What if You’re a Passenger Injured in a Tampa Car Accident Without PIP Auto Insurance Coverage?

To know what to do if you’re a passenger injured in a Tampa car accident, it’s important to first consider whether you should have had PIP auto insurance at the time of the car accident. Florida is a no-fault state and that requires that every driver have PIP auto insurance that pays for the first $10,000 in medical bills and lost wages that result from car accident injuries. If you’re not old enough to drive then you aren’t required to have PIP. If you don’t have a driver’s license then you’re not required to have PIP. If you have a driver’s license but don’t own a car and don’t drive other people’s cars than you wouldn’t be required to have PIP insurance. What happens if you own a vehicle but you don’t drive it because it’s in disrepair and has been for several months. You may be asked to prove that the car was not in operable condition at the time of the Tampa car accident.

So, if you were supposed to have PIP insurance and don’t then there’s nothing you can do but hope that you have health insurance coverage to pay for your medical care. In that situation, after a Tampa auto accident where you are an injured passenger you will have to pay for your own medical care. But if the at fault party purchased bodily injury insurance, you can receive medical care through something called a Letter of Protection or LOP. An LOP is an agreement between you, a doctor and your attorney that out of the bodily injury insurance, assuming there’s a settlement, that the doctor will get paid. In addition, if the driver of the vehicle in which you were a passenger carried under or uninsured motorist coverage, you will have the right to receive reimbursement from those monies up to the maximum of policy limits. Like the bodily injury insurance, the uninsured motorist coverage provides insurance to you for reimbursement of medical expenses and lost wages. With uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage, you’ll be able to also receive a LOP to get the treatment you need for your injuries.

Now if you’re a passenger in a Tampa auto accident and were not required to carry PIP insurance at the time of the accident, Tampa injury attorneys will tell you that you are able to take advantage of the driver’s PIP insurance and receive all the benefits of PIP insurance through the driver’s insurance company. That means that you’ll be able to get immediate reimbursement of up to $10,000 in medical bills and lost wages that result from injuries caused by the Tampa auto accident.

Note that since we are a No-Fault State, this ability to obtain PIP through the driver’s insurance is true even if the driver of the vehicle you were in was at fault for the accident. And don’t worry if there are multiple passengers in the car. The driver’s insurance is responsible to pay up to $10,000 for each passenger regardless of how many passengers were in the car at the time of the Tampa car accident.

Yes, determining whether PIP coverage is available to you as a passenger can be a tricky process. A Tampa accident law firm can be very helpful in sorting through the various legal issues and make a determination of what coverage may be available to you and discuss with you your options.

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