Your Legal Rights Blog

Medical Payment Coverage

Another important element of your automobile insurance policy is medical payment coverage.  Med pay covers anyone who is injured while in your vehicle no matter whose fault it is.  Med pay coverage usually starts out with limits of $5,000 but is available in much higher increments.  If you are not covered under a separate health insurance policy or if your health insurance only covers a percentage of your medical bills I suggest you increase your med pay coverage. 

The great thing about med pay is that it pays no matter what without regard to fault.  The disadvantage is that under most policies you have to actually incur the medical expense before med pay will cover it which means that you have to actually pay for the treatment out of your pocket or find a doctor who will render treatment and then submit the bill for payment under your med pay policy. 

I will discuss the concept of subrogation later but med pay can be helpful even if you have health insurance and you may want to consider using med pay instead of your health insurance in some cases because your health insurance company usually has subrogation rights which means they can come back after any money you recover to pay the medical expenses that it paid on your behalf.  In some cases you do not have to pay med pay money back.  However, there are nuiances in in every case that make it important for you to consult with an attorney about which coverage to take advantage of and when. 

UM Most Important Insurance

One thing that I continue to see over and over in my law practice is injury victims who are very under-insured.  Even though Alabama has a mandatory insurance law now the limits are grossly inadequate ($20,000) and many many people on the road still do not have insurance. 

Because you cannot control how much insurance coverage someone who crashes into you has I cannot stress how important it is to make sure that you have enough uninsured motorist (UM) coverage to compensate you for your own injuries.  9 out of 10 people driving probably do not comprehend the concept of UM coverage and probably have minimal UM limits.  UM is insurance you buy from your own insurance company and it kicks in when the responsible party doesn't have any coverage at all or doesn't have enough insurance coverage to pay for your injuries.  Alabama law requires that your insurance company offer UM coverage to you and you have to sign a written UM rejection form if you don't want it.  That's how strongly our legislators feel about UM coverage. 

When it comes to UM my advice is to buy the maximum coverage limit that your insurance company will sell you because it is very inexpensive to have it but can be very important if you ever need it.  You should be able to get at least $100,000/$300,000 coverage if not $250,000/$500,000. 

In my practice I have seen dozens if not hundreds of heartbreaking cases where an individual is injured by a party with little or no insurance and gets little or no recovery at all.  I recently reviewed a case where a man was killed by a drunk driver but neither party had any insurance at all.  If the deceased man had kept his liability insurance intact and added UM coverage things would have been just a little easier to manage for his widow and daughter.  More on UM later.

CALL YOUR INSURANCE AGENT TODAY AND MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE MAXIMUM UM COVERAGE AVAILABLE

Using Technology in Law Practice

I have had an opportunity to discuss the use of technology in law practices with many people at the ABA Techshow in Chicago over the past several days.  I think the general consensus is that lawyers who refuse to come into the 21st century are in denial because using technology to simplify the law practice and advance the plight of our clients is here to stay.  You would think that everyone here is already ahead of the game but I was suprised to find out that many attendees are looking for the best way to implement technology in their individual practice.  When I look at my personal experience with technology in my office and my move to a paperLESS office concept 3 years ago I can definitely see an advantage.