Title: Navigating Auto Insurance: What You Need to Know
Downloaded: 2025-12-30 08:59:06

[Music] hey everyone and welcome back to another episode of the auto accident attorneys podcast I'm your host at attorney Ali managing partner of the auto accident attorneys group this podcast is all about diving deep into the stories experiences and insights that shape the world of accidents in injuries and law whether you're here for inspiration information or just some good conversation you're in the right place now I am an accident attorney by trade but my favorite thing to be is a girl dad and today I've got one of my favorite girl dads with me and a neighbor attorney Rishi patney Rishi thank you for coming today why don't you introduce yourself thanks so much for having me Ollie I appreciate it um my name is rishy patney um I'm a attorney with the patney law group um and we specialize in catastrophic injury medical malpractice and wrongful death his stories I'm going to try and convince you to get a podcast cuz his stories are fascinating on this podcast this is direct to Consumer unlike some of the other legal podcasts that are made for attorneys we here talking to potential clients or people that never become clients because they've listened to the podcast and gotten some information yeah I figured today's episode since you have so much experience in it as well uh we can discuss US Auto Insurance in general and maybe some of the hfalls are things that people don't think about great topic it comes up all the time it's actually pretty Central to to both of our our practices let's start with uh instead of going the basics what is auto insurance I think one of the things would be uninsured mots protection you got to tell me this so you know a lot of my friends you know they are you they they run this spectr in terms of all all different kinds of professions but um but the Common Thread amongst them is that they're you know they're all professions or or thought leaders or kind of you know pretty well accomplished and successful in in their own respective practices and in their fields um you will not believe uh the number of times I've gotten a phone call from someone a friend that's been in an accident um and you know and it's it's it's what we commonly you know what we see in the in in auto accidents is that the bad drivers who are were committing probably some of the most egregious accidents um are uninsured and then they called me and said rishy what do I do here I got I was involved in a hit and run by some crazy driver I think I'm injured and there's you damage to my car um but the other person doesn't have any insurance um and and you know and they fled the seed what do I do you'll be surprised how many times amongst my by my group of friends that I come to realize you know you start looking into their their insurance coverage and they've declined Unum coverage or un uninsured Motors coverage Y in their own policies actually I think I had a a call uh about like two weeks ago shock if you're listening hopefully you are if you're listening it's you and my mom that are listening to this episode but uh a buddy of mine called and he was asking about what coverages to add on to his policy and he actually asked he's like well he wasn't talking to me about uninsured originally he was talking about his the amount of liability coverage he should have that was leading him towards having a higher limit and he was like well if I have a higher limit doesn't that just make me a Target for litigation because it looks like I've got a ton of coverage for somebody to go after so then that'll be a separate topic but then I had to explain to him about how if he doesn't have a particular amount of limit for liability coverage he cannot have more in uninsured Motors protection than he can liability coverage so if you want to protect your family and this guy he he's a professional also it's funny that that's the the group that you were talking about because he's he's an anesthesiologist and he's got three children and he's married so at any given time he's got five people in the vehicle with him he lives in Atlanta we know that it's the uninsured motorist rate is Skyhigh so at any point in time he's got five people in his vehicle that could get injured and he's got to have enough coverage to make sure that everyone's taken care of right he was asking me about how much coverage he should have what do you how do you approach that normally when I when I ask about you know how did how did you as a professional get to when deciding on on your insurance cover you're setting it up and whenever your policy renews your your agent's going to send you hey here's here's the you know here's the quotes I'm going to send you for Renewal and what you know what what leads you to tell tell me your thought process in declining um coverage and I think in in most people's minds if you don't see the auto accident space um regularly I think that the notion for most people is that this is coverage for the very rare occurrence that the person that um that hits me or the at fault driver that hits me is going to not have insurance coverage um and they and they look at as a very anecdotal um rare chance that is mitigated or or so rare because uh state law requires everyone to have insurance and so I think I think the assumption is that the the likelihood of being in an accident you know overall is is not that common thankfully but uh but even in that rare occurrence it's a much lesser chance that the person's not going to have insurance and I think that that's a that's a pretty big disconnect for that that we realize is not true we see accidents being caused