Personal injury Attorney Morris Lilienthal recently settled a serious motorcycle accident case in which our client suffered a compound fracture of his right tibia as well as numerous other injuries. The wreck occurred on Bailey Cove Road in Huntsville when the driver of the car turned left in front of our client’s motorcycle. Since the driver of the car failed to yield the right of way we were able to clearly establish they were liable for the accident.

Unfortunately our client had to undergo an open reduction and internal fixation surgery to repair his leg injury. Moreover, he had to endure numerous physical therapy sessions to help him regain his mobility and strength in his leg. Due the severity of his injuries he also had a significant lost wages claim. As such, we brought personal injury claims on his behalf for his medical bills, lost wages, out of pocket expenses, pain and suffering, scarring, and mental anguish.

Due to the extensive nature of our client’s injuries and medical bills we also made claim for uninsured/underinsured motorist benefits. Often called UM or UIM, this is insurance coverage on one’s own motorcycle or automobile coverage that will be available for a plaintiff’s damages if the other driver does not have insurance coverage or doesn’t have enough coverage to fully compensate the injured plaintiff. While this coverage is required to be on your insurance policy by Alabama law, it can be excluded if the named insureds on the policy sign a written waiver. In this case, our client was a young man in his early 20s and was on his parents’ insurance coverage who were both named insureds on the policy. When we asked Progressive if there was underinsured motorist coverage on the motorcycle at issue they said no, but when we obtained the full policy information we discovered that they indeed hadn’t paid for UIM coverage.

However, only one parent had signed a UM/UIM rejection which we knew from prior cases means there is still UIM coverage available through the other named insured parent who hadn’t signed the waiver. As such we were able to get UIM coverage and stack or add several motorcycles covered under these policies even though they never paid for said coverage. Furthermore, our clients’ family was insured with Allstate for their automobile coverage and even though our client was riding a motorcycle insured by Progressive at the time we were able to make a claim for underinsured motorist benefits on the family’s Allstate policies. It’s important to note that uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage follows the person or people insured under the policy not the vehicle. As such if you’re insured under a UM or UIM policy it covers you in or on other vehicles and even as a pedestrian.

We’re glad we were able to reach a satisfactory result for our client in this matter. If you’ve suffered injuries in a car or motorcycle accident, please contact our office today at 256-533-1667 for a free consultation.