CA - Injury and Insurance

CALIFORNIA

My boyfriend was recently injured as a passenger in a car accident - his medical bills total around $200,000 and he also has lost wages, a chipped tooth, and has gone through considerable pain and suffering.

Progressive, the driver's car insurance company (the driver was drunk and clearly at fault), called and offered him $15,000 (what they said was the maximum amount available) if he met with them and signed some form. Is this true - should he sign? Isn't the insurance company required to completely cover all medical and economic damages?

My boyfriend himself is completely uninsured, he had just started a new job earlier that week and was in an uninsured trial period. He also does not own a car, and thus has no car insurance. The driver of the car has no assets and makes very little.

Thank you so much for your help!What is the name of your state?

from what ive read around here no there not supposed to cover all costs. if the drunk driver purchased minimum insurance then there only gona cover minimum costs. if they said 15,000 is the max then im sure thats all there gona fork over. you can on the other hand sue the drunk driver for the rest of the bill...as for signing papers im not positive on how that works. i got in a crash and totaled some girls car my insurance only covered 15,000 in damage. the total amount came out to about 18,000 with car rentals and such. they agreed to the 15,000 that my insurance offered them case closed. my insurance was not about to pay 3,000 more they even wrote me numerous letters stating that the rest if they so chose to would be my responsibility and i could be sued for the difference im sure this applys to medical bills. your only getting what the other guys insurance will cover not a penny more. be prepared to file a suit agains the drunk driver.

mc2599 said:

CALIFORNIA

My boyfriend was recently injured as a passenger in a car accident - his medical bills total around $200,000 and he also has lost wages, a chipped tooth, and has gone through considerable pain and suffering.

Progressive, the driver's car insurance company (the driver was drunk and clearly at fault), called and offered him $15,000 (what they said was the maximum amount available) if he met with them and signed some form. Is this true - should he sign? Isn't the insurance company required to completely cover all medical and economic damages?

My boyfriend himself is completely uninsured, he had just started a new job earlier that week and was in an uninsured trial period. He also does not own a car, and thus has no car insurance. The driver of the car has no assets and makes very little.

Thank you so much for your help!What is the name of your state?

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Insurance companies dont sell unlimited coverage, there is always a limit of liability. The other driver apparently only had the state minimum coverage. ($15,000 per person in CA) This is why its always a good idea to not only buy plenty of liability insurance so you can cover these $200k accidents, but also a lot of uninsured and underinsured motorists coverage if you are hit by someone with a pitiful amount of insurance and no assets.

His options are very limited. The first thing he needs to do is find out if the other driver has any assets: a home, money in the bank, anything. If the other driver is broke, he could be screwed.

Your boyfriend can either accept the settlement offer and go bankrupt on the medical bills, or he can get a lawyer and sue both drivers.

ssxm said:

from what ive read around here no there not supposed to cover all costs. if the drunk driver purchased minimum insurance then there only gona cover minimum costs. if they said 15,000 is the max then im sure thats all there gona fork over. you can on the other hand sue the drunk driver for the rest of the bill...as for signing papers im not positive on how that works.

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Very good - that's entirely correct. The "papers" are a release for the insurance company which they require before they release any amount of money.

The insurance he's been dealing with so far is that of the other car, right? Has he spoken to the insurance company covering the car that he was riding in? They may be able to provide some coverage especially if the at-fault driver's insurance was exhausted.

It was just the one car involved in the accident - so that isn't a possibility.

Oh, he was a passenger in the drunk driver's car? That's unfortunate.