Philadelphia Full Coverage and Limited Tort

As a Philadelphia Car Accident Lawyer I speak with clients who have limited tort insurance all the time. Unfortunately, for many clients the first time they hear the phrase “limited tort” is speaking with they Philly car crash attorney. People should not learn, for the first time, that they have limited tort insurance from their Philly Car Crash attorney; however, that is often the case.

The problem is when people select their insurance they don’t know the difference between full coverage and limited tort. Car insurance agents often do not even explain the difference. So you end up paying a lot of money every month for protection if your car gets stolen or reimbursement for property damage. But when you are in a car accident and you hire a lawyer to recovering money you are stuck with limited tort.

So what it is limited tort and how is if different than full tort? Full tort car insurance means you are entitled to recover non economic damages in a motor vehicle lawsuit. The most critical non economic damage is pain and suffering. If you have full tort you are allowed to ge money because you were hurt. The insurance company will pay you for the value they place on your injuries. For example, if you have full tort and you hurt your back – the car insurance company could pay you money for the pain to your back. How much money depends on how severely your back was injured and a lot of other factors that a great Philadelphia car accident lawyer can tell you.

Conversely, limited tort car insurance prevents you from recovering non economic damages unless you sustained a serious injury (or one of the other exceptions to limited tort). Using our previous example, the back injury that the insurance company would pay you out for if you had full tort would pay you no money for your pain and suffering if you had limited tort (again, unless you qualify for an exception). If you have limited tort car insurance you are not entitled to recovery for pain and suffering. However, there are exceptions to limited tort. As a car accident attorney I am skilled at evaluating limited tort cases and getting my clients top dollar. For an in-depth discussion on the exceptions to limited tort and how you can still get paid on a car crash case see my next blog post.