Car insurance is something that we all have but we seldom think about. To know if your insurance is right for you and your family, please read Burnett & Williams insurance letter. We make sure all of our clients receive this important information. It is helpful to know exactly what insurance is and the different types and limits that you should carry.

Several years ago I made a New Year’s resolution to inform friends and clients about automobile insurance. In my 30 years of practice as a personal injury lawyer, I have represented far too many clients in cases where available insurance coverage was woefully inadequate to cover the damages incurred. That prompted the following letter and a goal of 1,000 recipients by the end of that year. I achieved my goal, and the positive responses from many recipients have inspired me to continue sending the letter to anyone that might benefit from its contents.

It is my hope that you and your loved ones will be adequately covered should you ever be in an accident. For only a slight increase in insurance premium cost, most of my former clients that got short changed could have been fully compensated. All of them told me they did not fully understand what coverage they bought and why. I am sorry to say that some insurance agents do not adequately explain what they are selling and, as agents of the company, may not encourage or recommend coverage that you should have.

Part of the problem is the current level of mandatory minimum liability limits. In Virginia, an automobile must have coverage in the minimum amount of $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident for bodily injury and $10,000 for property damage liability coverage. These limits have not changed since 1976. Had the limits increased to keep up with inflation over the years, equivalent coverage would be $85,000 per person and $170,000 per accident in today’s dollars. This equivalent coverage amount is based on general cost of living inflation since 1976. Inflation of medical costs increased at about twice the rate of the general cost of living during the same period. As medical expenses are a major component of almost every personal injury claim, even more coverage is needed to keep up with inflation in that sector.

Interestingly, the insurance industry OPPOSES increasing mandatory minimum limits. This is so because most of the annual premiums they collect are for the minimum level coverage. Higher coverage levels do not generate that much more income for the insurance companies, but they do expose them to higher potential payments for damages.

There are six basic categories of automobile insurance coverage:

Liability

As the name suggests, this coverage pays damages to injured persons when the accident is your fault. The insurance carrier is required to do two things for you: hire a lawyer to represent you if necessary and pay up to the policy limit either in settlement or as a result of verdict at trial. Because you are personally responsible for the payment of any judgement in excess of your liability coverage limits, you should buy coverage with limits that are high enough to cover claims arising from a serious accident. It is usually sold with two coverage limits for an accident: per person and per accident. It is also sold in a form called single limit coverage, which I believe is a far better bargain.

Collision

This coverage pays for the damage to your car when the accident is your fault. Premiums are based on the value of your car, the cost of repairing that particular make and model, and your driving record. If your vehicle is financed, the bank will almost always require collision coverage.

Comprehensive

This coverage pays for theft, vandalism, and other damage that your car may sustain as a result of fire, hailstorms and other natural disasters. It too is usually required by any lender that finances the purchase of your car.

Medical Payments

This is optional coverage that all insurers in Virginia are required to offer. It covers the usual and customary cost of all accident related medical treatment for any occupant of the car injured in an accident for a period of three years after the date of the accident. It is paid up to the coverage amount without regard to who was at fault and without regard to any health insurance or other coverage you may have. It can be purchased in varying amounts. Most folks have coverage between $2,000 and $5,000.

Uninsured / Underinsured Motorist (UIM)

This coverage is mandatory in Virginia and every insurance company is required by law to offer it to you in amounts equal to your liability coverage. It covers you in the event the person at fault has no insurance (uninsured coverage) or does not have enough insurance to cover your damages (underinsured coverage). You can appreciate how important this coverage is when you consider the number of people who are carrying only minimum limit coverage or, worse, are driving on our highways with no coverage at all.

Umbrella

As the name suggests, this coverage is in addition to your other coverages and is

only used when they have been exhausted. It is surprisingly inexpensive and provides protection for automobile liability claims as well as other non-automobile related claims. One drawback of umbrella coverage is that it typically does not provide additional Uninsured/Underinsured coverage.

