Why dropping your auto insurance coverage is a bad idea and how to protect yourself from this growing trend

In this difficult economy, everybody is looking to cut expenses. As a result, an alarming number of Tampa Bay motorists are choosing to drop their auto insurance and going without coverage. Tampa car accident lawyers all agree that this is a very bad idea. But that’s what you would expect from injury lawyers. This article explains to you exactly why it’s a such a bad idea and what you can do about this growing trend.

First, you should know that in Florida you are legally required to carry $10,000 personal injury protection [PIP] and $10,000 property damage. Your license will be suspended if you don’t. PIP reimburses you for medical bills and wage losses if you’re injured in a Tampa car accident, regardless of who was at fault.

Second, you are NOT legally required to carry bodily injury [BI] protection, but there are potentially very severe consequences if you don’t maintain a minimum of $10,000 per person/$20,000 per auto accident BI. Bodily injury protection pays others for injuries that you cause as a result of a Tampa Bay auto accident where you are at fault. Under Florida’s Financial Responsibility Laws, if you are in a Tampa car accident that causes injury and you don’t maintain the minimum $10,000/$20,000 BI, your license can be suspended for up to 20 years. You don’t have to be a Tampa car accident lawyer to know that 20 years is a very long time to be without the privilege of driving a car.

Here’s how that can happen. You’re at fault for a Tampa auto accident that injures someone. You don’t carry $10,000/$20,000 BI coverage. The person injured in the Tampa auto accident hires one of the many Tampa car accident lawyers that advertise on television and gets a judgment against you for $250,000. That person sends the judgment to the Department of Motor Vehicles in Tallahassee and your license is then suspended for up to 20 years until the judgment is paid. And Florida does not offer any type of “hardship” license so that if you’re license is taken away because of a Tampa car accident, you won’t even be able to drive to school or work.  

Third, you may wonder whether you should be concerned that others are “going bare” if you are fully covered. Well, you definitely should consider the consequences of being in a Tampa auto accident with a “bare” motorist. For example, if you don’t maintain collision insurance which pays for the damage to your vehicle when someone hits you, you’ll have to pay for the repair or replacement of your vehicle yourself. That can be an awfully large unexpected expense.

And what if you are damaged in the accident? If the at fault driver doesn’t have bodily injury insurance, then after your $10,000 PIP is exhausted, there will be no money to pay for your medical bills and lost wages. This is an especially significant problem for the large number of Tampa Bay residents without health insurance or who carry very high deductibles. To protect yourself, Tampa car accident lawyers recommend purchasing some amount of uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage [UM]. UM protects you from Tampa drivers that don’t have insurance or carry only the minimum $10,000 BI.

Saving money is a good idea in any economy. But be careful where you cut when it comes to your auto insurance and consider the importance of having some amount of UM coverage given the new normal of many drivers “driving bare.”