You are driving through an intersection when, suddenly, you hear the screech of tires and feel another car crash into yours. Whether the accident was the other driver's fault or your own, the decisions you made when renewing your automobile insurance coverage months before the accident will significantly impact how the accident will affect your life.
Bodily injury/property damage coverage protects you from claims from other parties concerning accidents that you cause. Under Pennsylvania law, you are required to carry bodily injury liability coverage of at least $15,000/$30,000. What that means is that in an accident caused by you, you are covered up to $15,000 for injuries to each person, up to a cap of $30,000 for injuries to multiple persons in the accident. Accordingly, if you injure one person, you are covered up to $15,000, and if you injure more than one person, the coverage is $15,000 per person, but up to a maximum of $30,000. So, if three people are hurt, your insurance company would have to pay each injured person his or her fair share depending on the injuries, but only up to $15,000 for any one person and $30,000 total. In addition to bodily injury coverage, you are also required to have coverage of at least $5,000 for damage to property in any one accident.
It is often advisable to carry substantially more than the minimum coverage. It is certainly foreseeable that the $15,000 for any one person and $30,000 total for any one accident would be insufficient to satisfy a claim for a serious bodily injury to one or more persons should you cause an accident. Similarly, a property damage claim could easily exceed the $5,000 minimum coverage.
In the event that either bodily injury or property damage is exceeded, the people injured in the accident could sue you and try to collect from your personal assets to recover their damages that are in excess of your insurance. For example, if you only have a $15,000/$30,000 policy and cause $100,000 of bodily injury to one person, you can be pursued personally for $85,000 of damages.
As such, it is important to consider purchasing more than the minimum coverage from your insurance provider. People with moderate amounts of assets will often purchase bodily injury protection of $100,000/$300,000 and it is not uncommon to see high asset individuals have up to $1,000,000 of coverage.
You can also consider obtaining an umbrella insurance policy, which provides additional liability coverage above and beyond the coverage provided in your automobile policy.
From a legal standpoint, it is advisable to have enough insurance coverage so that, if you do cause an accident and serious injuries result, your insurance will be sufficient to pay for the damages and your personal assets will not be at risk.
Identity theft, one of the fastest growing crimes in America, is a federal crime under the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act. Bad people or con men usually find ways to get around this law. Identity fraud occurs when a con artist illegitimately uses your identity to make a frightening number of financial and personal transactions in your name, leaving you - the ID theft victim, responsible for what might turn out to be a mind-boggling turmoil in your life. Last year ID fraud crimes topped the list of complaints reported to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the governmental agency addressing the problem of identity fraud, for the fourth consecutive year.
The FTC estimates that ten million people are victims of ID theft each year. Perhaps the only people minting money are the conmen and identity theft lawyers! Determining the exact scope and financial impact of id theft on people and businesses is difficult. According to a survey conducted by Privacy Right Clearing Group, victims spend from $50 to $2000 on costs related to ID theft, not including identity theft lawyers' fees. Since ID fraud is a complex crime you may not be able to clear your name as fast as you would like. Bureaucratic financial institutions move slowly, partly to protect you. But if ID theft recovery procedures fail to resolve the problem, you should get in touch with identity theft lawyers. Credit issuers and reporting agencies are sometimes slow in responding to complaints from consumers. The threat of lawsuits can provide some impetus.
If you believe you have been a victim of identity fraud and all steps to restore your name and credit fail, contact top identity theft lawyers in your area immediately, to minimize the damage to your personal and financial accounts, as well as your credit report and reputation. Thanks to the nature of the crime, most identity thieves are never found. So, in order to clear your name, you patiently need to work with the law enforcement agencies and identity theft lawyers, assisting them when you can. Remember, justice moves slowly, and ultimately you will be proven on the side of right, and your life can go return to normal. This is usually a slow process, but it is a necessary evil we all live with.
Both Timothy Rayne & Keith Londrie are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Timothy Rayne has sinced written about articles on various topics from Critical Illness Insurance, Auto Insurance and Legal Matters. Tim Rayne is the author of numerous publications on Personal Injury Law and is a graduate of the Temple University Beasley School of Law's Master's in Trial Advocacy Program. Tim can be reached at. Timothy Rayne's top article generates over 6600 views. to your Favourites.
Keith Londrie has sinced written about articles on various topics from Online Dating, Information Technology and ADHD. Keith Londrie II is a well known author. For more information on Hair Loss, please visit for a wealth of information. You may also want to visi. Keith Londrie's top article generates over 246000 views. to your Favourites.