What Happens if I was Injured by an Uninsured or Underinsured Motorist

Uninsured and Underinsured motorist coverage ("UM") is an add-on to your auto, truck or motorcycle insurance policy for which you pay an extra premium. It can be critical after an accident, but not many people understand what it is or even know if they have it on their policy.

In about half of the car accident cases we've handled at the Law Offices of Corey Leifer, we need to file a claim with our client's UM policy in order to  recover the full value of our client's claim, which includes pain and suffering, lost wages and payment of outstanding medical bills. 

Uninsured Motorist Coverage can be used in the following  situations: 

• Hit and Run Accidents whether you are in your vehicle or you are a pedestrian or bicycling 
• If you are hit by a driver who has no car insurance you can use your UM coverage to pay your medical bills, property loss, and pain and suffering. If that driver has personal assets, we can also file a lawsuit against them personally to help recover the full value of your claim.
• If you are injured by a driver who has a small amount of Bodily Injury Coverage ("BI"), which is not enough to pay the full value of your claim, you can collect the policy limits from the other driver's insurance and then collect the remainder from your own policy.  For example, if you are rear-ended by a driver that only has a $10,000 BI policy and your case is worth $50,000, our firm would first collect the $10,000 BI policy and then go after the other $40,000 through our client's UM policy.   

It's important to note that your insurance premium will not go up if you collect money from your UM policy.  To learn more about UM coverage and all your rights after a car accident, contact the Law Offices of Corey Leifer at (561) 395-8055 to schedule a free confidential consultation.

The Florida Wrongful Death Act can be found in Florida Statutes 768.16 through 768.26. The statute explains who is and who is not entitled to damages in the event of a wrongful death.   

A wrongful death refers to an accidental death that has been caused by someone else's negligence. The responsible party may be an individual or a corporation. When such a death occurs, a personal representative of the decedent may hire a wrongful death attorney to seek damages on behalf of eligible survivors.     

Surviving spouses, parents and children are deemed eligible for compensation when a wrongful death occurs. Those individuals may go to court to try and recover damages due to a wrongful death.         

Surviving parents and adult children are excluded by Florida's Wrongful Death Act         

Adult children (over the age of 25) of a decedent are excluded from seeking damages, if the decedent has a surviving spouse. Surviving parents are excluded from seeking damages, if the decedent has a surviving spouse and or children. The Wrongful Death Statute provides several exclusions for cases of medical negligence. In the case of a loss of a parent through medical negligence, adult children may not seek damages; in the case of a loss of an adult child due to medical negligence, surviving parents may not seek damages.