Tim Rayne

Pennsylvania Car Accident & Personal Injury Lawyer

Tim Rayne

Pennsylvania Car Accident & Personal Injury Lawyer

Insurance Advice

Video – Car Insurance Advice – Uninsured/Underinsured Coverage

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Pennsylvania Car Accident Lawyer Tim Rayne gives advice on purchasing the right car insurance to protect your family.  One of the critical choices is Uninsured/Underinsured Coverage which can provide compensation to make up for Medical Bills, Lost Income, Pain and Suffering and Disability in the event that you or a family member who lives with you is injured in a vehicle accident caused by someone who has no insurance or not enough insurance to cover the damages.

For more information or advice after being injured in a Pennsylvania Car Accident, contact Tim Rayne at 6108400124 or trayne@macelree.com or check out his website at TimRayneLaw.com.

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Make Sure You Have the Right Car Insurance to Protect Your Family in the New Year

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Make Sure You Have the Right Car Insurance for the New Year

With a New Year starting, it’s a perfect time to review your Car Insurance Policy and make sure that you have the right coverage to protect yourself and your family if you happen to cause or be injured in a car accident.

Even if you already paid to renew your Policy, changes can be made at any time online or by making a phone call to your agent.

Consider these Five Car Insurance Tips and an important Bonus Tip:

1. Choose Full Tort Not Limited Tort – In Pennsylvania, you have to choose whether you want Full Tort or Limited Tort. Full Tort is slightly more expensive coverage but it protects your full rights to compensation if you are injured in a car accident caused by someone else. Limited Tort is cheaper coverage but your legal rights are limited. With Limited Tort, you are able to recover compensation for economic damages like medical bills and lost wages but cannot make a claim to be compensated for disability and pain and suffering unless you suffer a “serious injury”. I have talked to hundreds of clients who thought they had “full coverage” but were very disappointed when they learned that their legal rights were impaired due to Limited Tort.

2. Uninsured and Underinsured Coverage – This is coverage that allows you to make a claim against your own insurance company to be compensated for personal injuries sustained by you or a family member if the driver responsible for the collision has no insurance (Uninsured) or not enough insurance (Underinsured) to cover all of the injuries and damages. The Uninsured/Underinsured claim has no impact on your insurability or insurance rates because you pay premiums for the coverage. I recommend that every family have at least $100,000.00 of Uninsured/Underinsured coverage if not up to one million or more to protect from catastrophic injuries.

3. Increased Medical Coverage – Pennsylvania works on a no-fault system, so regardless of who is at fault for causing an accident, your own Car Insurance pays your medical bills up to the amount of your coverage. The minimum and most common amount of Medical Coverage is $5,000.00 but I recommend that people consider purchasing much more for two reasons. First, increased medical coverage is very inexpensive. Second, the coverage will pay for your medical bills without any co-pays or deductibles. With most people having high deductible Health Insurance plans nowadays, increased medical coverage on your Car Insurance can be very beneficial.

4. Lost Wage and Accidental Death Coverage – In Pennsylvania, Lost Wage and Accidental Death Coverage is optional, not mandatory. Like medical coverage, these benefits will be paid regardless of who was at fault for causing an accident. If you do not have significant disability coverage or Life Insurance coverage, it’s important to have this coverage on your Car Insurance.

5. High Liability Limits and an Umbrella Policy – If you cause a car accident, your personal assets can be at risk if you don’t have enough Liability Coverage to make up for the injuries and damages. In Pennsylvania, drivers are allowed to have the state minimum of $15,000.00 of Liability Coverage per person. I recommend that you have much much more in order to protect your personal assets if you cause a serious accident. Liability of coverage of at least $100,000.00 or potentially much more if you can afford it is advisable.

In addition, you should talk to your insurance agent about purchasing an Excess or Umbrella Policy. It is likely that you can get a million dollars of Excess/Umbrella Coverage for $200 – $300 per year. That coverage stacks on top of all of your insurance, Car Insurance and Property Insurance, to protect your personal assets if you cause an accident and get sued.

BONUS TIP: Life Insurance – Although it is unrelated to Car Insurance, one of the best gifts that you can give to your family is the foresight of purchasing significant Life Insurance. Nobody wants to think about their mortality, but if something happens and you are no longer around, Life Insurance insures that your family will have the financial ability to move forward without your income. Please talk to your agent about the cost of a million dollar Life Insurance Policy or more if you can afford it.

Tim Rayne is a Car Accident and Personal Injury Lawyer with the Chester County law firm MacElree Harvey. For over 25 years, Tim has been helping injured accident victims understand their rights and receive fair treatment from insurance companies. Tim is a lifelong resident of Kennett Square and has offices in Kennett and West Chester. Tim can be reached at (610) 840-0124 or trayne@macelree.com.  For more Free Information, download Tim’s Book, Protecting Your Family from Accidents.  

