California Personal Injury Blog

In California, you are required to have a certain amount of liability insurance. The importance of liability insurance is so great that a state program exists to give low income drivers access to affordable liability coverage, as reported at SmartBrief.com.

Liability insurance is necessary because it pays for damages caused by your vehicle in the event of an accident. Basic liability car insurance offers three types of coverage:

• $15,000 minimum bodily injury liability coverage per person to cover personal injuries caused by your vehicle
• $30,000 minimum bodily injury liability per accident. If more than one person is injured by your vehicle, the combined coverage for all injured parties is $30,000.
• $5,000 minimum property damage coverage to offset the costs of any property damaged by your vehicle.

If you do not have liability coverage for your vehicle, you will get a citation and a small fine for a first offense. You will also have your license suspended until you can submit proof of insurance. If you cause an accident in a vehicle without insurance, the California tort system could find you at fault and therefore liable for all of the damages you caused in an auto accident.

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For an example of how auto insurance is not supposed to work, please refer to a story printed by the Sacramento Business Journal. Two Northern California residents associated with the sovereign citizen’s movement were convicted by federal investigators of operating a fraudulent insurance scheme along with other charges.

The pair operated a bogus insurance company that did not comply with California or United States insurance laws. To make matters worse, the pair paid out insurance claims based on their interpretation of social and religious values. For example, the fraudulent insurance company refused to pay for pain and suffering caused by injury car accidents because pain and suffering were part of a divine plan.

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