Georgia Injury Victims May Benefit From Proposed Change In Uninsured Motorist Law

There may be some relief in sight for some injured Georgia automobile and truck accident victims who are involved in a motor vehicle collision with an uninsured or underinsured vehicle. Last week Senate Bill 276, the Uninsured Motorist Stacking bill, passed the Senate Insurance and Labor committee unanimously. Advocates working for it’s passage are pushing hard for it to come to a floor vote. If passed it will provide uninsured motorist insurance coverage previously unavailable under Georgia’s current law.
Example: Current Law
You have purchased uninsured motorist insurance coverage of your own in the amount of $25,000.00 and you are injured in a motor vehicle collision with a motorist having $25,000.00 in liability coverage. A jury determines you should recover damages against the at fault motorist and returns a verdict for $35,000.00. Under current Georgia law you cannot collect any of the $25,000.00 of your uninsured motorist insurance coverage, that you paid for, even though your damages exceed the liability coverage of the at fault motorist.
Example: Under Prposed New Law
You have purchased uninsured motorist insurance coverage of your own in the amount of $25,000.00 and you are injured in a motor vehicle collision with a motorist having $25,000.00 in liability coverage. A jury determines you should recover damages against the at fault motorist and returns a verdict for $35,000.00. Under the new law, if passed, you would collect the $25,000.00 in liability from the at fault motorist and $10,000.00 of your uninsured motorist insurance coverage.
In other words, under the proposed changes to O.C.G.A. §33-7-11, an uninsured motor vehicle would include a motor vehicle for which the available coverages are inadequate to cover a person’s bodily injury and property damage losses and that such a motor vehicle would be considered uninsured to the full extent of the limits of the uninsured motorists coverage provided under the insured’s motor vehicle insurance policy. This could be good news for many Georgia accident victims.