Don’t Let Columbus Car Insurance Fool You

Minimum Columbus car insurance doesn’t do enough to really protect you.

Make sure you have enough Columbus car insurance to bridge the gap between an accident and the insurance company paying all the expenses.

The State of Ohio created car insurance laws to protect the drivers in their state. The most prominent car insurance laws are the ones that require all registered vehicle owners to purchase a minimum amount of Columbus car insurance. Unfortunately, these minimum Columbus car insurance requirements aren’t really enough to fully protect drivers.

Columbus Car Insurance

To be able to drive in Ohio, you have to have the following minimum Columbus car insurance:

• $25,000 of bodily injury coverage to pay for the injuries you cause to one person
• $50,000 of bodily injury coverage to pay for all of the medical expenses for two or more injured people in a car accident that you cause
• $25,000 for property damage that you cause with your vehicle

Not Enough for Bad Injuries

While the required $25,000 in bodily injury liability coverage is good enough to cover minor or medium injuries from a car accident that is your fault, it is not enough. Major injuries or even fatalities from car accidents may not be as common as less serious injuries, however they still do happen.

What if you are the one that caused one of these few fatalities or serious injuries? That $25,000 is nowhere near enough to cover an extended hospital stay, physical therapy, and medication. And if you kill someone, you have all the costs associated with not only the medical care before the death, but also funeral expenses and more.

Going to Court

After you injure someone in a car accident and they have completed their medical treatment, a pain and suffering settlement is usually offered. If this settlement is accepted then the insurance company pays the claimant and the claim is closed. However, if you have already exhausted all of the minimum required liability coverage on your Columbus car insurance, there will be nothing left for a settlement.

This means that the insurance company won’t offer one, and more than likely you will end up in court. Also, if a person dies because of a car accident that you cause, you can almost be sure that the deceased’s family members will take you to court for a wrongful death lawsuit.

In both cases the court and attorney expenses are usually covered by your insurance policy, unless your $25,000 in bodily injury liability coverage has already been used up for the other expenses that usually happen prior to a car accident situation ended up in court. Which means you will have to pay any settlement, court fees, and attorney fees that the court approves in their judgment out of your own pocket.

This is why you need to talk to your Columbus car insurance agent about the amount of coverage you really need to be protected if you cause a car accident.