Speaking of insurance, there are two other components of your coverage that may have a bearing on whether or not you will be able to recover full compensation for a claim of personal injury arising out of the accident. These components should appear on the "declaration pages", or summary, of your insurance coverage, which is usually one or two sheets of paper with a list of phrases and dollar amounts on them.
First, look for the word "threshold". If the summary says that you have the "lawsuit" or "verbal" threshold, it may mean that in certain types of accidents, the seriousness of your injuries must reach a certain legal threshold before you are entitled to make a personal injury claim against the person responsible for that accident. On the other hand, if the summary says that you have "no" threshold or a "zero" threshold, it means that the legal threshold does not apply to you because you have paid an additional premium to be relieved of that legal restriction.
Second, look for the amount(s) of your UM/UIM coverage. UM means uninsured motorist and UIM means underinsured motorist. This coverage may come into play in the event the person responsible for the accident did not have insurance, or had an insufficient amount of insurance, to cover the value of your personal injury claim.
