Bodily Injury Policy Limits No Longer a Closely Held Secret

Obtaining the auto insurance company’s bodily injury policy limits used to be like a game of poker.

Imagine you’re at one end of the poker table.  Five cards perched in your hand.  Across the lush green felt sits your opponent, barely batting an eye as he calls your bet and raises you all in.  Part of your opponent’s strength is the fact that despite all of your best guesses, reading between the words, movements, or lack thereof – you don’t know what five cards he holds in his hands.

Now imagine this game isn’t for sport, but the stakes are your quality of life.

You’ve been dealt a bad hand because you were injured in a car accident by someone else’s negligence.  Your opponent is an automobile insurance company adjuster that is trained to hold onto the insurance company’s money and offer low-ball personal injury settlements.  You and countless other Carroll County auto accident injury victims have sat in your exact shoes.

Daunting, isn’t it?

Does the automobile insurance company adjuster have enough policy limits to cover your harms and losses?  Can you continue to treat your injuries knowing that the bills will be covered?  Or, did the negligent driver carry the minimum bodily injury policy limits?

Auto accident victims can now know the insurance company’s bodily injury policy limits

Well, as good fortune (or legislation) would have it, effective October 1, 2015, victims of car accident negligence now have the ability to peek at their opponents’ once closely held cards.

Under previous Maryland Code, Courts & Judicial Proceedings §10-1102, an automobile accident injury claimant was only able to obtain bodily injury policy limits from the insurance company after providing medical bills and lost wages in excess of $12,500.00.  Meaning, you had accumulate and treat your injuries to tune of $12,500.00 before you could find out if the insurance company had enough money to cover your harms and losses.

Now, however, pursuant to the recently enacted Courts & Judicial Proceedings §10-1103(b), a car accident injury claimant is privy to the applicable limits of coverage regardless of any medical expense and lost wage threshold.  All that must be provided by their auto accident attorney is the following:

1. The date of the vehicle accident;
2. The name and last known address of the alleged tortfeasor;
3. A copy of the vehicle accident report, if available;
4. The insurer’s claim number, if available;
5. The claimant’s health care bills and documentation of the claimant’s loss of income, if any, resulting from the vehicle accident; and
6. The records of health care treatment for the claimant’s injuries caused by the vehicle accident.

In the immortal words of Kenny Rogers, “You gotta know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em.”  Well now, with the expertise of your Carroll County personal injury attorney, you will know the insurance company’s bodily injury policy limits, and be able to call their bluff!

If you have been injured in an auto accident, then contact Westminster Injury Attorney Ross W. Albers

Albers & Associates is located in Westminster, Carroll County, Maryland.  Westminster Auto Accident Attorney Ross W.  Albers is a former Maryland insurance adjuster that knows what you’re up against.  If you are worried about whether the insurance company has enough policy limits to cover your medical bills, pain, suffering, and lost wages, then contact Albers & Associates to schedule a free consultation.

Special thanks to Jessica Crowder who contributed to this blog.