Can an auto insurance policy pay out the max on both bodily injury and property damage to cover medical bills?
I was recently in an auto accident where I sustained serious injuries and my car was totalled. The other party is 100% at fault and has admitted that, and their insurance company is offering to pay the max amount of their policy on bodily injury (they have minimum coverage, so their policy in GA is 25K for bodily injury and 25K for property damage). The 25K they have offered as the policy limit for medical does not come close to paying my bills. Out of the 25K available towards property damage, they have paid 7K to my insurance company for totalling my car (my insurance company paid me the 7K while we dealt with establishing fault) and they paid me 00 towards the items in my car that were destroyed as a result of the accident. Is there any way to get them to pay me the difference between the 25K available towards property damage and the 00 they have paid out, as that money would make a huge difference towards the medical bills I am going to be out of pocket on.
I tried filing underinsured motorists with my insurance company - apparently you can’t do that in Georgia. I do have uninsured motorists, but they have stated that I can only use it if hit by someone without insurance, if they don’t have enough I’m out of luck. I went through multiple layers of management at my insurance company trying to get them to cover me but they pretty much said no.
I have the maximum coverage possible in GA - underinsured motorist is not even an option on the policy or I would have already had it. (Ironic isn’t it that a maximum coverage person is hit by a minimum coverage person). The release I would have to sign to take the 25K states that I release both the other insurance company and the driver from any future litigation, etc. - I assume that means I can’t sue them personally (though from what I’ve been able to learn about them they have nothing to go after). I am curious as to if this means criminal charges cannot be pursued - this was initially a hit and run accident and I believe the police are going to charge the driver with running. Even though they were found and owned up to what they did I don’t want my taking the 25K to release them from that legal liability as well.
There is a separate, ongoing criminal investigation going on related to this accident due to it being a hit and run - the other driver thought I was dead and ran. That is separate from the insurance issue.