by um you know the the type of of drivers that be at fault in these accidents the the the less careful less safe reckless drivers are not going to be the ones that have the foresight to go secure um anything e you know even if they do have insurance coverage it's very rarely going to be above the state minimum which is $25,000 if they even have that that's a great point if they even have that correct and and and and this is something that they they assume that well if if they have that well then I'm then I'm okay um you know but I don't think my car now is going to be worth over $25,000 well the reality is is bodily injuries could you know is a component of that and so you can have you know I know you some some policies you can split um property damage and and bodily injury right but it's um but they assume well that that's all I need it for and um if they have the state minimum then I'm that I'm okay how many times have you seen where u a minimum limits policy is often a a challenge in a case to getting your clients compensated oh I at least half at least but you know we do a lot of cases right right unlike in in the Med m world where it's a handful we're doing hundreds if not a thousand per year so 50% of that is huge right it is an absolute monster of a problem that nobody thinks about until they're in that situation which is why I think the the information in this podcast will be helpful hopefully somebody listens to this and takes a piece of advice and looks at their policy and decides to add it on everybody listen to Ali get U coverage I I this well it's and it's Insurance to protect you right your liability protect your liability coverage protects your assets when you are at fault and some and and somebody else is is pursuing the claim so so you think of this your um coverage right and and and I don't know if this is a you know A good rule of thumb or way of thinking about it but your your your liability coverage protects your property and your assets and your um coverage actually protects you and your loved ones that's exactly the way to approach it everyone has to have valid insurance in order to get registration right at the end of the year on your birth date usually if if you own your car and your own personal name you got to register your vehicle to get that little sticker on your tag you have to show that you've got valid insurance that to show that you're protecting other people if you cause damage but really for the professionals that we were talking about people your your friends that call you the insurance that they should have is to protect their own assets uh another anecdote I'm getting far away from but I'm going to come back but I think that this point is actually important to make because it really happened back in California one of my close buddies who I took the bar exam with his brother is a cardiologist his wife accidentally hit their neighbor's daughter on her bicycle as she was pulling into the driveway the daughter suffers a TBI he calls me he's in a panic he doesn't know what to do he's like you know I've given them the my auto insurance and they said they're not going to accept that I was like well yeah of course they're not going to accept it so long story short what ended up happening is they settled out of court and he he had to come out of pocket several hundreds of thousands of dollars he came out of pocket and paid for it but that happened because he did not carry adequate amount of liability coverage to protect his assets when he causes damage to someone else so this might be a good segue for the um portion when we're talking about liability limits we're talking about the amount of insurance protection and that is the best way for you to think about it is the protection that you have to protect your assets from liability when you cause damage to others right I think that's probably the best way I could explain it and the UN portion the uninsured/underinsured motorist portion re you what you were saying about the type of person that is typically not adequately covered I'm I use that anecdote all the time my cousin's son is Judgment proof I will tell you he caused a pretty catastrophic accident through an intersection and he actually calls me from the hospital and he's worried about what's going on and he's like you know there's a ton of damage but I told him I was like look you're for all intents and purposes you're judgment proof it's not a criminal thing he wasn't drunk driving no no criminal charges so it's just a civil negligence case right and so the person that incurred the damages caused by my cousin's son he doesn't have enough Insurance he's had he had the state minimum of 25,000 but you know that person was in the hospital for 3 days so that limit is blown those medical bills are going to be well in excess of the state Georgia State minimum policy but I told him I'm like look you don't own a home you barely own your car you have no assets nobody's going to no plaintiff's attorney who earns contingency fees is going to pursue a civil case against you where their fee is based on the amount of recovery that they can get often times I talk about getting blood from a rock there you go right like you D you can't get but from ack so you can't if you don't have money if I sue you and I win I'm just going to have a piece of paper that says I win X amount of dollars I can't actually recover that so plff attorneys that work on contingency they get what like a third of the piece of paper that shows the the Judgment amount if you if you spent yeah you if if you built your practice around uh around ignoring insurance coverage and just going after everyone for the full value