Bodily Injury and Property Damage Liability
Suppose you’re driving down a busy city street in the wintertime. It’s dark out. You hit a patch of black ice. Your car starts to skid. You hit a person walking across the street. He is injured, badly. Now, from your point of view the accident wasn’t “your fault”. You hit some ice and of course don’t have any control over that. But, guess what, legally the accident is your fault. If you don’t have bodily injury liability insurance, you could end up paying thousands of dollars out of pocket for just this one accident. A brief moment in time can ruin you financially forever. You can lose your savings, investments, or even your house.
You know another reason why it’s a good idea? That innocent person walking across the street deserves to be compensated for his injuries. You could be ruined financially, but his life may be just ruined. Compensating him is fair and it’s the right thing to do.
Let’s take another example. As you drive, you approach an intersection. You come to a stop sign, signaling to make a left hand turn. A man in a car across the way waves you on. You start to turn and boom, he hits you. When the police arrive he denies ever having waved you on and even though it was just a minor fender bender, he is complaining of a severe pain in his back. Yes, this man is attempting to commit fraud. Illegal, but tough to prove.
Suppose you didn’t have liability insurance. How are you going to pay the lawyers to defend your case? How are you going to prove fraud? It’s just your word against his.
Bodily injury and property damage liability insurance also pays for your defense costs, for actions brought against you as a result of an auto accident. In addition, it is the insurance company’s duty to investigate all cases of suspected car insurance fraud. Maybe this man committed fraud before and the insurance company has a record of it. Perhaps the insurance company can draw on expert witnesses to testify that given the very minor damage to the vehicles, no serious injury could have possibly been sustained.
Bodily injury and property damage liability insurance is a good idea. It protects you when an accident is your fault and when it’s not your fault. It provides compensation to deserving victims of automobile accidents, and when an accident is staged and there is a case of fraud, a company with resources can investigate the claim.
