucky, you might end up with a jury that doesn’t buy your case. That is when you would much rather have PIP insurance to least cover some of the costs of this accident.
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