UM / UIM: While in Someone Else's Car

Imagine you are a passenger in a car driven by a friend, and of no fault of your own, you are hit by an uninsured motorist. The accident causes you damage or injuries that were not your fault, but affected you in such a way that you need legal help to obtain compensation for these damages. Or perhaps you are driving a friend’s car, or a company car insured through corporate means, and you are involved in a collision with an uninsured motorist. Believe it or not, this is a very common predicament. In 2012, almost 13 percent of drivers were uninsured. That’s about one out of every eight motorists. Coming in slightly higher than the national average, in Texas, it is estimated that about 13 percent of drivers are uninsured motorists. The city of San Antonio is no exception for UM/UIM: while in someone else’s car cases.

In fact, 13 percent of Texans equates to just over 2 million motorists; this is roughly the same amount of people as there are residents of the entire city of San Antonio. In 2011, around 22 percent of Texas drivers were uninsured. Thankfully, Carabin Shaw’s experienced team of lawyers has San Antonio UIM coverage attorneys standing by to fight for your case. Our San Antonio lawyers will stop at nothing to obtain the compensation you deserve.

If an accident with an uninsured motorist happens to you, where do you go to look for coverage? In these situations, there are usually one of two places you can seek the coverage you deserve. First, you can look to insurance companies that cover the vehicle you are in at the time of the accident. Any uninsured or underinsured policy provides coverage to the driver and all passengers occupying the vehicle when it is an accident with an uninsured or underinsured motorist. The key to these claims is that you must be occupying the vehicle at the time of the accident. There are a number of cases in which people have just exited the vehicle or have walked away from a vehicle before being hit by an uninsured driver. In these cases, many times the courts have held that those victims were not “occupying” the vehicles, and thus, there is no coverage available for damages accrued to these victims.

The second and often forgotten place to seek prevention for these circumstances is your automobile insurance company. If you have purchased uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, they will cover you (with a couple of minor exceptions) whenever you are hit by an uninsured motorist, regardless of where you are in relation to the vehicle in question, or your own. With uninsured/underinsured coverage, you could be hit in your own car, hit while in another car, hit while walking down the street, or even hit on a bicycle, and you will still be covered by your own policy.

Don’t let a UM/UIM: while in someone else’s car case get the best of you. Call our San Antonio attorneys at Carabin Shaw today.

If you have been in a wreck, and both of these options are available to you, you can make claims on both policies. The lawyers at Carabin Shaw have represented a number of people who have been both drivers and passengers in vehicles that were hit by uninsured or underinsured drivers and have made claims on the policy covering the car they were in and also their own policy covering their own cars.

If you or a loved one has been affected by an uninsured or underinsured motorist and the circumstances involved UM/UIM: while in someone else’s car, call the San Antonio lawyers of Carabin Shaw today. You have options, and you deserve to know them.