Serious injury lawyers like ourselves often hear clients involved in serious accidents tell us that they had “full coverage” at the time of the accident and that they therefore have “excellent” insurance protection. The vast majority of the time, this is not the case at all. This is because the term “full coverage” means that one has the coverage one is minimally required by law to possess. Full coverage does not mean adequate coverage nor does it mean excellent coverage. It means minimally required coverage required by law.
Here in Georgia, in order to operate an automobile, the driver must have a minimum of $25,000.00 in liability coverage protection for any one person, $50,000.00 per accident. What this means is that if someone runs a stop sign and seriously injuries another, he has “full coverage” if he has $25,000.00 in liability insurance coverage for an innocent third-party victim, $50,000.00 for all victims in a single accident. Anyone familiar with hospital and medical costs today knows that any serious injury can hardly be compensated for $25,000.00. Indeed, any serious injury usually involves medical bills far in excess of $25,000.00.
It is heartbreaking for our lawyers to see cases where the at fault driver has “full coverage” and our clients are indeed seriously injured, sometimes with amputations, permanent disabilities and death. In those cases involving death of a family member, $25,000.00 could never adequately compensate the survivors, much less address issues such as medical expenses, funeral bills, lost wages and the like. And yet, we hear over and over again from people inexperienced in this area that they have “full coverage” thereby deluding themselves into believing that they have adequate insurance coverage.