Utah Car Accident Lawyers and Personal Injury Protection Benefits.
Most people who are involved in Utah car accidents do not realize that they have personal injury protection benefits, commonly called PIP benefits. Let alone realize that under the right circumstances you can stack and combine two or more PIP policies. They just assume all they get is one PIP policy.
Basic PIP:
Utah PIP benefits can be found in Utah Code Ann. 31A-22-306. See the code provisions at http://le.utah.gov.
The most common PIP benefits are $3,000 in medical payments for medical bills incurred because of the car accident. PIP benefits are mandatory in all Utah car insurance policies and often car insurance policies issued in other states will have similar provisions. Utah PIP also contains a wage loss benefit of $250 per week, or 85 percent of your income, whichever is lesser. Further, there is a $20 per day special allowance for loss of household services.
Primary Utah Personal Injury Protection Coverage:
When you are involved in a Utah car accident and you are driving, your own insurance carrier will become the primary PIP provider. If you are a passenger in a car that is involved in a collision, the driver’s car insurance company will be the primary PIP provider. If you are hit as a pedestrian, or on your bicycle, the person who hit you will be the primary PIP provider. If you are involved in a car accident but you are on the job, your company’s worker’s compensation insurance will be the primary lead for medical payments, then your PIP will kick in.
If you are driving your brother’s car and you are involved in a car accident, your brother’s car insurance will be primary PIP provider, not your own insurance for the car you normally drive.
Secondary Utah Personal Injury Protection Coverage:
Secondary PIP coverage often is found when you are a passenger, or are driving a car that is not yours. Often, secondary coverage occurs when you are hit on your bicycle, or as a pedestrian.
In these circumstances, you first exhaust the primary PIP provider, then provide an exhaustion letter to your own secondary PIP provider and trigger the secondary PIP policy. Thus stacking PIP policies.
Stacking Utah Personal Injury Protection Policies:
Stacking PIP benefits can help alleviate your lost income and get some of your medical bills paid for. A $6,000 medical bill benefits is better than $3,000 when it comes to settlement time.
Utah car accidents are complex and most people only infrequently have to deal with them. This inexperience can lead to poor compensation and bad results, and is only compounded by hiring an attorney who claims to handle car accident cases, but really has only done two last year.