Why You Need Under Insured Motorist Coverage (UIM) And Uninsured Motorist Coverage (UM) in North Carolina

 North Carolina requires drivers to maintain a minimum of $30,000 of car insurance per person, and $60,000 per accident. Liability coverage does not cover injuries to the policy holder; rather it covers injuries caused by the policy owner. To obtain coverage that will cover you against injuries caused by another driver in a motor vehicle accident, you need both Uninsured Motorist Coverage (UM) AND Under Insured Motorist Coverage (UIM). Unfortunately, the acronyms for each type of coverage are very similar and may cause confusion among North Carolina insurance consumers.

Under Insured Motorist Coverage (UIM) protects you if the at-fault driver does not have enough insurance coverage to pay your claim. Uninsured Motorist Coverage (UM) can be purchased to protect you if the at-fault driver has no insurance at all. A UM policy does not cover you if the at-fault driver has any liability insurance. The problem is that UM and UIM are sold separately on minimum limits insurance policies in North Carolina, meaning you do no automatically have these types of coverage on minimum limit policies. Since it is estimated only eight percent of North Carolina drivers are uninsured, UM coverage is rarely applicable. It is more likely that the at-fault driver will not have adequate insurance, therefore he/she is underinsured and UIM coverage would be required to for compensation.

Since many drivers are unaware that UM and UIM coverage is not part of all insurance policies, many consumers think they are getting coverage for injuries up to their limit when they may not be. For example, a recent personal injury client of our law firm had a minimum limits liability policy with $1 million in UM coverage. Our client was in an accident and the at-fault driver had a minimum limits insurance policy. Our client was seriously injured and had medical bills well in excess of the at-fault driver's insurance policy. Our client thought he was adequately covered for this injury, not realizing he only had UM coverage and not UIM coverage. In fact, employees at the insurance company were also confused regarding the type of coverage, causing them to verify at one point that our client had UIM coverage. https://askcompetentlawyer.com/ Had our client had UIM coverage, his extreme medical bills would have been covered.

For policies other than minimum limits policies, the insurance company must provide both UM and UIM coverage up to your liability limits. Unfortunately, UM and UIM are not required for minimum limits policies. We advise our clients to make sure they have both UM and UIM coverage and to increase their UM and UIM limits above their liability limits to protect themselves should they be in a car accident in the future. If you have been in an accident or have any questions about UM and UIM coverage, contact our firm at 704-375-8488.