Attorney v. Insurance Agent: Do You Need Rental Car & Uninsured Motorist Coverage?
Personal Injury attorneys and Insurance Company representatives are often seated on opposite sides of the negotiating table during car accident cases. Both sides are looking out for the best interests of their clients. One area of common agreement is that their clients protect themselves by making smart decisions regarding auto insurance coverage.
Chuck Boyk has been an accident and injury attorney for 40 years. Trevor Trudeau has served as an independent licensed agent in Ohio for over 10 years and owns the Coyle Insurance agency.
“Trevor, one of my pet peeves is when my clients don’t have the correct insurance coverage and the people who injure my clients don’t have the correct insurance coverage,” says Chuck Boyk. “I thought you and I could talk together and offer people some good advice on how they can protect themselves with smart coverage levels.”
“Rental insurance on your vehicle is something that I believe is essential,” says Boyk. “I find that it is relatively inexpensive and I get cases all the time where my client doesn’t have rental coverage and the responsible party doesn’t have it on their policy. What do you tell your clients about rental coverage?”
“I tell my clients it is necessary every time,” says Trudeau. “It costs about $45 for an entire year of coverage, but if you have to pay for a rental car out of pocket, it runs $40 or more per day
so there’s no sense in not having the coverage, especially if you only have one vehicle or rely on your vehicle get to work.
“I had a client who has a commercial vehicle,” said Boyk. “They were hit by somebody without any insurance. Unfortunately, they are out $3,000 on rental car expenses coverage and they’re screaming like crazy because their trusted insurance agent never mentioned it to them.”
“Unfortunately, it happens a lot when people don’t know their coverages because they are not talking to their agent on a yearly basis, or at least every two to three years”, says Trudeau. “Make sure that you have rental car coverage included on your policy.”
“I think you’re 100% right”, said Chuck Boyk. “The bottom line is, if you have to use the rental coverage once in your lifetime, it’s well worth it”.
“Another issue that drives me crazy is when my clients do not have uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage”, exclaimed Chuck, “which covers you if the person who causes the accident doesn’t have insurance or doesn’t have enough insurance. If you’re injured in an accident and the other guy only has $50,000 in coverage, but you have half a million in uninsured/underinsured policy then you potentially have a lot more to cover your expenses. Why don’t more people have uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage?”
“Again, a lot of times it’s because they’re not talking with their agent,” says Trudeau. “They may think that they’ve got full coverage, and that’s going to cover them for all their injuries and so they go and opt-in to pay a little bit lesser amount, but they’re not getting adequate coverage. Uninsured Motors coverage parallels your primary liability limits so a lot of people opt to go
a little bit lower on that amount, which in my mind is not the right way to go. Because when you’re paying for insurance, you want to make sure you’re covered too.”
“When I ask a client about their insurance coverage and they say they have “full coverage”, typically what that means is they have the minimum limits under Ohio law which is $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident,” says Attorney Chuck Boyk. “If they were hospitalized for a week, the case is already worth six figures, and I may have to explain to them that they’re going to get ripped off on this case, because of the insurance coverage. If you go for the bottom dollar price, you’re going to get the bottom dollar coverage.”
