Hit and run car accidents can be especially stressful when you’re faced with injuries and the worry you may be left holding the bill. Let Joseph Dedvukaj of The Joseph Dedvukaj Firm help put your mind at ease as he takes you through the options that will help maximize your compensation after a hit and Run accident.
Greetings, this is Joseph Dedvukaj from The Joseph Dedvukaj Firm. I want to talk to you today about hit-and-run accidents. By that I mean, what happens when somebody runs into you and/or your car and then flees the scene of the accident. Whose insurance is going to pay for your damages? Well, many times, believe it or not, the police are able to eventually identify hit-and-run drivers, especially of someone took down the license plate or reported the accident right away. Sometimes there are witnesses or other evidence, or you’re able to give the police a little bit of identification that they can use to investigate and find the person who hit you.
When that happens is, the hit-and-run defendant’s insurance policy is likely to be first, meaning it would pay for your damages to the limits of the bodily injury policy. However, there are instances when your own auto insurance, or the insurance of the car you’re in, could also come into play to provide you and your family benefits. And that could actually happen in couple of different ways.
First, if police find the hit and run driver and that person does not have enough insurance, your own insurance, or the uninsured motorist auto insurance of the car you were in, in case you were a passenger, may be used to supplement the insurance of the defendant. That’s important to know because, even if you may not realize it, you’ve been paying for this coverage– so you’ve been paying for auto insurance – for uninsured or underinsured motorist coverages. That’s something we are not required buy under Michigan law, but we always recommend people buy when buying insurance coverage. This UM coverage is just what it says: if the at fault defendant driver is uninsured, in other words, has no insurance; or is underinsured, meaning they don’t have enough insurance coverage to pay your damages, you can use your own auto policy to supplement, to help pay for your damages. Now, nobody really likes to use their own insurance. But you’re paying for that car insurance coverage, so talk to us about how to put the insurance to use.
The second way your own insurance or the insurance of the car you were in would come into play is, if the at fault defendant can’t be found because they fled the scene of an accident, so it’s just like their uninsured, or if we do find them they don’t have any applicbale auto insurance coverage. Or in some cases, the at fault driver’s own insurance company might say, hey they were using their car for a criminal act or an intentional act for which there is no auto insurance coverage. There are all kinds of exclusions in an insurance policy that may void the coverage of the at fault driver, and sometimes a hit-and-run means we can’t count on the at fault defendant’s insurance. So, we’d have to use your own car insurance or the insurance of the car you’re in to get you paid.
This can gets complicated and tricky, but we deal with these uninsured or underinsured situations every day. We love figuring out these insurance coverage issues to make sure there’s as much money as possible for you and your family at the end of the day. So, if you’ve been a victim of a hit and run, call us at 866-HIRE-JOE. Let’s talk your options through to make sure we maximize your insurance benefits recovery. God bless, and Thanks for reading my blog article.
These are the cases Joseph Dedvukaj has specialized in for more than 27 years. It's what we do best. If yours is a Michigan personal injury or car accident case, why trust it to anyone else?
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