In most New Jersey car or truck accidents, a negligent or careless driver causes an accident and injures another driver. The injured driver can then file a lawsuit against the negligent driver and may recover financial compensation for his/her damages and injuries from the negligent driver. However, the negligent driver doesn’t pay the injured insured from his own assets or money; rather, the negligent driver’s car insurance company would pay for the damages pursuant to the car insurance policy. The liability coverage on the negligent driver’s car insurance policy will pay for the damages and injuries sustained by the injured driver, up to the limit purchased by the negligent driver.
How Liability Coverage is Divided Among Multiple Victims After a NJ Car Accident
What happens if there are multiple injured drivers or passengers in an accident? In a New Jersey standard car insurance policy, the lowest liability coverage, also known as bodily liability coverage, is $15,000 per person and $30,000 per accident. The bodily liability coverage in a standard policy can be as high as $250,000 per person and $500,000 per accident.
What this means is that if there is only 1 injured party as a result of the accident and the at fault driver has the minimum bodily liability coverage of $15,000, the injured party may recover up to $15,000 from the negligent driver’s insurance policy. If there are 2 or more injured parties, the maximum recovery for all the injured individuals is $30,000. How much each party will receive depends on their injuries and when they file a claim against the negligent driver.
Consider the following hypothetical situation. There is a multi-vehicle pile-up on 295 near Marlton, New Jersey, and 3 people were injured as a result, not including the driver who caused the accident. The at fault driver has $15,000/$30,000 liability coverage. All 3 injured individuals have injuries and damages of $10,000 each. In this case, each injured individual will receive $10,000 for a total of $30,000 from the insurance company for this particular accident. If all 3 individuals’ injuries exceed $10,000, the amount paid by the at fault driver’s insurance company is still $30,000.
In that situation, the injured individuals would look to file underinsured motorist (UIM) claims with their own car insurance companies to recover the remaining damages. See NJ Car and Truck Accident Lawyer Talks About When to File an Uninsured/Underinsured (UM/UIM) Motorist Claim in a Car or Truck Accident.
Help After A NJ Multi-Vehicle Accident or Pile-Up
If you were injured in a multi-vehicle accident on New Jersey roadways, streets or highways in Cherry Hill, Marlton or Camden, call Philip T. Ciprietti, a seasoned car accident injury lawyer in South Jersey. Mr. Ciprietti has helped many car, bus and truck accident victims. Call to schedule a free consultation. 800.281.8695