The difference between bodily injury coverage and uninsured motorist coverage and why it's important

In Florida, neither bodily injury coverage (BI) or uninsured motorist (UM) coverage are required by law. Bodily injury coverage in the type of insurance that pays you for injuries, medical bills, pain and loss of enjoyment of life from the insurance company of an at fault driver. If an at fault driver injures you the bodily injury coverage carried by that at fault driver may determine the value of your case, or what you may potentially recover. For example, if that driver carries bodily injury limits of $10,000 your claim may only be worth $10,000 no matter how hurt you are. For this reason, it is always important for you to buy uninsured motorist coverage from your insurance company in the highest limits you can afford. Using the same example, if you are hit by an at fault driver who is again, only carrying $10,000 in bodily injury coverage, but you have uninsured motorist coverage of $100,000 now you can potentially recover up to $110,000. We repeatedly meet with injured accident victim client who were hurt by careless drivers who had NO BI and the client had NO UM. In this case we have to tell people, again, no matter how hurt they are there is no recovery. Insurance companies are required by law to offer you the option to purchase UM in the same policy limits as the BI you are carrying on your car. If you aren't carrying BI and UM you are not protecting yourself. I don't know over the years how many times I have heard people tell me they have "full coverage" and yet had no idea whether they had UM or not and frequently didn't. Check your insurance coverage and if you aren't carrying UM do so at once. It could be the difference between being fairly compensated or getting nothing.