Liability car insurance coverage

Liability car insurance coverage

Liability car insurance is a standard part of auto insurance coverage that helps cover the financial costs of an accident if you’re found at fault. Essentially, liability insurance coverage protects you financially if you’re responsible for an accident that causes someone else injury or property damage. It doesn’t cover your own injuries or damage to your own car. Liability coverage is required in most states to legally drive your car.

What is liability car insurance?

Liability car insurance, also known as liability coverage, is a “third-party coverage,” meaning it covers other people (not you) for their injuries and property damage if you cause an accident. Even though it doesn’t cover your injuries or damaged property, car liability insurance does protect you from being financially responsible if you cause an accident. There are two types of liability car insurance:

• Bodily injury liability: This type of coverage helps pay for the medical expenses of anyone injured in an accident that you cause. It also covers lost wages and pain and suffering.
• Property damage liability: This type of coverage helps pay for the cost of repairing or replacing property that you damage in an accident. This could include the other driver’s car, a mailbox, or a fence.

What does liability insurance cover?

Liability car insurance is a type of car insurance that helps cover the financial costs up to the limits of the policy of an accident if you’re found at fault for the accident.

What is the difference between bodily injury liability coverage and property liability insurance?

Bodily injury liability coverage covers, up to the limits of your policy, the cost of medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering for people who are injured in an accident that you cause. Property damage liability insurance covers the cost of damage you cause to another person’s property in a car accident up to the limits of the policy. This can include damage to their car, home, or other property.

Who does bodily injury cover?

• The other driver involved in the accident.
• Their passengers.
• Any pedestrians or cyclists who are injured.
• Passengers in your vehicle (except passengers who are insured on your policy or who are family members living with you).

Bodily injury liability coverage doesn’t cover your injuries – it covers only the injuries of others from an accident that you caused.

On most car insurance quotes and policies, bodily injury limits are broken out into two numbers. For example, if your bodily injury limits are $25,000/$50,000, this means that your policy will cover up to $25,000 per person for bodily injury and up to $50,000 per accident for bodily injury.

Examples of what bodily injury liability coverage can cover include:

General damages covered by bodily injury insurance.

• Medical treatment expenses for people that are injured in an accident you cause.

Special damages covered by bodily injury insurance.

• Other losses related to bodily injuries of other people in an accident you cause, such as lost wages, pain, suffering, funeral expenses, and legal fees.

What does property damage liability insurance cover?

Property damage liability insurance helps cover you if your car damages someone else’s property. Usually, it’s another car, but it could be a fence, house, or any other property damaged in an accident. It can also help cover the cost of legal defense if the property owner files a lawsuit against you. Your property damage liability limit is the third dollar amount in the string of numbers you may hear when people talk about car liability insurance limits (e.g., $25,000/$50,000/$20,000).

General damages covered by property damage insurance.

Here are some examples of what property damage liability insurance can cover:

• Damage to another car
• Damage to a house
• Damage to a fence
• Damage to a mailbox
• Damage to a store window

It’s important to note, property damage liability coverage doesn’t cover damages to your vehicle—to have your vehicle covered, you would need collision and comprehensive coverage.

The per-accident limit for property damage liability coverage is the maximum amount that can be paid for all property damage resulting from any one auto accident. This is why understanding your limits is so important because if you opt for minimum coverage or have lower limits, you’ll be on the hook for any outstanding costs after your limits cap out.

For example, let’s say your state’s required minimum limit for property damage liability coverage is $20,000. You accidentally cause an accident and total a brand new $48,000 vehicle. If you only have the minimum coverage, you would be on the hook for over half the cost of replacing the other drivers’ vehicle.

It’s important to know that your liability coverage limits aren’t about the value of your vehicle—they’re about the value of other vehicles on the road around you.

Frequently asked questions about liability car insurance

The following questions and answers provide more information about liability coverage.

Personal liability umbrella policy

Another type of liability coverage that can help protect your financial assets in the event you’re in an accident is an umbrella policy (also referred to as umbrella insurance). An umbrella policy can provide coverage above what your car liability insurance covers in the event that you’re found at fault in an accident.

If you’re interested in learning more about umbrella insurance to find out whether it’s the right choice for you, check out this informative guide from The Glove Box: Is Umbrella insurance right for you?

Get liability car insurance coverage from trusted agents at Elephant Insurance!

Contact us to learn more about how you can apply for liability car insurance. Elephant provides car insurance discounts, coverages to protect you and your property, and other services.

Protect yourself with liability car insurance coverage!

More questions about car insurance coverage?

Visit our Coverage Wizard and answer a few questions to learn more about types of coverages you may want to have on your car insurance policy.  Or contact us to speak to one of our licensed agents.

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