We recently settled a case for a client who was involved in a left-turn car accident in Bloomingdale. Another driver made a left hand turn in front of the car in which she was a passenger, resulting in the collision. As a result of the accident, she suffered a fractured wrist which required surgery.
There were a total of 7 passengers in the car in which she was riding, but the at-fault driver had insurance with policy limits of only $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident. The amount of coverage was inadequate to compensate all of the victims for their injuries so we made an Illinois underinsured motorist claim under the client’s own policy.
The case proceeded in two phases.
The first part of the case involved settling the auto liability claim against the insurer for the at-fault driver. Our client received $33,333.33, or a third of the total liability coverage, leaving the other 6 accident victims to divide the balance of the liability coverage.
The second part of the case involved settling the underinsured motorist claim aganist my client’s own carrier. She had up to $100,000 in coverage available to her through her own policy. Since the total amount of the liability coverage was being exhausted by the 7 claims against it, she could receive the difference between her available underinsured coverage ($100,000) and what she received from the at-fault driver ($33,333.33), or $66,666.67. The underinsured motorist carrier agreed to pay this, leaving the client with $100,000 in total compensation.
This is a textbook example of how we use underinsured motorist coverage in mutli-victim accidents to insure that the client receives fair compensation.
Awarded: $100,000
