What Auto Insurance Can a Motorcycle Operator Have to Protect Himself/Herself in the Event of Serious Injury?

The suggestion of a previous blog post on auto insurance applies even more so to motorcyclists. The obvious reason that a motorcyclist needs sufficient protection under Part 3, Bodily Injury Caused By an Uninsured Auto, and Part 12, Bodily injury Caused By an Underinsured Auto, is due to the severity of motorcycle collisions. As maintained in the last blog, too often individuals need to look to their own auto policy for sufficient compensation. The circumstances of a serious accident are made all the more difficult when the at-fault vehicle has little insurance and if my client has little or no insurance under Parts 3 and 12. Those two coverages protect clients and too often they are insufficient to compensate significantly injured people.

In the video blog, I discuss the Latin term, “a fortiori”, meaning “with even stronger reason.” If you have a regular automobile, you need those coverages and if you have a motorcycle, a fortiori, you need those coverages even more so.

The coverage selection page for a motorcycle is identical to that of any vehicle. While the format looks the same, personal injury protection benefits under Part 2 are only available to pedestrians who are struck by your motorcycle. There is no PIP (personal injury protection) for the benefit of a motorcycle operator or passenger. This is why the premium for that coverage is so low. To receive coverage for medical bills, the motorcycle owner must purchase coverage under Part 6, medical payments. Most importantly though, the Parts 3, 5 and 12 coverages are the same for a motorcycle as they are for any vehicle.

All too often the coverages selection page is examined and reviewed only after an accident. By then it is too late to make a difference. If there is one piece of advice that I can give you based upon more than 30 years of practicing personal injury, have a serious conversation with your auto insurance agent. Ask if your limits under those coverages are sufficient.

Assuming the coverages are sufficient, my experience as a personal injury lawyer puts to rest any notion that motorcyclists are not fully compensated because of some sort of societal prejudice. I have not seen that at all. Perhaps the reason that motorcyclists are able to obtain very good personal injury settlements is because of their personal characteristics. I have found my motorcycle clients to be reliable, trustworthy, and good historians regarding their medical treatment and the happening of the accident. While generalizations are full of problems, I can only report what I have seen and the results have been very positive but, once again, only where there is sufficient auto insurance coverage. The point is that if that coverage is not on the negligent party it needs to be located elsewhere and that would be on your motorcycle under Parts 3 and 12.