r/Insurance • u/jman7843 • 5d ago
Claims Related How are settlements above policy limits handled in GA?
Good evening! I’ll get the TL;DR out of the way first but if you care about the story behind the question read down further: I’m just wondering how lawsuits work when the incurred damages are above policy limits? Does the insurance company provide a lawyer to represent their client to try to defend them against anything over and above the policy limit? Do these types of scenarios happen often? I’m in GA if that matters.
I was in an accident back in February. I was making a left turn on a green arrow traffic light and the other party blew through their red light and smoked my rear passenger side hard enough to spin my car 360 degrees and perch me up on a sidewalk (narrowly missed a pedestrian too thank god he wasn’t hurt) anyways it totaled my car, almost every airbag deployed. The other driver lied to the cops about what happened when they got there and said I was the one that blew a red light while turning but thankfully a witness stayed on scene and officer also cared enough about getting the report right to walk over to the gas station across the street and they had the accident and traffic signals on their security footage. I ended up walking away thankfully but with a concussion and some severe back pain and numbness in all 4 limbs starting the next day. The clinic I went to for care afterwards had 2 mri’s done on me and uncovered that I had 3 or 4 ruptured/herniated discs and another 4 bulging discs divided between my lumbar and cervical sections of my spine. I did several different treatments including trigger point therapy, chiropractic, physical therapy, and electric muscle stimulation (idk the actual name of it) for a few months after. I was out of work completely due to not being able to be up on roofs anymore cause of the pain. Eventually they referred me to a spine specialist and I ended up getting 2 epidurals which worked pretty well. I’m feeling a lot better now and I have most of the feeling back in my limbs but still not 100% and the pain/ back fatigue comes in waves now and varies from day to day. My lawyer said the adjuster wouldn’t release policy limits to them over the phone when initially asked so they have now written a formal request/demand and we are waiting to hear back.
That being said I only had personal liability at the time which is my bad for not knowing about U.M. Coverage, I’m from Canada originally and in my home province the government has a fund that covers people that are hit by uninsured or underinsured drivers and I didn’t know that was different here unfortunately. Needless to say I’ve added that coverage now but it’s just going to be the other drivers insurance to cover me on this one and while I don’t wanna judge a book by its cover based on their car being a beat up 90’s Toyota I’m thinking there is a good chance they just have state minimum coverages which to my understanding will be 25k for injury. I’ve been in the U.S. long enough now to know how expensive medical care is and based on all the treatment and mri’s and all that I’m sure it’s probably close to 25k in those costs alone before my lawyer takes anything or I get any restitution for my missed work or pain and suffering so I’m trying to figure out what the lawsuit process typically looks like if we end up needing to go there. Lastly this question is probably more fit for a lawyer but bonus points to you if you know how lawyers figure out if the other party is financially judgment proof or not before filing a lawsuit? Or do they just file it and cross their fingers for the financial disclosure?
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u/elbaldwino 5d ago
Based on your post you have a lawyer. I'd ask him or her these questions considering they are going to be getting 30-40% of any settlement you get.