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How an Umbrella Policy Could Have Saved a Negligent Driver $150,000

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HOW AN UMBRELLA POLICY COULD HAVE SAVED $150,000

 

As a Personal Injury lawyer, it’s my job to try to recover fair compensation for injured victims of accidents. Over the years I have found that many people (and even some businesses) are underinsured, meaning that they do not have enough insurance to cover the Damages that they can cause should they make a mistake and cause a serious injury.  This underinsured status puts their assets at risk because the value of legal claims against them can exceed the insurance available to pay the claims.

Because of this, I  recommend that everyone consider having an Umbrella Insurance Policy, which is a liability policy that stacks on top of your other insurance, like car insurance, business liability insurance or homeowner’s insurance, and provides an added layer of protection in the event that you cause an accident and owe substantial compensation to someone you have injured.

The $150,000 Mistake

Let me tell a story that illustrates the importance of having significant liability limits and carrying an umbrella policy.

About a decade ago, I represented a man in his 30s who was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident. He was joyriding one Saturday near his home on a windy country road. As he was driving, he noticed a pick-up truck coming towards him in the other direction and, unfortunately, the pick-up driver did not see him and made a left turn directly in front of him resulting in a violent T-bone collision.

My client was catapulted into the side of the truck and sustained multiple fractures throughout his body, including serious leg and arm fractures, that required multiple surgeries. My client ended up being partially disabled as a result of the crash.

I was hired to handle the legal claims of the motorcycle rider, and we had a clear-cut negligence claim against the other driver. Under the law, the other driver had a duty to yield before making a left-hand turn. He did not do so and, as such, was clearly at fault for causing the accident.

Given the extent of my client’s injuries, his claim had a fair value well in excess of $1M, but, unfortunately, the driver only had a $500,000 liability policy on his pick-up truck and had no umbrella policy.

In many cases, we would not have been able to pursue the truck driver’s personal assets. In Pennsylvania, if you are married, your assets are protected if they are held jointly with your spouse. In addition, there are other assets, like retirement accounts, that are protected from collection in Personal Injury cases. These challenges make it difficult to collect more than the available insurance from a Personal Injury Defendant. Nevertheless, in this case, the driver who caused the accident was single, and we determined that he owned substantial real estate that was free and clear from any mortgages. Accordingly, we made a personal claim against those unencumbered assets, and the Defendant was forced to mortgage his property and pay $150,000 out of his own assets to my injured client.

If the Defendant had the foresight to purchase a $1M umbrella policy, he could have avoided this unpleasant situation of having to mortgage his property to pay my client. The umbrella policy almost certainly would have cost less than $500 per year and would have protected his assets.

The lesson to be learned from this story is that, regardless of your marital status and asset picture, you can obtain peace of mind that your assets will be safe from Personal Injury lawsuits if you carry significant liability limits on your vehicles and home and take the extra precaution of purchasing an umbrella policy of at least $1M.

If you take those steps, you can be comfortable that your personal assets will be protected if you cause an accident and injure someone and fair compensation will be paid to the injured person to try to make up for your mistake.

Tim Rayne is a Personal Injury and Car Accident lawyer with the law firm of MacElree Harvey, Ltd. For over 25 years, Tim has been helping injured accident victims understand their legal rights and receive fair compensation from insurance companies. Tim has offices in Kennett Square and West Chester, Pennsylvania, and also meets with clients in their homes and offers virtual meetings via Zoom or FaceTime. Contact Tim for a free consultation regarding your injury case at 610.840.0124 or trayne@macelree.com.

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Car Accident Lawyer Tim Rayne Appears on Lawyer2Lawyer Network Radio Show – A Lawyer’s Guide to Purchasing Car Insurance

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On September 19, 2020, Pennsylvania Car Accident Lawyer Tim Rayne was a special guest on the Lawyer2Lawyer Network Radio Show on 1210 am Radio in Philadelphia along with his friend and colleague JB Disheimer from Stampone Law talking about “A Lawyer’s Guide to Purchasing Car Insurance”.

The following is a link to a Podcast of the Show:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/timraynepersonalinjurylaw/id1400448404#episodeGuid=f1fb8030-6d61-415d-9d12-1600b7d88d23

During the Radio Show, Tim and JB discussed the critically important choices you make when purchasing Car Insurance in Pennsylvania like choosing Full Tort not Limited Tort, purchasing significant Uninsured and Underinsured Coverage, having enough Liability Coverage to protect your Assets and thinking about having increased Medical Coverage just to name a few.