of a claim uh how long do you think you'd be open oh well we I definitely wouldn't have a podcast Studio that's for sure I agree I'd barely have a a laptop so so then it I I I think the natural question that that that people would ask is okay well if if that's a good thing well then why why should I go buy more liability coverage why don't if if outside of your limits if you're judgment proof why what what what causes so what what types of people really ought to consider really increasing their liability limits what are the considerations that that people should take in account right great question I know you're setting me up so I appreciate that but people with assets my cousin son for example I I was talking about just now I would not recommend for him to go out and change his policy from the state minimum to you know quarter of a million dollars because he doesn't have a quarter of a million dollars of assets to protect so you have to look at your own personal financial scenario how much Equity do you have in your home how much do you have in liquid assets um what would be the opposite of judgment proof deep pocket deep pocket yeah you know a an easy target yeah right so when when you cause an auto accident if you're at fault you're you we refer to you as the defendant right so plaintiff attorneys are always looking for a defendant with Deep Pockets that's that's why your specialty has tended towards Med Mau because we're talking about hospitals and and and Physicians and yeah and and typically you know um they they don't have you know any state minimum requirements but you know when you're looking at ensuring uh your business as a physician or hospital is looking at ensuring its operations um you know we're not talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars we're talking about millions of dollars absolutely tens of millions of dollars right in coverage but and and and but but that example kind of exemplifies um you know when you've got that much in terms of business operations to protect they are getting that much in liability coverage why and and and the same calculus you know ought to to kind of Drive the decision- making for for personal Auto coverage as well right is that if you if you have um these assets or or you are in a profession you know if you're if you're a licensed professional a doctor a physician architect engineer um uh or or you you live you know or the value of your home is is fairly significant nowadays everybody can jump on to Zillow or red fin and and figure out what the value of your home is if they know your address you won't be able to to portray yourself as judgment proof um it it'll be pretty quickly you know known so by so just sticking to minimum limits coverage to try and protect yourself from um from larger um I guess from being a Target not not really a sound strategy I guess not financially no you you're kind of leaving yourself exposed because the fact that you're not judgment proof is prettyy pretty easily ascertained right yeah especially you know with all the asset searches that we as plaintiffs attorneys run sure we we get that data pretty quickly if you're a defendant and again if you cause an accident you're going to be a defendant know that if you've got de Pockets you're going to want insurance coverage to protect your assets so that you don't have to come out of pocket to pay them the conversation I was having with my anesthesiologist buddy I told him the amount of auto insurance that I think he should get and then I also told him he should add on umbrella coverage as sort of like a a blanket million-dollar policy umbrella coverages it it it's nominal in fees again if you don't have assets something like that doesn't make sense for you and maybe you do become a target for litigation if there's an unscrupulous plaintiff's attorney involved not not not us we don't know any of those guys none of those yeah they don't exist in this market at all but you could possibly be a target for litigation if you have that unnecessarily if you don't have the assets to protect but if you've got the assets you need to protect the assets and I think that's the best way to think about insurance is this security blanket or like a a wall makes me think of a piercing the corporate veil yeah sort of you need a veil between your assets and uh what you're liable for so use the insurance as that as that Veil to protect your personal belongings you're paying pre premiums to an insurance company that's going to take those premium dollars and invest it and grow shareholder wealth they've got a ton of assets so that if something happens where you're liable you're not going to have to go out of your pocket all of those premiums that you've been paying into the system like a savings account that will cover the damages now I've been talking for a minute but I don't want to forget the point that when we're talking about how much to get for liability limits how it can relate to uninsured motorist so CU your limit to you know if you want more um coverage there it is you need more liability coverage right yeah if you I mean if you only want you can't have minimum limits $25,000 in liability coverage and and expect to be able to get $100,000 um coverage that's an important point I'll reiterate it if you're listening in the car Mom this is for you if you want to choose an uninsured motorist limit that will protect your family you have to have a at least that much in liability coverage the example that you gave Rishi was if you have 25,000 in liability limits you cannot then get 100,000 in coverage exactly and uh we don't have this issue in California but in Georgia there's two types