Understanding Motorcycle Insurance Law in Kentucky And What It Takes to Protect Yourself

The Becker Law Office represents a large number of people who are seriously injured while riding a motorcycle. In our experience, it is not uncommon for a motorcyclist who has been struck by an automobile to have undergone surgery incurring $30,000 or more in medical expenses. Therefore, it is essential that the motorcyclist purchase the right type of insurance coverage before the accident occurs so that he/she can recover the true value of the case, pay for medical expenses, recover their lost wages, and receive future medical treatment if necessary. We believe that anyone who owns a motorcycle should purchase the following three types of insurance coverage: uninsured motorist coverage, underinsured motorist coverage, and optional no-fault benefits. Otherwise, a Sunday drive on a motorcycle has the potential of throwing a person into financial ruin with no guarantee that they can receive the medical treatment needed.

Unisured Motorist Coverage

The Becker Law Office recommends that all motorcyclists purchase Uninsured Motorist Coverage. If the driver of an automobile causes an accident and the car is not properly insured as required by state law, Uninsured Motorist Coverage allows the motorcyclist to present his claim for damages to his own insurance company as if they insured the at-fault driver. It is the only means by which a motorcyclist can recover money for his pain and suffering when the at-fault driver does not have insurance.

For example, assume you take your motorcycle out on a sunny afternoon and are struck by a 1980 Ford Mustang. You are taken to the trauma center at the University of Louisville Hospital where you are diagnosed as having a fractured hip. Surgery is performed and you are released after staying a week in the hospital with over $40,000 in medical expenses. Your health insurance will pay your medical expenses but you will still be responsible for your co-payments and deductibles. However, what are you going to do if you do not have health insurance and what about your time off from work? While the at-fault driver should be responsible for all these damages, how he is going to pay for these damages if he did not have insurance? If the at-fault driver was uninsured, he will face possible criminal prosecution for not having his automobile properly insured as required by Kentucky law. Nevertheless, your primary concern is how will he pay your medical expenses within a reasonable time frame. Considering the age of the at-fault driver's vehicle and the fact that his car was not properly insured, he probably can not afford to pay for the damage to your motorcycle much less $40,000 in medical expenses.

Now assume that in the above example that you had purchased Uninsured Motorist Coverage in the amount of $100,000. Either through pre-suit negotiations or by filing a lawsuit, the Becker Law Office would present evidence of your damages to the company that insures your motorcycle to try and establish that the value of your personal injury claim was at least $100,000 or more. Once the value of your claim is determined, whether it would be determined through settlement negotiations or a jury trial, your insurance company would be responsible for the value of your claim, up to $100,000. In other words, by purchasing uninsured motorist coverage, you have shifted the risk that the at-fault driver uninsured with no assets to your own insurance company. Your insurance company may go against the uninsured driver to recover the amounts they have paid out as a result of the accident but unlike you, they have the assets to bear the risk that the uninsured driver has no money or that he might declare bankruptcy. By simply purchasing the right type of insurance, you are no longer facing the prospect that you will be personally responsible for over $40,000 in medical expenses as a result of an automobile accident you did not cause.

Underinsured Motorist Coverage

Underinsured motorist coverage works in a similar fashion except the at-fault driver is insured but does not have enough insurance coverage to pay for the damages caused by the accident. For example, Kentucky law only requires that a person have insurance coverage for at least $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident. This means that any one person can collect up to a maximum of $25,000 from the insurance carrier and no matter how many people are injured in the accident, the insurance company will only be responsible up to $50,000. (Incidentally, Indiana law prescribes the same amount of minimum, insurance coverage and some states prescribe even less.) While this may be great way to buy cheap insurance, what if in the above scenario the at-fault driver only had this minimum amount of insurance coverage required by Kentucky law? In our previous example, you had incurred over $40,000 in medical expenses by the time you were being released from the hospital and this amount did not include any future treatment that might be needed. Therefore, even if the at-fault driver is lawfully insured, he did not have adequate insurance coverage to pay for your damages even before you left the hospital. Despite the fact that the at-fault driver would be properly insured according to the requirements of Kentucky law, you are facing the possibility that you are going to be personally responsible for at least $15,000 in medical expenses even though you did nothing to cause this accident. While this may not seem fair, this is how the law works.

To protect yourself from the above-described scenarios, you have to purchase Underinsured Motorist Coverage from the company that insures your motorcycle. If you had purchased Underinsured Motorist Coverage, the Becker Law Office would present evidence to the insurance company for the at-fault driver that your claim was worth more than their $25,000 in insurance coverage. If they agreed with our position, they would tender their $25,000 in coverage. Then, after complying with several legal requirements necessary to make an Underinsured Motorist Claim against the company that insures your motorcycle, the Becker Law Office would present evidence to that insurance company that you had not been adequately compensated by the $25,000 from the at-fault driver and that you were entitled to Underinsured Motorist Benefits for those damages which you were not compensated for. If you had purchased $100,000 of underinsured motorist coverage for example, Kentucky law would allow you to collect a maximum amount of$125,000, $25,000 from the liability carrier and $100,000 from your own insurance company, assuming the value of your claim was worth that amount.

To further illustrate the need for this type of insurance, assume that you are riding your motorcycle with a group of friends and the at-fault driver injures several of you. Now matter how many people are injured, the insurance company will only be responsible for $50,000 and not a penny more. As a result, $50,000 now has to be divided among several, injured motorcyclists and you may not even get the full $25,000 to cover your medical expenses. If you purchased underinsured motorist coverage from the company that insures your motorcycle, the Becker Law Office now has a source for recovering the remainder of your damages and of course, these funds do not have to be divided with anyone that is not insured under your policy.