Tim Rayne wrote a book on this topic, A Lawyer’s Guide to Purchasing Car Insurance that is available for Free Download at www.TimRayneLaw.com.

Tim Rayne is a Pennsylvania Car Accident Lawyer with the Pennsylvania law firm MacElree Harvey.  In addition to representing injured people and helping them receive fair compensation from insurance companies, Tim has made it his mission to educate people on the importance of protecting themselves and their families by making smart choices when purchasing Car Insurance.  If you would like Free Advice about your Car Insurance policy contact Tim Rayne at 6108400124 or trayne@macelree.com.  You can also download Tim’s Book – Protecting Your Family From Accidents containing A Lawyer’s Guide to Purchasing Car Insurance on Tim’s Website www.TimRayneLaw.com.  

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Arguably The Most Important Insurance You Can Ever Buy

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Arguably the most important insurance you could ever buy (other than life insurance) is Uninsured/Underinsured coverage on your Pennsylvania Car Insurance.

You may not even know what Uninsured/Underinsured  coverage is let alone know if you have it on your car insurance, so you should keep reading to learn and, after you read this, immediately check your policy to see how much, if any, you have because it is critical to protect you and your family.

The Problem:  Insurance Coverage Tragedies and Judgment Proof Defendants

Every year I’ve seen several clients have  “insurance coverage tragedies” after a serious injury or death from the car accident. What is an “insurance coverage tragedy”? It’s when someone is involved in a serious car crash that was not their fault and they are either killed or very seriously injured and we find that there is little or no insurance covering the driver who is responsible for causing the crash.
Why is car insurance of the reaponsible driver relevant? Can’t you just sue the responsible person anyway, regardless of their insurance coverage?  Yes, but think of the old adage that “you can’t get blood from a stone.”
Most people do you not have enough personal assets to cover the cost of compensating someone for a serious injury or death. Fair compensation for a serious injury based upon medical bills, lost income and serious and permanent injuries could be several hundred thousand if not a million dollars or more. Most people do not have that kind of disposable cash or assets. In addition, in Pennsylvania, you cannot garnish someone’s wages for a legal claim and any assets are that are held jointly, like a married couple owning their home together, protects that asset from legal claims.
Accordingly, most people are what is called “judgment proof“ which means that even if you have a valid legal claim against them and get a huge judgment for them to pay you compensation from a court case, they won’t  have the assets or money to pay the judgment so you will never get paid.
For this reason, the amount that you can recover for your injuries in a car accident is usually limited to the amount of insurance that the responsible driver carries.
In Pennsylvania, a lot of people are uninsured and a lot of people have the minimum amount of car insurance liability coverage, which is only $15,000. Consequently, if you are seriously injured in an accident, there it is possible  that the other person who caused the accident only has $15,000 available to compensate you.
I’ve seen it countless times in my career that someone comes to me having been seriously injured or a family comes to me with their last one having been killed in an accident and we find out that the responsible driver only has $15,000 worth of coverage.  It happened just two months ago when my elderly client was hit head-on, sustained injuries and fractures head to toe and almost died.  Her claim had a fair value of about $1 million but the responsible driver only had $15,000 of coverage.

The Solution:  Uninsured/Underinsured Coverage

What is the solution to this “insurance coverage tragedy” and “judgment proof defendant” problem? Uninsured/Underinsured coverage, which is coverage that you buy on your own policy that is available to compensate you and your family for injuries that you sustain in a car accident, regardless of whether the person responsible for causing the accident has zero insurance or not enough insurance to cover the injuries and damages.
The way Uninsured/Underinsured coverage works is once you find that the responsible driver has no insurance or not enough insurance to cover your injuries,  you make a claim on your own insurance policy to make up the difference between what a responsible driver had and what the fair value of your claim is.
Since this claim  is an adversarial proceeding and your insurance company will not want to pay you what is fair (because insurance companies hate paying claims) you should have a lawyer represent you in the claim. Your claim will be resolved either through negotiation or through litigation just like the claim against the responsible driver.

How Much Uninsured/Underinsured Coverage Should You Have?

