What happens if you’re a passenger in a Michigan car accident? How will you get paid to cover your injuries and damages? Joseph Dedvukaj offers ideas on how passengers in car accidents get paid and who’s insurance covers for damages.
Hello folks, this is Joseph Dedvukaj from The Joseph Dedvukaj Firm. I want to tell you today about injuries that occur to passengers in an automobile wreck. The question often arises: How do passengers get paid? Who’s insurance pays for passenger injuries?
Well, it depends on the cause of the car accident. In the typical car accident scenario, you’re a passenger in a car and another car on the road ran a stop sign or red light and hits the car that you’re in. Well in this scenario, the car that runs the red light is at fault, so their insurance is will be “primary” to pay for your damages. But if they don’t have enough insurance coverage, you can look to the insurance of the car you’re in, and even your own insurance for underinsured motorist benefits to supplement what the at fault defendant had.
Sometimes injured people will say, “Well, I don’t know if I want to use my own insurance, or the insurance of the car that I was in.” Michigan law has priority rules for no-fault insurance claims that must be followed, or you will lose your benefits. In general, you must make a claim with your own insurance or the insurance of a family membe. You really don’t have a choice. This is why you carry auto insurance. If you’re paying for what’s called uninsured motorist benefits or underinsured motorist coverage with your insurance policy every month, you are entitled to make a claim. Uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage is supplemental insurance that provides coverage when the at fault driver is either uninsured or doesn’t have enough insurance to coverage your auto accident related damages. You’ve been paying for auto insurance all these years, so why not use it?
In the other car accident situations, you’re a passenger in a car and your own driver causes the wreck. They run a stop sign and hit another car, or they run off the road into a tree. What happens then? Well, the driver of the car you’re in will have insurance which will be first to pay. This is called “primary” payer. But again, for personal injury protection benefit because Michigan is a no-fault state, you will make a claim with your own insurance or a resident relative. Also, the car you’re in would supply coverage for pain and suffering compensation. And your own insurance would provide supplemental coverage of the at fault driver does not have coverage or doesn’t have enough coverage.
So, there are many different ways that a passenger can get paid from auto insurance coverages. Unraveling these insurance issues, figuring out what insurance is available and how to get more money on the table for you and your family at the end of the day, is something that we love doing. And we’re very good at it.
So, if you’re a passenger, and you’ve been injured in an automobile wreck, call us today at 866-HIRE-JOE and let’s talk it through to make sure that you have uncovered the most insurance available. This call is free, the consultation is free, and we are free lawyers unless we recovery compensation.