If you have read this far, you are probably wondering what you should do. Here is what I recommend. Review your policy for each of the above coverages. Many people have $100,000/$300,000 bodily injury liability coverage and the same amount of Uninsured / Underinsured (UIM) coverage. This level of coverage is adequate for most small and medium claims, but for a few more dollars you can dramatically increase your protection against liability and against your not being compensated for life altering injuries if you are injured by a driver with inadequate coverage. Ask your agent to give you a quote on single limit coverage. This coverage eliminates the per person per accident distinction. For someone with a 100/300 policy the per person coverage is tripled from $100,000 to $300,000. The same single limit also applies to the UIM coverage. If you are seriously injured by a driver with no coverage or minimum coverage, you will have your own policy coverage to pay up to the $300,000. That may sound like a lot of money, but stop for a moment and ask yourself how you would make it if you were seriously injured and out of work for six months or a year. Would a policy limit payment of $25,000 be satisfactory? Even $100,000 probably would not be adequate. A very few additional dollars could change that and provide peace of mind. If you want maximum protection against liability claims, consider a $1,000,000 or greater umbrella. Because most umbrella policies do not provide UIM coverage, you will need to increase your level of liability and UIM coverage to get maximum protection for yourself against underinsured and uninsured motorists. For most drivers, that costs about $200 to $300 per year.

Until recently, I carried $500,000 single limit liability and UIM coverage along with $5,000 medical payments coverage. With four vehicles covered and three drivers in my family (one a teenager) my annual premium was about $3,000. If I were to have been seriously injured by a driver with a 25/50 policy, I had an additional $475,000 available to cover the loss. Last year I decided to increase my coverage to $1,000,000 single limit. I was pleased to find that my premium rose by only $20.00 per vehicle per year.

No letter from a lawyer would be complete without disclaimers. The above information is not intended to be legal advice. I am not selling anything. I am a personal injury lawyer, not an insurance agent. The only way your buying higher coverage limits might benefit me would be through your getting hurt and becoming my client. We both hope that will not happen.

Should you have questions or concerns about the information I have provided, please feel free to call me or send an e-mail to peterb@burnettwilliams.com. Likewise, if you would like to discuss any personal injury matter, I would be delighted to talk with you. Please call me at 703-777-1650.

In your circle of friends, name five people who don’t have a cell phone. Name one. Can’t do it? Not surprising since, for most Americans (224 million in 2006), cell phones are an indispensable tool for communicating anytime, anywhere.

One place Americans use cell phones is in the car. While driving, you can catch up with an old friend, conduct business, order a pizza to arrive at home at the same time you do, among countless other things. Cell phones allow you to multi-task. But if you are concentrating on something other than safely operating your vehicle, you are putting yourself and others at risk. According to a recent study, driver inattention was a factor in 80% of crashes and 65% of near-crashes. What distracted most drivers? Their cell phones.

A serious personal conversation or a business call shifts concentration away from your driving. Additionally, the act of dialing a number on your cell phone requires you to look at the cell phone, taking your eyes off the road. Even more distracting is text messaging. Thirty-seven percent of teens cite text messaging as their biggest distraction while driving.

Removing your focus from driving to make a call or read a text message could have disastrous consequences. A University of Utah study illustrates the extent of the danger: it found that driving while using a cell phone (even one that is hands-free) is as dangerous as drunk driving.

Recognizing the hazards caused by careless cell phone use by drivers, many states, including New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and California (and the District of Columbia), have instituted laws banning or restricting the use of hand-held cellular devices while driving. Businesses are taking notice too. Since 2004, American justice has seen the emergence of lawsuits against businesses whose employees caused a car crash due to cell phone use while driving. Beers Skanska Inc., a large construction firm, recently paid a $5 million settlement to a plaintiff involved in such an accident with one of its employees.

Accidents such as these can be avoided if you think of your cell phone as a piece of safety equipment to be used in the event of an emergency. In the moments following an accident, you need your cell phone to call for help. At all other times while you are driving, you should pull off the road to a safe location to make or return a call or text message. For more tips on safe driving, go to www.nsc.org.

You’re driving on a busy, four lane roadway, caught up in the flow of traffic, when you suddenly realize that you are traveling 75 miles per hour – or 15 miles per hour over the posted speed limit. Now, how did that happen?

