In Wisconsin, you are required to have insurance and your insurance must include uninsured motorist coverage. All companies simultaneously issue underinsured coverage with uninsured motorist coverage.

Simply stated, uninsured coverage is coverage in the claimant’s policy that provides compensation if the other driver has no insurance. Underinsured coverage provides coverage if the responsible party does not have enough coverage to compensate the injured party fully for their damages.

None of this prevents you from pursuing the person who caused the accident, but sometimes uninsured or underinsured people have limited assets to satisfy a personal injury judgment. That’s simply reality. When that happens, you are forced to rely on your own policy or policies.

Q: What is the minimum insurance requirement under Wisconsin state law?

At present the minimum is $50,000.

Q: Do you often find yourself collecting on behalf of your claimant from the claimant’s own underinsured policy?

Yes, it’s common to make claims against our client’s own uninsured or underinsured policy.

For example, there might be two sisters in a car, and the sister driving pulls out in front of an oncoming vehicle and causes an accident that severely injures the driver’s sister. In this example, assume the sister has $100,000 of coverage and the injury to her sister has a value of $200,000. In that situation we will resolve the claim against the other driver’s insurer policy limit of $100,000, and then we will pursue our driver’s underinsured motorists’ coverage above that $100,000 recovery.

Q: What if it is a hit and run, and the person who was responsible for the accident was never found?

Hit and run accident situations when the other driver cannot be found is a uninsured motorist case, and the only potential recovery is from our client’s uninsured motorist’s coverage. Does that put you in an adversarial relationship with the claimant’s uninsured motorist insurance company, or is the insurer required to pay under the policy?

They are duty bound to pay for damages. There is no question of an adversarial relationship. The sole question is, what is the value of the injury?

Q: Does that put you in an adversarial relationship with the claimant’s uninsured motorist insurance company, or is the insurer required to pay under the policy?  

They are duty bound to pay for damages.  There is no question of an adversarial  relationship.  The sole question is, what is the value of the injury?

Learn more about the Schober Schober & Mitchell, S.C. law offices.