Uninsured / Underinsured Claims

Stockton, CA, Uninsured/Underinsured Claims Attorney

When an uninsured or underinsured motorist hits and injures you, your only way of recovering damages may be through your own uninsured / underinsured policy coverage. Typically, you will be required to submit a claim through your insurer, indicating the other driver's lack of insurance or lack of adequate coverage to pay for your losses. Since California is a pure comparative negligence state, an insurer can reduce the amount of damages paid by the percentage of fault assigned to a driver. This means that if you suffer $100,000 in damages but are deemed 80% at fault, you can only recover $20,000. As a result, insurance companies have an incentive to try and assign as much fault to you as possible, especially in uninsured / underinsured cases.  This is one reason why you need a competent experienced attorney.

At the Law Offices of Lawrence M. Knapp, we have been helping people recover damages under the terms of their uninsured / underinsured policy coverage for over 15 years. When necessary, we hire investigators to determine who was at fault and how an accident happened in order to challenge attempts on the part of your insurance carrier to shift blame onto you. To schedule an appointment and discuss your case, contact uninsured / underinsured claims attorney Lawrence M. Knapp today.

How Uninsured / Underinsured Coverage Works in California

Assuming you haven't signed a waiver with your insurance company that affects your uninsured / underinsured coverage, you can recover damages under your own policy if the driver that hit you is uninsured or your losses exceed the coverage of the policy limits of that driver (i.e they are underinsured). Suppose, for example, a driver carrying $50,000 in liability coverage hit you, causing $100,000 in losses. As long as your, uninsured / underinsured policy limits are greater than $50,000.00, since your damages exceed the coverage of the driver that hit you, your uninsured / underinsured coverage can be used to make up the difference. So if you carried $100,000 in uninsured / underinsured coverage, you would still be able to recover $50,000 from the other driver's policy and $50,000 from yours for a total of $100,000.

When Insurance Companies Take Too Long to Pay Your Claim

If your insurance company engages in delay tactics or simply takes too long in paying on a valid claim, they can be held financially liable for bad faith insurance practices. Your insurer may claim it needs to investigate your case further, talk to the other driver or talk to accident investigators. In most cases, contacting an attorney and getting a lawyer involved will convince the insurer to resolve your claim in a timely fashion. However, if your insurer continues to delay payment of your claim, our attorney can initiate a bad faith insurance case against them, demanding damages for any late payment fees or finance charges suffered by you as a result.

When to Call an Attorney

In order to protect your interests and rights, it's important to contact an attorney if you've been injured by an uninsured / underinsured driver. Once you hire our office to represent you, your insurer must deal directly with us. Our knowledge of the law and of the insurance industry means insurers can't employ tactics to delay payment or deny valid policy coverage without risk of being held financially liable in court. To learn how we can help you, contact uninsured / underinsured claims attorney Lawrence M. Knapp today.