Over the next week or so, this blog will discuss different types of automobile insurance coverage. We will start with Personal Injury Protection or PIP and property damage. These two coverages are required by Florida law. The concept of PIP is to ensure some form of medical and (wage) disability coverage for people in car accidents. It generally pays 80 percent of medical bills and 60 percent of lost wages up to $10,000. It is no fault coverage and your PIP pays your medical bills and wages, REGARDLESS of who is at fault. Thus, no matter whether you are at fault or another car is at fault or fault is not clear, YOUR OWN pip is primary (comes first) for your medical bills and wages, EVEN if you have health insurance. You can purchase additional PIP coverage, although this is rare (additional PIP would generally pay, but of course it would depend on the wording of the insurance policy, BOTH medical bills and wages). More commonly, there is coverage known as “medical payment coverage” which only pays additional medical bills. So medical payment coverage will pay the other 20 percent of the medical bills and any additional medical bills at 100 percent, for bills that go over and above the $10,000 of the standard PIP coverage required by law.
Property damage coverage is coverage that pays to fix the other person’s car in an accident that you are AT FAULT. So this is a fault system in play with property damage coverage. The law requires Floridians to have $10,000 of property damage coverage. Essentially, this coverage indemnifies you (pays for) against any judgment entered against you for a car accident where you were at fault and caused property damage. This coverage generally also pays for defense costs (the hiring of a lawyer for such suit and other court costs).
If you have been in a car accident where you believe the other car was at fault, please call Drucker Law Offices for a free consultation at 561-483-9199 (Boca Raton Main office) or 954-755-2120 (Coral Springs satellite office), 561-967-3840 (Lake Worth satellite office) or 305-981-1561 (Miami satellite office).
Every case is unique and should be judged based on the specific facts of the case. The advice in this blog is intended to be general and should not to be construed as specific advice for a case or your case. A minor difference in the facts of the case in a fact pattern such as above could change the result. Also, this blog is, as the web site suggests, based on Florida law and the laws of any other states could vary from Florida.
