FLORIDA AUTO INSURANCE

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Florida Basic Auto Insurance Requirements: 

In Florida, all drivers are required to carry a minimum amount of auto insurance. Specifically, they are required to carry at least $10,000 of property damage liability (PDL) and $10,000 of personal injury protection (PIP), also known as “Florida No-Fault insurance”. Shockingly, individuals are not required to carry any Bodily Injury Coverage in order to legally drive in Florida, which means that they are not required to have any coverage for your bodily injuries if they are at fault in an accident. Property damage liability pays for damage a driver causes to other people’s property after a vehicle crash, and personal injury protection pays a portion of an individual’s medical bills and lost wages if they are injured in an auto accident. Florida does not require motorists to carry bodily injury insurance or uninsured/underinsured motorist insurance.

It is important to note that these are the minimum auto insurance requirements in Florida, and these requirements are much lower than the minimum requirements in most other states, and much lower than they should be. The majority of states require drivers to carry some type of bodily injury liability insurance in case they cause an accident with serious injuries and they are sued by other injured parties. 

Bodily injury liability limits can be as low as $10,000 per person and $20,000 per accident and as high as $250,000 per person and $500,000 per accident or more. It all depends on state minimum requirements and the preferences of the policyholder. This type of insurance is there to protect your assets in the event that you cause an accident with serious injuries to others, and without it, your personal assets would be at risk in a lawsuit.

If you carry just the bare minimum auto insurance requirements according to Florida law, your coverage is normally inadequate to cover your medical expenses if you are ever injured in an auto accident. We all know that these days, $10,000 does not go very far to pay for the medical expenses and lost wages of someone who gets injured in an accident, and if the costs exceed this amount, you could be on the hook for additional damages if you do not have bodily injury liability coverage. 

Is Uninsured Motorist (UM) Coverage Necessary?

If you choose to have bodily injury liability coverage in your Florida auto insurance policy, you will also be offered uninsured/underinsured motorist insurance, usually with the same amount of coverage as you chose for bodily injury liability. Uninsured/underinsured motorist insurance covers you for losses in the event that you are injured in a car accident and the other driver does not have insurance, or the other driver does not have an adequate amount of insurance to cover your damages.

Although you do not technically “need” uninsured/underinsured motorist insurance in Florida to be in compliance with state law, there are some very good reasons why you should choose this coverage as unfortunately, we are ALL at risk for an auto accident! The Law Office of Erich B. Neumann PL strongly encourages you to obtain UM coverage!