Georgia Uninsured – Underinsured Coverage Changes

Georgia law relating to uninsured automobile insurance has changed effective January 1, 2009. We have previously written about the importance of uninsured/underinsured (UM) coverage. Essentially this is coverage which protects you and your family if you are injured in a wreck caused by a person with no or low limits of insurance. Unfortunately there are many of these drivers on the roads in Georgia.
Under the new law the major changes relate to the ability to purchase increased coverage. This is best understood by way of example. For purposes of this explanation we will assume you are involved in an accident with an at-fault driver with the minimum limits of $25,000.00. Under the new available coverage assume you have UM coverage of $100,00.00. Then the available coverage to you will be $125,000.00. This is the sum of the at-faults drivers $25,000.00 and your $100,000.00.
Under the old law, the amount of the at-fault driver’s coverage is deducted from your coverage. In the example above, the available coverage to you would from your UM policy would be $75,000.00. This plus the at-fault driver’s $25,000.00 would make $100,000.00 available.
If the at-fault driver has no insurance, there would be no change in the policy coverage. There would be $100,000.00 available under your UM coverage.
Your insurance company can and will charge more for this new coverage. We encourage everyone to seriously consider adding this new coverage to their auto policies.