Hi, I’m John Medler, personal injury lawyer with The Medler Law Firm – Personal Injury & Accident Attorneys. Today I’d like to talk about whether you can recover if you are driving a car, you were hit by someone else, but you yourself do not have any auto accident insurance.
As you know, auto accident insurance is required in most states. So what happens if you don’t have any? Can you still sue if the other guy was negligent? The answer is most of the time, yes. There are 11 states, one of which is California, in which your right to recover is either eliminated or substantially limited in the event that you don’t have your own auto insurance for the car that you’re driving.
For example, in California, the rule is if you’re driving a car and you don’t have auto insurance, you can’t recover for what we call ‘non-economic damages.’ So if you had economic damages like medical bills or lost earnings or something like that, you could recover for that. But anything like pain and suffering, or loss of enjoyment of life, or anything like that that you’d normally be able to recover if you had auto insurance, you can’t recover in California. And like I said, there are 10 other states that are like that.
So whatever you do, make sure you get auto insurance for your own vehicle. If you have any other questions about auto insurance or personal injury claims, consult our website at www.MedlerLawFirm.com or give our Orange County personal injury lawyer a call for a free case review.