of um right right what are those two types of um that that we get to choose from in Georgia add on and Reduce by that's right so the way add-on works is that um if if you've got whatever coverage is available and this you know the add-on really comes into play when you've got a question of un under insurance but or or or multiple policies but add-on is basically the full amount of your your um coverage is added on to the top of available coverage just to increase it reduced by is I want at least this much in coverage as a combination of both whatever is available plus my my um so in that case whatever your um limits are it's going to be reduced by any available coverage that that already exists from um from the Tor feaser right I did a Tik Tok video trying to explain this with uh two separate Big Macs the Reduce by policy though I I showed One Big Mac as the at fault drivers State minimum of $25,000 gotcha and then I I have the other Big Mac and I'm I start reducing by because we got to take if they have 25,000 assuming you have A50 $2,000 uninsured underinsured motorist policy you have to reduce Yours by the number of the bodily uh liability policy right it was a Big Mac and a double Big Mac okay the Big Mac was 25 and the double Big Mac was 50 so by the time we got rid of the Big Mac from the second double Big Mac we were just left with I think it was like one one beef batty and one piece of bread yeah and I explained how you've been paying for a double Big Mac but because it's reduced by this is what you're left with the the the few dollars cheaper that on the premiums that you save on a reduced by coverage versus add-on coverage um it will it will you'll realize um it was kind of uh it was it's it's a it seems like because you're just comparing you know when you get your premiums and you get the Avail well I could save a little bit here um and you try to make this financial decision but those few extra dollars and it really is it's a it's a fairly small difference between the add-on versus reduced buy um and yes you will pay more for add-on coverage but uh those few dollars saved is is going to be way more harmful than if you would have actually paid to the few extra dollars and had add-on coverage because that increases the amount of available coverage overall when you are the one that's hurt and you are the one that's L to to to get um your doctor bills uh all the medical bills covered all of the um your PID suffering the amount of time that you've been out from work the way that you know and accidents turn people's lives upside down um absolutely you thankfully it doesn't happen every single day it's it's a rare occurrence but when it does happen your life is completely it changes right and and and if the you know obviously people die in car accidents but people also get really really badly injured and that those injuries can take years um to heal sometimes they never heal fully and one of the leading causes of bankruptcy in America is unexpected medical expense right right and what besides some disease that pops up you get sick all of a sudden I can't imagine another leading cause of an unexpected medical expense other than an auto accident you're familiar with this ambulance bill is 1,200 bucks right off the bat yeah Hospital stay one day is anywhere between 6 to eight grand and that's day one so you're close to $10,000 on day one without following up with the specialist getting Diagnostic Imaging going through rehab trying to get treatment medicine whatever it may be that 25,000 is a much which is why the uninsured Motors protection is so important oh absolutely that that when when when medical bills start adding up when it comes to medical medical treatment um and especially for for very serious you know life-altering injuries but even even for for you know less less severe but but soft tissue injuries that still cause pain that still cause discomfort still prevent you from working still being you know your normal Baseline physical self um for a period of time that that $25,000 does not go a long way you know and it does it goes you know even it's even less now than it used to be but um as the costs of of um Medical Care and treatment go up um you know that that $25,000 limit stays the same and it's been the same for for for for as long as I can remember since I've been you know I've been a licensed driver I think it's always been $225,000 um willfully inadequate for for any real auto accident coverage it it may maybe just property damage I guess even on property damage I mean look at new cars we don't even have to go let's say anything five years or newer you have a $25,000 car and that's something we've been seeing on our side a lot is that even on obviously we specialize into bodily iny that that's where why you you get representation but we help out on the property damage claim so that our clients can focus on recovery on the property damage side we're seeing more and more cases come up where there's not enough insurance coverage to to repair or replace the vehicle because the vehicle prices are so much higher than what the state minimum policies are and you could imagine even as a new car Shopper the the options that you have below $25,000 for a new vehicle is a lot less today than it was you know 15 20 years ago oh absolutely right you you could barely get into a car for less than 25,000 yeah the combination of all these things the state minimum requirement that you have $25,000 worth of insurance coverage the fact that most people just get $25,000 worth of insurance coverage the fact that I wish I had this stat how many uninsured drivers are on the on Road Georgia yeah it's well and and