Uninsured Motorists

[00:00:07.14] Texas law requires that a motorist carry what's called a 30/60 policy. [00:00:12.06] That means they need to have $30,000 of coverage per person for an accident, [00:00:18.04] and $60,000 for the whole occurrence, for the whole accident, [00:00:22.13] so that means if there are five people involved in the accident, [00:00:25.18] there needs to be at least $60,000 to cover the whole accident, [00:00:30.00] but only a maximum of 30,000 per person. [00:00:32.19] In a lot of minor accidents, we see that $30,000 can be sufficient. [00:00:36.15] But if you're involved in a more serious accident, [00:00:39.19] there's a very real chance that the insurance limits, [00:00:43.12] if the person has only the minimum amount, are not going to be enough. [00:00:47.07] Under Texas law, it's very hard to recover money from a person [00:00:50.23] in excess of their policy limits, [00:00:52.18] so we use services to look for, [00:00:55.12] and hope that individuals have insurance that's above the minimum. [00:01:00.11] People can buy insurance policies that are above the Texas legal limit. [00:01:04.08] It's really not that expensive. [00:01:06.07] What we find is that a lot of people only have the minimum limits. [00:01:09.06] If a person is involved in a motor vehicle accident [00:01:11.16] with a commercial vehicle, like a big truck, [00:01:15.01] trucks are required to carry much higher limits of insurance. [00:01:18.07] They're required by federal law to have at least $750,000 insurance. [00:01:23.07] But even in a catastrophic case, even that sometimes cannot be enough. [00:01:27.17] We always encourage our clients to protect themselves [00:01:31.12] from someone not having enough insurance [00:01:33.19] by having what's called uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage. [00:01:39.07] Texas doesn't require that people carry that type of coverage, [00:01:41.19] but it's a good thing to have. [00:01:43.11] It's very affordable, [00:01:44.22] and it exists to protect you in the event that you're involved in an accident, [00:01:49.01] and they either don't have insurance like they're supposed to, [00:01:52.11] or they don't have enough insurance.