Remember, everyone in Florida must carry car insurance coverage.  The specific amounts policies cover vary.  There is a required coverage that’s a must in Florida, the $10,000 PIP coverage.  It may have a deductible or it may have no deductible at all.  Hopefully you never need your PIP coverage.  If you do have a deductable, remember having one can cause problems in receiving treatment promptly sometimes.  All policies after January 1, 2008 will be amended according this new version of an old law.  Not only that, but if the old policy didn’t have personal injury protection it will be rewritten to have it after January 1, 2008.  The new forms, or rates, are in force on everyone’s policies in Florida.  Check with your insurance agent to make sure you have proper coverage.

An important side note is the fact that any accidents occurring between December 31, 2007 and January 1, 2009 will be limited in the scope of the tort, a legal wrong.  This will be for all involved party’s policies, unless these policies meet the requirements in effect as of September 30th of 2007.  Why one may ask. Simple, there was a window of a few months where the Florida Motor Vehicle No-Fault was repealed until December 31, 2007.  Insurers during this time frame weren’t required to notify the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles about anyone’s status on the personal injury portion of their policies. Drivers didn’t escape the need to carry this type of insurance though during that period of time.

 

Now that everyone in Florida is long past this transition period, everyone’s policy should be correctly written with the required PIP feature.   Motorcyclists are not required to carry PIP.  Pure and simple PIP coverage is required by law.

 

There is another required provision in Florida that PDL, or Property Damage Liability, must be carried by drivers also.  One cannot even buy a four wheeled vehicle without showing both PIP and PDL coverage.  No license plate can be transacted until proof of these is given on the driver and the vehicle.  Car owners and drivers cannot escape responsibility for maintaining the property damage liability coverage that is required by law.
 
Under Florida’s Financial Responsibility Law every driver in Florida must have Bodily Injury Liability coverage for two or more people.  In addition, there must be coverage for Property Damage Liability with Combined Single limits at least $30,000.  Florida requires drivers and vehicle owners to maintain coverage before an accident occurs and before a DUI occurs resulting in a license suspension.  One must have this type of insurance in force if one is a habitual traffic offender or has too many points against their driver’s license.  Of course this includes any other serious violations beyond what has been mentioned here.

 

There are no loopholes in either the No-Fault Law or the Financial Responsibility Law.  Both must be carried throughout the given registration term of a vehicle; no exceptions.  If there are any concerns you have consult your insurance carrier or a competent accident attorney who knows personal injury law in Florida.

Tags: car insurance coverage, Florida, No-Fault Insurance, PIP coverage

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 17th, 2009 at 8:20 pm and is filed under Florida No-Fault Insurance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.