Auto Limits

Automobile Liability Insurance is the portion of your Automobile Insurance Policy that protects you by paying monetary damages to other individuals should you be involved in an accident and it is determined that you are at fault.  This portion of your policy is divided into two categories - Bodily Injury (BI) and Property Damage (PD).

Bodily Injury will pay for medical and other expenses as well as pain and suffering to the people in the other vehicle and may cover non-family passengers in your vehicle.  Property Damage will pay to repair the other person’s vehicle or property that was damaged as a result of the accident for which you are at fault.

Insurance companies will pay these liability claims up to “Policy Limits”.  The 25/50/25 refers to the limits to which the insurance company will pay in the event that you are sued for damages under your liability coverage.  Broken down, this means that you have $25,000 coverage for any one injured person, $50,000 coverage for all injured persons, and $25,000 total coverage for damage to all property.  This, by the way, is the state minimum requirement for Georgia for personally operated vehicles.  This may seem like a lot of money, however if you are sued successfully and you have inadequate protection, you could easily lose everything you own, including much of your future earnings.

Let’s look at an example –
Suppose for a moment, that you purchased an insurance policy that meets only the minimum coverage requirement as described above (25/50/25).  On a rainy night, you lose control of your car and hit another car at an intersection, injuring its driver and two passengers, and damaging their vehicle beyond repair (economically totaled).  The driver’s medical and other expenses (including pain and suffering) total $32,000.  One passenger has $24,000 and the other claims $13,000 in bodily injury.  The car they were driving is valued at $38,000.
What will your policy cover?