Attorney Steven Gacovino Explains If No-Fault Insurance in New York Is Applicable For Uninsured Drivers

Ray Hrdlicka – Host – Attorneys.Media

Well, it also sounds like it would be covered if you get in an accident with an uninsured motorist too. Is that where it comes into play?

Steven Gacovino – Personal Injury Attorney – Suffolk County (Long Island), New York

You’re talking about maybe a different aspect of first-party insurance, where you might be able to make a claim, where your own insurance company steps into the place of the third party that might be uninsured. So, there’s two different things that, yeah, two different things that exist under first party insurance in this context.

You have no fault insurance, which covers medical, no matter what, on the issue of fault. It covers lost wages, no matter what, irrespective of the issue of fault. Now, if you’re not at fault for the accident, and let’s suppose you get rear-ended by an uninsured motorist, you make the claim against that other car, it turns out that they have no insurance.

Again, you have time limits, but you do need to put your own insurance company on notice for uninsured motorist coverage or even underinsured motorist coverage. We do that automatically when we open a case. We notify our insurance company that we intend to make that claim, whether it materializes or not, just to be proactive and protective.

But in the instance of what you’re talking about, an uninsured motor vehicle hits you in the rear. They’re not insured. What do you do? Well, you still have rights because your insurance company is going to step essentially into the place of the third party and you make a claim under the section of the policy that’s called supplemental uninsured, underinsured motorist coverage.

So, you typically have limits on that may or may not match what you have to protect other people should you be at fault in an accident, all right, or something lower than that. But typically, most people get something close to what it is that they’re covering people for a third-party bodily injury. They protect themselves essentially for bodily injury.