Central New York Injury Lawyer Blog

As a Central New York auto accident lawyer, I know first hand what kind of automobile insurance people should buy, but don’t. Yesterday I blogged about the BIGGEST MISTAKE people make when choosing auto insurance. Today I am addressing the SECOND BIGGEST mistake they make. What is it? They don’t buy “spousal liability coverage”. What’s that? Let me explain.

Let’s say you are taking a road trip with your wife (or husband), your child and a friend. That makes you and three passengers. You make a mistake and cause a car crash (for example, you failed to see a stop sign, or you dosed off at the wheel). Everyone in your car is seriously injured. Of course, everyone is entitled to basic “no-fault” coverage for basic medical costs and lost wages, but that is very limited and can run out quickly when serious injuries occur. But your “liability” auto insurance should pay to compensate everyone in your car for their losses beyond no-fault, including pain and suffering (at least to the policy limit), right? Wrong! Everyone gets compensated EXCEPT YOUR SPOUSE.

Holy mackerel! How come? Because you didn’t buy SPOUSAL LIABILITY COVERAGE. You see, traditionally New York barred spouse-against-spouse liability claims. The idea was that a marriage makes one person out of two, so a spouse-on-spouse claim was like suing yourself, which was not acceptable. When that notion fell by the wayside, and New York began allowing spouse-against-spouse personal injury lawsuits, including car accident lawsuits, the auto insurance industry in New York did not keep pace. Automobile insurance policies universally continued to provide an exclusion of coverage for claims brought by one spouse against the other.

Most people I represent in Central New York auto accident cases have made a big mistake. (No, it’s not hiring me, really!). They did not buy the right insurance. I blog on this subject in the hopes that some of my readers will avoid this mistake. Let me explain.

I represent victims of car, truck and motorcycle accidents in Syracuse and Central New York every day. One of the first things I do when I am hired is to carefully examine all the relevant insurance policies. In a typical two-car accident, with no passengers, where my client was not at fault and the other guy was, I look principally at two insurance policies: my client’s and the other guy’s (there could be more policies applicable, but let’s keep this simple).

What am I looking for? In the other guy’s policy, I am looking for the liability (also called “bodily injury”) policy limit. This tells me the maximum amount of money the other guy’s insurance will pay to my injured client for his injuries. The minimum liability coverage in New York is $25,000 per injury and $50,000 per accident. Thus, in a minimum policy, my client would be entitled to a maximum of $25,000. It doesn’t matter how hurt he is — paralyzed, dead, whatever — $25,000 is the most he can get from that insurer.

The Syracuse Post-Standard reports that a Syracuse University student was driving home to Albany in the dark hours of the morning (about 4:30 a.m.) when her car slid off the Thruway and onto the median. She then apparently got out of her car and tried to cross the westbound Thruway to make her way to the onramp in Herkimera a couple of miles west. Unfortunately, a westbound hit-and-run vehicle struck and killed her as she crossed.

When I read this report, the pressing question I had was, “where was her cell phone?”

The nearly ubiquitous cell phone has caused alarm among many, including myself, because of an epidemic of cell-phone distracted driving wreaking havoc on our roadways. I have personally brought several Central New York car accident lawsuits against drivers too busy yapping on their cell phone to pay attention to traffic signals, stop signs, or cars stopped in front of them.