If you are in an accident and the other driver doesn’t have insurance, what are your options to get compensation for your injuries? Personal Injury Attorney Michael Ilyaich explains.

SPEAKERS

Michael Ilyaich, Michael Levitis

Michael Levitis  00:04

Good day everybody. This is Michael Levitis from JurisQ.com, a legal network, we will bring your attorneys to answer frequently asked legal questions. And we have our frequent guest, our participating attorney, Michael Ilyaich, a founding partner in the law firm of Gregory Spektor and Associates. Michael, welcome back.

Michael Ilyaich  00:24

Glad to be here, Michael.

Michael Levitis  00:27

It’s great to see you, it’s great to feel your energy. Now we’re ready to go and use the same energy to pursue claims against insurance companies in court. Today we have a few questions that we looked up using special software to see what’s out there. What are people interested in, in finding out about personal injury? The number one question people ask on Google is what happens if they were injured in a car accident, and unfortunately, the other driver that hit him had no insurance. As you know, it’s actually a frequent problem, especially in New York, you see these cars with fake paper plates sometimes.

Michael Ilyaich  01:12

Unfortunately, it’s a pretty common thing in New York and not every other case has this issue. Every third or fourth case has this exact issue. 

Michael Levitis  01:21

How do you get compensated? 

Michael Ilyaich  01:23

Okay, so let’s assume you are a driver or a passenger in the vehicle that is registered in New York that had an accident with another guy that does not have insurance. What happens is it compensates you for your personal injuries? Well, the vehicle you are in, in the state of New York, every insurance policy or auto insurance policy, has mandatory uninsured motorist coverage. It’s the insurance company of the car you’re in, steps into the shoes of that phantom vehicle or uninsured vehicle. That’s the role as if they were the insurance company for that and it should be.

Michael Levitis  02:01

Michael, you called it correctly – a phantom vehicle. Phantom meaning it’s a ghost, meaning it’s not legally registered, possibly has fake plates?

Michael Ilyaich  02:13

There is a phantom vehicle if you don’t know who it is, and then there is our insured vehicle, which remained at the scene of the accident, but just happened to have no insurance. But in either case, same rule applies. The insurance company of the car you are in either as a driver or a passenger in the state of New York will cover your injuries under uninsured motorist portion of the insurance policy.

Michael Levitis  02:41

Okay, very good, and what is the amount? What’s the maximum you can get?

Michael Ilyaich  02:47

In the state of New York minimum mandatory coverage is $25,000 per person. It really depends if you are a car owner, do you want to know what you do want to do when you buy insurance, not only you should look for cheap rates, but you should look for good coverages. How can you protect yourself as a policyholder? When you buy insurance, make sure the uninsured motorist portion of your insurance coverage is at least 100,000 or 300,000. The difference in payments will be $3 or $4 a year, so you understand how cheap it is.

Michael Levitis  03:27

Listen, you never know. Beter be safe than sorry.

Michael Ilyaich  03:30

Whether you want it or not by default, but only up to 25 pounds. You want to protect yourself increase the limits. 

Michael Levitis  03:39

Let me ask you a question. That 25,000 is that only for bodily injury? What about the damage to the car? Let’s say it is an expensive car?

Michael Ilyaich  03:48

About bodily injury only? I am talking about bodily injury. As far as the car damages are concerned, if you had an accident with somebody who has no insurance or somebody who ran away, you better have a collision coverage on your policy, which will pretty much cover you.

Michael Levitis  04:07

Okay, very good. To emphasize to summarize what you said, you’d better look at your claim. You got to look at your insurance policy and make sure you have the most comprehensive coverage more than $25,000, you never know …because on the roads in New York  anytghing can happen….., Michael, thank you so much. We appreciate you for making it simple for us in layperson’s terms ….  We’re gonna come back to you with more questions. Please stay tuned. Again, today what I will discuss that’s very general. We’re just educating you on what’s out there. If you want specific advice, Call Michael Ilyaich. He’s the founding partner of law firm Gregory Spektor and Associates. The phone number is on the bottom of the screen. Thank you and have a great day. Good day, everybody.