You are traveling home from the cinema with a friend, discussing the movie you just enjoyed, and driving the car you insure. You stop at a red light and wait for it to turn green. While you are waiting for the light to change your car lurches forward and the sound of glass shattering is all around – a car behind you that was speeding crashed into your car. You are seriously injured and medical bills mount. What happens if the driver of the speeding car has no car insurance and can’t pay for your medical bills? Or what if the other driver’s liability insurance only covers a fraction of your bills? What happens if instead of being the driver you are a passenger in the car that was hit?
A Maine personal injury lawyer knows if you carry motor vehicle insurance and a motorist without insurance injures you, or your medical costs exceed the limit of the liability policy carried by the driver who hit you, you are protected in Maine. The Maine legislature passed a statute to help close the coverage gap when an uninsured or underinsured driver injures an accident victim who carries motor vehicle insurance. Maine Revised Statute title 24-A, sec. 2902 requires that every motor vehicle insurance policy issued in Maine include a policy for injuries caused by a motorist who has insufficient or no insurance.
The lawmakers created this requirement to ensure that someone who responsibly purchased motor vehicle insurance is not left out in the cold because a driver who injured him was less responsible. Maine law requires that motor vehicle policies sold for vehicles garaged in Maine must include a policy to provide coverage for injuries caused by a driver with insufficient insurance.
This uninsured and underinsurance coverage is often referred to as UM/UIM insurance. Maine lawmakers set a minimum limit of $20,000 for UM/UIM policies. A vehicle owner can also always choose to purchase additional coverage for an additional premium so that more money is available to an injured victim should an accident occur under these circumstances.
In Wescott v. Allstate Insurance Co., 397 A.2d 156 (Me. 1979) the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine stated the purpose of Maine’s UM/UIM statute is to increase the number of possible resources an accident victim may turn to in order to help him recover the costs of injuries caused by another driver. Several Maine courts echo this sentiment in various cases involving uninsured and underinsured drivers.
A Closer Look at Accidents Involving Underinsured Drivers
An uninsured motorist is one who is driving a car without carrying liability insurance. But what does it mean to be an underinsured motorist? A motorist is said to be underinsured when he carries an amount of liability insurance that is too low to cover the costs of the injuries he caused in a motor vehicle accident and the injured party carries greater coverage under his UM/UIM policy, or if the driver’s liability insurance coverage is below the State minimum for bodily injury liability. Thus whether or not a driver causing harm is considered underinsured depends on the cost of the injuries he caused and how much UM/UIM insurance the accident victim carried himself.
In most cases, it is likely the accident victim’s own insurance coverage for his injuries will be considered before a payout under UM/UIM policies, even if the underinsured driver caused the accident. Most importantly, however, in Maine, when disputes about insurance payouts involving underinsurance claims have occurred, courts generally construe the law liberally toward the accident victim and more strictly against the insurance companies. Obviously, this is good news for an accident victim.
So, what if you are stopped at a red light when you get rear-ended by an uninsured driver and you sustain serious injuries? What if your medical costs are $100,000 and your primary policy is limited to $80,000 for medical bills, and the person who caused the accident has no insurance and no assets? Because you purchased your motor vehicle insurance in Maine, you have at least $20,000 coverage due to you from the required purchase of a UI policy. Thanks to your UI policy, your insurance carrier should pay you the $20,000 and your costs should be covered.
What if you were the passenger of the car that was rear-ended by an uninsured driver and you are severely injured and you cannot cover your costs on your own? In this case, you have the potential to recover a payout from your friend’s UI policy because you were traveling in her car. Again, using the figure for minimum mandatory coverage, your friend’s insurance should pay you up to $20,000 toward your medical bills when there is no viable recourse against the driver who caused the accident. Additionally, if you happen to own a motor vehicle and you properly insured it in Maine, your UI policy can follow you. If your medical costs exceed the total of the driver’s UI coverage and any other motor vehicle liability coverage available to you for bodily injury, you should be able to recover damages for medical bills under the UI provision of your own policy even if you were merely a passenger in the car that was hit. So, (using the minimum mandated coverage as examples) in addition to the $20,000 you receive from your friend’s policy, you likely will receive up to an additional $20,000 from your own policy to help defray your costs. Your total from UI provisions could be up to $40,000. The courts call this process “stacking.”
How does this process work if a driver who causes an accident and injury has some insurance but not enough? How does an accident victim recover damages from an accident involving an underinsured driver? Again, imagine you are rear-ended and injured as you wait at a red light. Your injuries result in $100,000 of medical bills. You carry UIM motorist coverage up to $100,000. What if the driver who hit you has bodily injury liability insurance with a maximum payout for this insurance is $50,000. Your UIM policy will likely cover you for any damages you suffer over $50,000 up to $100,000.
Maine Courts Allow for ‘Stacking’ Policies
When more than two policies are in play, Maine courts allow for “stacking” policies for the benefit of an accident victim in crashes caused by an underinsured driver, just as they did for uninsured-driver caused accidents. In Connolly v. Royal Globe Ins. Co., 455 A. A2d 932 (1983) the court makes clear that stacking, or totaling of insurance policies is well within the intent of the UIM statute pertaining to underinsured drivers.
In Connolly, accident victims had access to two separate UIM policies, one for $50,000 and one for $20,000 totaling $70,000. The driver of the car that caused the accident had bodily injury liability insurance with a $20,000 limit. The driver was deemed underinsured by $50,000. The driver’s $20,000 limit was then subtracted from the total insurance available to the victims, $70,000 ($50,000+$20,000=$70,000) allowing $50,000 to be paid to victim for her injuries. ($70,000-$20,000=$50,000) The court rejected the premise that the $20,000 bodily injury payout should be subtracted from each policy separately. ($50,000-$20,000 and $20,000-$20,000) giving only $30,000 to the victim. As the legislature intended, an injured and injured person is able to receive the same amount of money to put toward his injuries had the person driving and causing the accident been insured for the same amount.
Maine Rev. Stat. title 24-A, sec. 2902 is there to protect you and to promote the insurance you may need someday. The legislature made this law with the hope to fill financial gaps created when drivers carry differing amounts of liability insurance collide. UM and UIM coverage in Maine even travels with the person, not the vehicle. So if you are injured in someone else’s car, you are covered. Or if you are a pedestrian or a bicyclist injured by a driver who is uninsured or underinsured, your policy coverage is there to protect you and help pay the bills. If you are unlucky and are injured in an accident caused by a person who happens to have less motor vehicle insurance that you, you still have good chance to recover significant costs. In Maine UI/UIM provisions are broadly interpreted so people injured in car accidents can get help to pay their medical bills.
If you or a loved one was injured in an accident caused by an uninsured or underinsured driver, contact the Law Offices of Joe Bornstein or visit www.joebornstein.com. Offices in Sanford, Biddeford, Portland, Lewiston, Augusta and Bangor and serving all of Maine.