How much Uninsured/Underinsured coverage should you have? I believe that you should have as much coverage as you can afford.
Fair compensation for a death or catastrophic injury could be well in excess of $1 million. As I explained above, you can’t count on the responsible driver having any insurance and many many people are driving with the Pennsylvania state minimum of $15,000. Accordingly, you should plan on having enough coverage to pay for the whole claim for yourself.
The rule in Pennsylvania is that you can buy large amounts of Uninsured/Underinsured coverage, but you cannot buy more than the Liability coverage you have on your policy. Liability coverage is the coverage that you buy to protect yourself in the event that you cause an accident. So, if you have only $50,000 of liability coverage you can only purchase $50,000 of Uninsured/Underinsured coverage.
I know that times are tough and people are looking for ways to reduce, not increase, expenses, but I highly recommend that you take a look at your car insurance policy and consider having at least $500,000 of Uninsured/Underinsured coverage. Please talk to your agent to price that coverage and about also about the issue of “stacking“ that I will discuss in another article.
Tim Rayne is Pennsylvania car accident and personal injury lawyer with the law firm of MacElree Harvey. For over  25 years, Tim has been helping injured accident victims understand their legal rights and receive fair compensation from insurance companies. Tim has offices in Kennett Square and West Chester Pennsylvania. Contact Tim Rayne at 610-840-0124 or trayne@macelree.com or check out Tim’s website www.timraynelaw.com. 

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Why is Limited Tort Bad News?

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Why is Limited Tort So Bad?

When you buy car insurance in Pennsylvania, you must choose whether you want to have Full Tort or Limited Tort. Limited Tort is cheaper coverage compared to Full Tort, but, in exchange for reduced premiums, you give up important legal rights to be compensated if you are injured in a car accident.

​As a car accident lawyer, I’ve had many clients come into my office after a car accident and be disappointed because they did not know the negative consequences of selecting Limited Tort and would have gladly paid the higher insurance premiums if they knew what legal rights they were compromising.

What Does it Mean to be Full Tort?

​A person who elects Full Tort car insurance preserves full legal rights to seek compensation in the event of a car accident. A person covered under a Full Tort policy can seek both “economic” and “non-economic” damages from another driver who causes a car accident. “Economic damages” include things like unpaid medical bills, lost wages or out-of-pocket expenses. “Non-economic damages” include pain and suffering, emotional distress, disability, and scarring or disfigurement.

​If Full Tort is elected, none of your legal rights are sacrificed. Instead, you pay increasedinsurance premiums to preserve your rights to seek full compensation.

What Does it Mean to be Limited Tort?

​A person who elects Limited Tort compromises legal rights in exchange for reduced insurance premiums. A person covered under Limited Tort is able to recover economic damages from the driver who is responsible for causing the car accident. However, non-economic damages (pain and suffering, emotional distress, disability, and scarring or disfigurement) cannot be recovered unless there is proof of a “serious injury.”

​The law defines “serious injury” as “a personal injury resulting in death, serious impairment of a body function, or permanent serious disfigurement.” Pennsylvania courts have been reluctant to find injuries “serious” unless the injured person has sustained a very long-lasting and disabling injury. Because of this, many car accident victims who suffer significant injuries are prohibited from recovering compensation for non-economic damages if they are covered by Limited Tort.

Who is Impacted by the Tort Election?

​Although the policyholder makes the tort election of Full Tort or Limited Tort, it applies to the spouse and relatives of the policy owner who live with the policyholder and do not have their own car insurance. So, your tort election would apply to your spouse and children if they are insured on your car insurance policy. If you have your own policy, your tort election applies no matter what car you are injured in. If more than one car insurance policy covers an injured person who does not have a car insurance policy and each policy has a different tort election, the election covering the vehicle that the injured person was in at the time of the accident applies.

Are There Exceptions to Limited Tort?

​Under certain circumstances, a person who elected or was covered by the Limited Tort selection is not prevented from recovering non-economic damages even if a “serious injury” is not involved. This occurs when there is an “Exception” to Limited Tort. Common Limited Tort Exceptions include:  (1) when a person is injured in a vehicle other than a private passenger vehicle, like a bus, motorcycle or bicycle or as a pedestrian; (2) when the person who caused the accident was driving a vehicle registered outside Pennsylvania; (3) when the person who caused the accident was a drunk driver who was convicted of drunk driving; (4) when someone is injured by an uninsured driver; and (5) when the person who caused the accident intended to cause the injury rather than being simply careless in causing the accident.

Should I Select Full Tort or Limited Tort?

​Limited Tort is less expensive coverage, but significant legal rights are waived through the election. Full Tort is more expensive coverage, but no legal rights are compromised. In my years of practice, I have seen dozens of clients who were confused and disappointed by their Limited Tort election. Almost all of them vowed to switch from Limited Tort to Full Tort after being involved in an accident and learning about the important legal rights that are compromised.

Tim Rayne is a Pennsylvania Car Accident Attorney with MacElree Harvey.  Tim has law offices in Kennett Square and West Chester Pennsylvania.  For over 25 years, Tim Rayne has been helping injured Car Accident victims receive fair compensation from insurance companies.  Contact Tim Rayne at 6108400124 or trayne@macelree.com for a Free Consultation regarding your Pennsylvania Car Accident.

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