and but the thing is it's know if if you look at it from the perspective of um well the only time we the only examples that we see are are when when accidents occur The Staggering number of those cases where accidents occur where the ATA driver has either State minimum limits or no coverage at all yeah it suggests that this is not an anecdotal rare occurrence to have um uninsured or minimum limits insured drivers on the road I would guess for the next episode I'm G to do the research and find the number I'm going to guess that it's two out of five are uninsured and I'm going to say three out of five are underinsured and I think I absolutely that does not and I'd be surprised if if it's you know I wouldn't be surprised if it's actually more than that but I I think you know as as a as a conservative estimate yeah it's not unreasonable especially based on our experiences and seeing for sure when these things happen exactly so that's why this entire episode is geared at trying to educate you as to why you need uninsured Motors protection uninsured and underinsured it's in under the same category so you can use it if the driver was uninsured you can also use it if they were underinsured and and and what what's that what is that difference would would you say underinsured what what are you talking about there it's when the damages that have been incurred by you are in excess they total more than how much Insurance the at fault driver had right so if very simple example the it's an Atlanta metro Atlanta auto accident rearend Collision case the alal driver has $25,000 worth of insurance your damage has come out to $30,000 that means that the outa driver is underinsured by five grand and if you don't have um coverage you're eating that you're eating that yeah that was um another anecdote this was a father of a client and we settled the sun's case out very quickly because the appal driver had State minimum and when we sent disclosure of what we were looking at in terms of insurance availability and what the settlement amount was going to come out to he was surprised that it was just 25,000 I have conversation with about how this person is underinsured and I think it was a very natural reaction but his response was well that's not my problem yeah and and and and you know it's understandable you you feel like look if you were at fault and you didn't carry enough Insurance why should I I be made to suffer for that right right um and and this is where we get to that insurance and the availability of coverage is um is what is the the guaranteed payment um anything above that it doesn't mean that you know um you can't seek those damages but the problem is you run into that problem with judgment proof right people and and and you know and and just because you know not everybody is completely without any assets but there's a lot of legal protections over certain um assets you know primary residences Homestead uh primary Vehicles there you know you have to clear a lot you know significant amount which is why even the average Joe your neighbor who owns his home or has a mortgage um they can still be judgment proof for purposes of civil liability claims because there there's certain protections over their primary assets and if they don't have significant assets above that they are in all intents purposes judgment proof right and so what you're saying is that that father who said that's not my problem one it's absolutely his problem because he didn't have uninsured Mur protection but in that same breath you're saying that father has a continued right of recovery assuming it's a limited liability release right right he can go over the inance policy limits and pursue against the individual but the hurdles involved in which to get reimbursement or compensation through that defendant right it's it's like a was it Copus it was pushing boulder up the hill exact definitely imp Victory right I mean it's and often that's the case is that you could be right you know you could absolutely be right you and you'll have a piece of paper that says yes this is you know here is a judgment for the full value of your damages but getting but what does that piece of paper mean if it doesn't you know collect the only the only guarantee that you have on the ability to collect is the amount of insurance covered that's available because that is guaranteed right right um but but anything above and beyond that is a significantly difficult hurdle to clear and there's an entire area of law that's kind of specializes in in collections and and judgment enforcement yeah I've also seen cases where for the interest of Justice it goes through to a verdict and then you have the uh garnished wages right right but those are I I've seen it as little as below $5 per paycheck and we're talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars on a verdict right it's it's a pure uh it's just for show more than anything sure it's it's just to to hold somebody uh not even holding them accountable because it's it's such a small amount but it it's show that you pursu justice the whole way neither of us can overstate the importance of uninsured underinsured Motors protection when you have uninsured Motors protection but you don't want to use it oh you know these clients right yeah yeah um I don't want my premiums to go up I don't I don't want I have available you but I don't want you to use it why have you paid for it right uh if if you don't want to use it the time when the exact moment when you are in that position to make that decision I don't want to use it is precisely what you were purchasing that coverage for all those premiums youve been paying into exactly but