Can I Collect More from Defendant’s Insurance?

Hello. My name is Roger Ghai, and I practice in the area of accident law; car accidents, trucking accidents, and so forth, even slip and fall accidents here in the Kennesaw area. And sometimes clients have questions as to whether they can make the other person, the other company, their insurance company pay more than what they are legally obligated to pay. What do I mean by this? Let’s say that you’ve been involved in a motor vehicle accident and the other driver has $25,000 of coverage, but you have significant injuries. You’ve got medical bills of like a hundred thousand dollars. So the issue sometimes that I get from clients, or the question rather I should say, is the client will ask me, “Well, how come we can’t make the insurance company who caused this, pay the hundred thousand dollars, the cost of my medical bills.
The answer is very simple. They are only on the hook to pay the amount of the coverage that the defendant bought. For example, if the other driver paid premiums to buy $50,000 worth of coverage, but your case is really worth $250,000, then you cannot make the other insurance company legally, in most instances, pay $250,000. The maximum that they’re going to be required to pay on behalf of their insured for that accident is going to be the $50,000. If you have any questions about whether you can actually get another insurance company to pay you more money than what they’re legally recorded to pay, please call my office at (770) 792-1000.