Personal Injury and Family Law - Hull & Zimmerman

Welcome to the Hull and Zimmerman blog. It is an interesting experience to have an audience for the concerns that effect our clients. While many topics come to mind, I think the most pressing is to discuss the changes resulting from the demise of the Colorado No-fault Act. As many of you may be aware, the Colorado Legislature allowed the Colorado No-fault Act to sunset in July of 2003. Under the old law, each of us was required to maintain $100,000 of medical insurance which paid for medical bills arising from an automobile accident. Your insurance would pay for medical bills, regardless of which person was at fault. Neither the injured party, nor the insurance company paying the medical bills could seek recovery for the medical expense as part of any lawsuit against the responsible party.
The same law also required that everyone maintain $25,000 of liability insurance (minimum) to pay the injured party for their trauma.
Under the new law, there is no mandatory medical insurance. As a result, most people use their Health Insurance to pay any medical bills caused by another's negligence. So, what is the problem? By contract your health insurance carrier must be repaid. As a result, an all to common scenerio is occurring. The victim of the accident has $20,000 in medical bills which must be paid from the money obtained from the responsible party. The responsible party only has the required minimum of $25,000 in insurance. Only $5000 is left for the victim!!!! Under the old law the entire $25,000 would have been available.
So how do you avoid this situation. First, you need more insurance (kills me to recomend that you give the insurance industry more money). You need more liability insurance in case you cause the accident and the injured party comes after your personal assetts. You also need as much Uninsured/Underinsured insurance that you can purchase. This insurance will step in and pay if the responsible party has no insurance or TOO LITTLE INSURANCE. This type of coverage is also very inexpensive.
Second, you call your legislature and ask them why they allowed a law to be passed that provides so little protection to you, the consumer, and instead allows the insurance companies to benefit. You might also ask why, if this law allows insurance companies to get the cost of medical bills back, did your cost for liability insurance go up, not down.
BEWARE
If you are hurt in a car accident, the responsible party's insurance company may offer to pay you a settlement. They won't tell and wont necessarily give you enough to pay back your insurance company ( which includes medicare and medicaid). They will hope to get a bargain at your ignorance. Unfortunetly, your health insurance carrier wont be as sympathetic. They will expect their money from you and if you dint get enough from the responsible party, you will pay it out of your own pocket!