Simply put, you created the means by which the Becker Law Office can recover for your pain and suffering, your past and future medical expenses as well as any permanent injury you might have suffered in this accident. Most importantly, without this type of insurance, the means for you to recover all of your damages did not even exist despite the fact that the at-fault driver was insured according to the requirements of Kentucky law. The bottom line is that until the Kentucky Legislature increases the minimum amount of insurance an automobile driver must have, the purchasing of underinsured motorist coverage is the only way someone can truly protect themselves in the event of a serious accident.

Pitfalls To Avoid

Before going on to the next type of insurance coverage, we need to clarify several points in regard to uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. The first is that not all states define uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage in the same manner and therefore, if the policy is issued outside Kentucky, you need to ask your insurance agent about the laws of that state. For example, in Indiana, an underinsured motorist claim only exists to the extent that the other driver does not have insurance coverage equal to the level of underinsured motorist coverage you purchased. So if the at-fault driver has insurance coverage up to $25,000 per person and you purchased underinsured motorist coverage of $100,000, the total amount that can be collected on the claim would $100,000 with your own insurance company only being responsible for a maximum of $75,000.

The second point is that a motorcyclist can not rely upon their automobile insurance for protection. Many automobile insurance policies exclude damages incurred while on a motorcycle. In other words, if the motorcyclist owns a Chevrolet with significant amounts of uninsured and underinsured motorist insurance on his automobile policy, it is likely that he will not be able to make any kind of claim against this policy. Any damages arising from the use of the motorcycle would probably be excluded from the coverage of the automobile policy. Therefore, if the right type of insurance and the correct amount of each is not on both an individual's motorcycle and automobile insurance policy, that individual runs the risk of not being adequately protected in the event of a serious accident.

Further, you should not assume that you have these types of insurance or that they will be contained in your policy if you ask your insurance agent for "full coverage." You want to be specific in your request for these types of insurance as only uninsured motorist coverage is required by Kentucky law and it can be rejected if you are not careful. Further, you should discuss with your agent your individual needs and how much insurance coverage you would need in the event of a serious accident. We suggest that you have a minimum amount of $100,000 of each of these kinds of coverage as you want to be prepared for the worst.

No-Fault Coverage

While we are discussing No-Fault insurance last, it is probably the most important for motorcyclists in that Kentucky law provides a person with greater rights and protection to a passenger in an automobile than a motorcyclist. No-Fault insurance, also known as personal injury protection or basic reparation benefits, can not be sold in Kentucky in an amount less than $10,000. No-fault insurance covers certain types of economic damages, primarily lost wages and medical expenses, which are to be paid by the insurance company for the vehicle you were riding in regardless of who is at fault in causing the accident. So if you drive your neighbor to the store in your car and are hit by a drunk driver on the way, your own insurance company will pay his medical expenses and lost wages even though you were not at fault in causing this accident. In exchange for this right, the Kentucky Legislature said that your insurance company, not you or your neighbor, has the right to recover the damages paid as no-fault benefits from the drunk driver or his insurance company. In other words, while you can still present a claim for your pain and suffering, you can not recover the first $10,000 of your medical expenses lost wages from the at-fault driver. If you did not have your car properly insured and therefore did not have an insurance company available to pay these damages, Kentucky law still says that you do not have the right to recover the first $10,000 in medical expenses and lost wages from the at-fault driver and that this right still belongs to the non-existent insurance company. In other words, if your car is uninsured and you incur $5,000 in medical expenses from an accident, the insurance company for the at-fault driver may offer you $3,000 to settle your pain and suffering claim but it will not be responsible for any portion of the $5,000 in medical expenses. The crucial point motorcyclists need to understand is that unless you purchased optional no-fault coverage from your own insurance company, Kentucky law treats you as if you had broken the law and had no insurance at all on your motorcycle.

The relevant statute, K.R.S. 304.39-040(4) states in part: "no operator or passenger on a motorcycle is entitled to basic reparation benefits from any source for injuries arising out of the maintenance or use of a motorcycle unless such reparation benefits have purchased as optional coverage for the motorcycle or by the individual so injured." The other relevant statute, K.R.S. 304.39-060, states that your insurance company, not you, has the right to recover the items that are or could be paid as no-fault benefits from the at-fault driver. The Kentucky Courts have interpreted these statutes so that a motorcyclist is not entitled to recover the first $10,000 of his medical expenses and lost wages paid from his own insurance company unless he has purchased optional no-fault coverage or from the insurance company for the at-fault driver. Therefore, as a motorcyclist who is unfortunate enough to be in an automobile accident, you are responsible for the first $10,000 of your medical expenses and lost wages even though you did nothing to cause the accident and despite the fact that you had your motorcycle properly insured as required by Kentucky law. In effect, the law is treating you in the same manner as someone who breaks the law and drives a motor vehicle without insurance and is making you personally responsible for the first $10,000 of your medical expenses or lost wages even though the accident was not your fault. Consequently, the only way to protect yourself is to purchase optional, no-fault benefits from your own insurance company.

If you purchase this kind of insurance, your insurance company will be responsible for your medical expenses and lost wages as long as they are reasonable and related to the accident. By doing so, you have taken away the penalty imposed by Kentucky law, as discussed above, and provided a means to receive treatment for your injuries before a final settlement with the at-fault party. It should not be overlooked that this coverage is not fault based and therefore, you would have these same advantages and means of obtaining treatment even if the accident was your fault. We recommend that you purchase a high amount of no-fault coverage so that you know your medical expenses will be paid in the event you are involved in a serious accident even if the other driver is uninsured or underinsured.

If you've been injured in Kentucky or Indiana, contact the proven Kentucky personal injury lawyers of The Becker Law Office today for your confidential FREE CASE EVALUATION to get started.