you didn't need to you don't have to carry yum coverage right now when it's time to use it to protect yourself I think a lot of it is that mental hurdle where they still feel well I shouldn't have to use this because that person was at fault right it's it's that that thing that just doesn't sit right with people in their gut but there you know that's and it's fair it's valid their valid emotions their feelings are valid but it just doesn't work that way for liability purposes and and legal purposes like but at the end of the day it's it's it's not and and and especially when which is that that's the that's the those are the scenarios where um I really left scratching my head because here here is where someone does all the things that we're saying should be done and then they make the conscious decision I don't want to use it because it might affect my premiums which I I can't I I I can't understand that one and we're dealing with with private companies whose objective is to increase premiums on an annual basis right right they're they're private companies so as a private company in a capitalist Market your objective is to grow shareholder wealth so they like to the industry and insurance lobbyists like to blame people like us SL M for it for it oh it's all those it's all those Tor lawyers right right uh they're causing your insurance premiums to go up we don't collect insurance premiums insurance companies collect insurance premiums um what they are their contractual obligation to indemnify their insurance which is the protection of their insurance that's a contractual agreement between the insurance company and the person buying the insurance policy that that's what they're paying out we we're not collecting people's insurance premiums and those premium dollars going in the entire purpose of that is to pay out on potential claims exactly it's one of these weird Concepts where it's it's almost like a a little bit of socialism on the front end where we all as a society agree to pay a little so that if one of us is injured now obviously with insurance claims it's at scale but conceptually we all pay in a little bit so that if something happens to one of us that person is taken care of and that the collective premium dollars that the insurance companies are getting from their insurance on a monthly basis they're obviously investing in markets they're getting high Returns on their investment so the it's not just that if you and I pay $10 each there's $20 if one of us gets hurt that that $20 over the course of a year you know what's the rate rate of return going on right now right it's going to grow that's that's the biggest issue I've had conversations with clients where didn't want to file um either on for an uninsured claim or even tap into their underinsured motor coverage because the damage is exceeded and I've literally told them if they don't and not in a mean way but just to help them if you never intend on using this product save yourself some money on a monthly basis right clip it because because that's exactly what you're you're deciding I if if I am injured above above the available coverage for somebody else when I when you choose not to use your your um coverage you're saying I'm just going to eat the cost yeah that's exactly right so so so you're self-insuring yourself so then so then don't don't don't buy the coverage and not use it right that that that's um I I don't know if if there's necessarily you know one is worse than the other um you certainly need the coverage and um and everyone should have um coverage um you maybe a topic for another day you talked about umbrella coverage as as an add-on to liability um it's shocking how U how affordable and I don't want to say cheap but it is it is I I I assumed a when you talk about an an additional $1 million in liability coverage um that that is that sits on top of as kind of in excess of your primary right um most people you know if you've never shopped for that kind of coverage you my my expectation as to what those quotes would come back as um I I was expecting you know five six seven $800 um and it was it was you know almost a tenth of it yeah yeah it's unbelievable because it rarely comes into play So if you think about it they're most of the time they're just collecting premium dollars and investing into the market exactly right to get to that umbrella coverage something real catastrophic has to happen and again the reason that my personal opinion the reason I think that it comes into play so little statistically is because you're dealing with a type of driver that has enough foresight to protect their assets and go out and get umbrella coverage as well that's probably a pretty safe driver there you go you know thank you Rishi I know I want you back again this was great I I appreciate you having me on your show Absolutely this is a lot of fun we we'll get one for a medm here soon absolutely I'd be happy to do it I'm going to leave you guys with the dad viice for this episode is get enough Auto Insurance liability coverage to protect your assets and then match that with your uninsured Motors protection if you don't have um go and add it and if you're going to add it make sure that you get the add-on policy not the reduced buy if that's available in your state the reduced Buy in Georgia is sometimes called traditional so try to avoid the traditional policy you want to look for what's called add-on or in Access until next time Rishi again thank you so much for joining me if you're a first time listener please share this podcast so it's not just my mother watching and drop me a like I appreciate you until next time take care take care much Alie