Do yourself a favor and buy a full coverage auto policy
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You stare at the damage to your beautiful 2023 Kia Sorento.
It’s pretty beat up to the point it isn’t drivable, but not to the point where it’s totaled.
Some jerk ran a red light and crashed into you.
The other driver is disputing liability, claiming he had a green light.
As the local tow guy, Mo (because of course his name is Mo), loads your vehicle
up to take it to the tow yard to await a liability decision, you wonder what’s going to
happen next.
You only purchased liability coverage, and you don’t have alternative means of transportation or enough money to get your vehicle out of the tow yard, let alone to front the costs of repairs.
The situation appears hopeless. You’ve got no other means of transportation, and no immediate way to repair your car until the insurance situation sorts itself out.
What is full coverage and why do you need it?
The above scenario is a common one for our clients. It is also a situation that is entirely
avoidable if you had purchased full coverage on your car.
“Full coverage” generally refers to a policy that has both the state-required liability coverage, plus collision and comprehensive coverages.
Collision coverage helps repair your car when it hits or is hit by another car irrespective of who was at fault.
Comprehensive coverage kicks in when your car is damaged from something that is not the result of a collision with another car (such as hitting a deer, hail damage, etc.).
In the above hypothetical, had you had full coverage, your auto policy’s collision coverage would kick in to cover the repairs immediately, so repair work could get underway while the insurance claim is stuck in liability purgatory.
Then, assuming the liability decision is in your favor, your insurance company would turn around and seek reimbursement from the other driver’s liability carrier for the repair costs it paid to fix your car – the fancy ten-dollar lawyer word for this is “subrogation.”
But all you need to know is having full coverage means your car gets fixed and back on the road.
What happens if you don’t have it?
If you don’t have full coverage, you are at the whim and timeline of the other driver’s
liability carrier to get your car repaired.
Liability insurance companies can take weeks or even months to reach a final liability determination on a claim, meaning your car is sitting in a tow yard, incurring storage fees – storage fees you may or may not be able to recover.
Idaho has a legal doctrine called the duty to mitigate damages – meaning you have an obligation to minimize the financial impact of car crash on yourself.
If you allow your car to sit in tow yard incurring fees, you can bet that the other driver’s liability coverage is going to claim you failed to mitigate your damages and refuse to pay your
storage bill – a good attorney will fight to try to get these costs paid for you, but not
having full coverage does create ambiguity and headaches for everyone in situations like the above.
There are situations where it might not make sense to have full coverage – such as if
your car is old and not worth the cost to fully insure, or if you have the financial means
to front all the costs of repairs.
But if you are like most people and don’t fall into one of those categories, do yourself a favor and purchase full coverage.
Austin Strobel is a personal injury attorney at the Idaho Advocates, with 10 years of experience practicing on both sides of personal injury claims of all varieties.
This column provides general information and is not to be considered legal advice. Readers with specific legal questions should consult an attorney. The Idaho State Bar Association provides a lawyer referral service, through their website at https://isb.idaho.gov/.