Atlanta Injury Attorney Blog
- Minimum Insurance Limits: This is the bare minimum in each state that you must have to operate a vehicle. Georgia: $25,000 South Carolina $25,000.
- Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Insurance: This protects with hit and runs, low insurance crashes and no insurance crashes. Georgia: Both UM coverages are the same. South Carolina: Different policy for Under and Un Insured. They can exist one without the other and in different amounts.
- Stacking of UM policies is allowed in both States.
- The Deemer Statute. In Georgia if your car is on the road here, its policy limits are deemed to rise to Georgia’s $25,000 requirement. In South Carolina it won’t, the difference is made up by the SC UM policy.
- Collateral Source Rule: Says that evidence of health insurance is not relevant to presenting full medical bill totals at trial. True in both states.
- Bad Faith for Failing to Settle Insurance Claims: Both states have requirements. In South Carolina, should settle if it is the reasonable thing to do. The insurer may be responsible past their policy limits if they fail to do so.
Many of us don’t put much thought into the Constitution after high school because it does not seem to matter much day to day, but if you are ever in a car accident, you will quickly find out that all of the laws that govern legal liability, how the insurance works, what the insurance minimums are and how and where the lawsuit can be filed completely depends on State, not Federal Law. Furthermore, each state writes its own rules and they can differ drastically. Remember those powers not specifically enumerated to the Feds are reserved to the States.