We’ve all found ourselves driving faster than our intentions and good sense might dictate, and there can be many reasons for it: We might be influenced by drivers around us, we ignore our better judgment, or we simply neglect the dangers of speeding. Remember, even if you have wisely chosen a safer and smarter vehicle, your most important choice is made every time you get behind the wheel: to drive responsibly.

A quick review of the perils that accompany excessive vehicular speed point to one fact: No excuse for speeding is a good one. For starters, check out these statistics from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the National Highway Transportation Association (NHTSA):

• In the years 1983- 2002, fatal car crashes were more likely to be caused by speeding than any other factor.
• In 2004, speeding contributed to 30 percent of all fatal crashes and 13,192 lives were lost.
• The total cost of crashes was estimated at $230.6 billion in 2000, and the cost of speeding-related crashes was estimated to be $40.4 billion.

Speed Limits Are Established For Motor Vehicle Safety

It’s not only on four-lane roadways that we find ourselves speeding. As it happens, the interstates actually have the best safety record of all our roads – and the lowest fatality rate per mile traveled. Almost 50 percent of speeding-related fatalities occur on lower-speed “collectors” (low or medium capacity thoroughfares) and local roads where speed limits are typically between 35 and 55 miles per hour.

Research by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) found that when speed limits were raised by many states in 1996, travel speeds increased and motor vehicle fatalities went up 15 to 20 percent on interstate highways. In states that raised rural speed limits, more than 400 lives are lost each year because of higher limits.

Bottom line: Speed limits tell us how fast we can safely drive given the nature of the roadway and its environment on all roads.

An Effective – but Controversial – Deterrent

Many of us are familiar with the most common speed deterrents, such as a strategically placed police officer with a radar gun. The problem with this approach is that it is fairly random, and only a small percentage of speeders are ticketed.

Technology called photo radar had been used with considerable success for more than 20 years in several countries, including Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, and Taiwan. With this technology, cameras placed in undisclosed locations take photos of speeding vehicles as they pass by. Law enforcement is then provided with photographs along with dates, times, places, and vehicle speeds.

Despite these impressive statistics, photo radar has not yet caught on in America. There’s stiff resistance because many Americans believe the cameras represent an invasion of privacy. In Virginia, however, where photo radar is employed, more than 50 percent of motorists support the technology, and 54 percent of all motorists surveyed in a 2004 IIHS report favored this approach to curbing speeding.

It’s Up to You and Me

Whether the deterrent to speeding is hi-tech photo radar or simply a police car hiding in the bushes, the best measure is self-imposed: choosing to drive responsibly. Don’t get caught up in the “everyone else is doing it” mentality. We have a duty to ourselves, our family, our friends, and to society to drive within the limits of the law. So the next time a glance at your speedometer startles you, ease off the gas. This nugget of common sense will make you even safer and smarter.

I have never been one to make New Year’s resolutions, but this year was the exception. As a personal injury attorney practicing for nearly 30 years, I have represented hundreds of clients in cases involving automobile accidents. Too often there is not enough available insurance to cover the injured person’s losses. I am so disturbed by the inadequacy of most people’s automobile insurance coverage that I have decided to share some simple, helpful information with as many of my clients, friends, neighbors and others as I can. So far, I have sent over 300 letters and my goal is 1, 000 by the end of 2006. It is my hope that you and your loved ones will beadequately covered should you ever be in an accident. For only a slight increase in insurance premium cost, most of the clients that got short changed could have been fully compensated. All of them told me they really did not fully understand what coverage they were buying and why. I am sorry to say that some insurance agents do not fully explain what they are selling and, as agents of the company, may be discouraged to sell you coverage that you should have.

Part of the problem is the current level of mandatory minimum liability limits. In Virginia, an automobile must have coverage in the minimum amount of $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident for bodily injury and $20,000 for property damage. These limits have not changed since 1976. Had the limits increased to keep up with inflation over the years, equivalent coverage would be $85,000 per person and $170,000 per accident in today’s dollars. This equivalent coverage amount is based on general cost of living inflation since 1976. Inflation of medical costs increased at about twice the rate of the general cost of living during the same period. As medical expenses are a major component of almost every personal injury claim, even more coverage is needed to keep up with inflation in that sector.

