New Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Law - Know Your Rights

Over the years, I've taken some time to learn the uninsured motorist laws of our state. For example, in Colorado even if you've never paid a dime for uninsured motorist premiums you get uninsured motorist benefits unless the insurance company can produce a rejection form, by you rejecting that coverage on your policy.

Now that's been the law for a long time in our state. What we found, however, is that the insurance companies over the years have gotten better at making sure they had these rejection forms signed. That is until October 9, 2014, when a brand new case came down called Johnson versus State Farm at our court of appeals. What that case says is that it is no longer acceptable for only one of the insured's or one of the policyholders to sign one of those notices of rejection. What does that mean?

A client comes into my office and they have very serious injuries and the amount of insurance that the person who hit them has doesn't cover the extent of their injuries due to the accident. Perhaps that person had no insurance. We'd be looking to uninsured motorist coverage or what's called under-insured motorist coverage when somebody has some coverage we'd be looking to your insurance to supplement and get you more coverage and more compensation for your injuries.

So in a situation where even if the person has never paid a premium for uninsured motorist coverage, if the insurance company hasn't had the form signed correctly by all of the policyholders, you very likely are entitled to uninsured motorist benefits even if you never paid for it. It's very important to read the language of your policy and it's also very important to look at these exclusions because these laws are always changing, and it's a highly regulated area.

For more information, contact us at 303-782-9999 or go to start your free case evaluation now.

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New Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Law - Know Your Rights