Motorists driving in San Francisco or anywhere in California face a significant risk of being involved in a collision with a driver who is uninsured or lacks adequate insurance to fully compensate the victim for his or her injuries and financial losses. Fifteen percent of all California drivers (more than 1 in 7) are uninsured. The high number of uninsured drivers in California is a product of several factors: (1) a large population of undocumented immigrants without driver’s license, (2) our relatively high cost of living that leaves drivers with less disposable income and (3) a struggling economy that makes it difficult to afford auto liability insurance.
When you are involved in a collision with an uninsured or underinsured driver in California, you may face massive medical bills, unpaid wages and property damage as well as pain and suffering and other types of losses with no source of compensation. When our San Francisco car accident clients are involved in a collision with an uninsured (UM) or underinsured (UIM) driver, our experienced Bay Area car accident team carefully analyzes other available sources from which our San Francisco car accident attorneys may seek financial compensation for our clients.
Sometimes there are other responsible parties that contribute to serious car accidents besides just the negligent driver. These responsible third parties may include many parties, such as the car owner, public entity charged with building and maintaining roads, vehicle manufacturer for defective vehicles and other whose negligence played a substantial factor in causing the car accident resulting in your injuries.
Even when a driver has insurance, there is a high probability that the driver may lack sufficient coverage to compensate your for your loss. The minimum liability coverage required of a California driver is only $15,000 per accident victim and $30,000 cumulative coverage for all victims. If a driver carries only this minimum level of coverage, the coverage is likely to be far less than your medical bills not to mention other losses like lost wages, vehicle damage, pain and suffering, impaired quality of life, loss of spousal companionship and services and other damages. If there are more than two people injured in the collision, the cumulative coverage may be exhausted before you are paid anything.
When no responsible third party can be identified that contributed to your Bay Area car accident, our experienced team of San Francisco car accident lawyers may be able to assist you in pursuing a claim against your own UM/UIM insurance coverage. Uninsured motorist coverage provides compensation to a policyholder involved in a collision with an uninsured driver. If you purchase car insurance in California, you have uninsured motorist coverage unless you expressly opt out, which is never a good option.
Underinsured motorist coverage provides a source of financial compensation when a negligent driver has insurance but lacks adequate coverage to cover the full value of an accident victim’s losses. If you are involved in a collision and suffer $100,000 in damages, but the other driver has only $50,000 in liability coverage, for example, you may pursue a claim against your UIM insurance up to your UIM coverage limit.
While you have a fiduciary relationship with your insurance carrier, your interest is directly opposed to the interest of your insurance company when you are pursuing a UM/UIM claim. Our experienced San Francisco UM/UIM attorneys can negotiate with your insurance company to obtain the compensation that you are entitled to under your policy.
Contact Us For Your Free Injury Consultation
If you or someone you love has been injured or a loved one has died in a San Francisco car accident caused by an uninsured or underinsured driver, you should contact us as soon as possible because critical deadlines apply. Our San Francisco auto accident attorneys invite you to contact The Law Office of Ian Zimmerman for your free initial consultation. We are open 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., speak Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese, and are available for weekend, evening, home and hospital meetings and visits. We also offer free initial consultations and work exclusively on a contingency fee basis so that you pay nothing if we don’t win your case.