Interestingly, the insurance industry OPPOSES increasing mandatory minimum limits. This is so because the great majority of the annual premium they collect is for the minimum level coverage. Higher coverage levels do not generate that much more income for the insurance companies, but they do expose them to higher potential payments for damages.

There are six basic categories of automobile insurance coverage:

Liability

As the name suggests, this coverage pays damages to injured persons when the accident is your fault. The insurance carrier is required to do two things for you: hire a lawyer to represent you if necessary and pay up to the policy limit either in settlement or as a result of verdict at trial. Because you are personally responsible for the payment of any judgment in excess of your liability coverage limits, you should buy coverage with limits that are high enough to cover claims arising from a serious accident. It is usually sold with two coverage limits for an accident: per person and per accident. It is also sold in a form called single limit coverage, which I believe is a far better bargain.

Collision

This coverage pays for the damage to your car when the accident is your fault. Premiums are based on the value of your car, the cost of repairing that particular make and model, and your driving record. If your vehicle is financed, the bank will almost always require collision coverage.

Comprehensive

This coverage pays for theft, vandalism, and other damage that your car may sustain as a result of fire, hailstorms and other natural disasters. It too is usually required by any lender that finances the purchase of your car.

Medical Payments

This is optional coverage that all insurers in Virginia are required to offer. It covers the usual and customary cost of all accident related medical treatment for any occupant of the car injured in an accident for a period of three years after the date of the accident. It is paid up to the coverage amount without regard to who was at fault and without regard to any health insurance or other coverage you may have. It can be purchased in varying amounts. Most folks have coverage between $2,000 and $5,000.

Uninsured / Underinsured Motorist

This coverage is mandatory in Virginia and every insurance company is required by law to offer it to you in amounts equal to your liability coverage. It covers you in the event the person at fault has no insurance (uninsured coverage) or does not have enough insurance to cover your damages (underinsured coverage). You can appreciate how important this coverage is when you consider the number of people who are carrying only minimum limit coverage.

Umbrella

As the name suggests, this coverage is in addition to your other coverages and is only used when they have been exhausted. It is surprisingly inexpensive and provides protection for automobile liability claims as well as other non-automobile related claims.

If you have read this far, you are probably wondering what you should do. Here is what I recommend. Review your policy for each of the above coverages. Most people have 100/300 bodily injury liability coverage and a like amount of Uninsured / Underinsured (UIM) coverage. This is adequate for most small and medium claims, but for a very few more dollars you can dramatically increase your protection against not being compensated for life altering injuries. Simply ask your agent to quote you on single limit coverage. This coverage eliminates the per person per accident distinction. For someone with a 100/300 policy the per person coverage is tripled from $100,000 to $300,000. The single limit also applies to the UIM coverage. If you are seriously injured by a driver with no coverage or minimum coverage, you will have your own policy coverage to pay up to the $300,000. That may sound like a lot of money, but stop for a moment and ask yourself how you would make it if you were seriously injured and out of work for six months or a year. Would a policy limit payment of $25,000 be satisfactory? Even $100,000 probably would not be adequate. A very few additional dollars could change that and provide some peace of mind. If you are one of those people that wants maximum protection, consider a $1,000,000 umbrella. For most drivers, it costs $200 to $300 per year.

For what it is worth, I carry $500,000 single limit liability and UIM coverage along with $5,000 medical payments coverage. With four vehicles covered and three drivers in my family (one a teenager) my annual premium is about $3,000. I take comfort in knowing that if I get seriously injured by a driver with a 25/50 policy, I have an additional $475,000 available to cover the loss.

No letter from a lawyer would be complete without disclaimers. The above information is not intended to be legal advice. I am not selling anything. I am a personal injury lawyer, not an insurance agent. The only way your buying higher coverage limits might benefit me would be through your getting hurt and becoming my client. We both hope that will not happen.

Should you have questions or concerns about the information I have provided, please feel free to contact me. Likewise, if you would like to discuss any personal injury matter, I would be delighted to discuss it you. Just give me a call.