Your motor vehicle insurance policy protects you from liability. Every driver in Arkansas needs proof of insurance before they can register their vehicles. Your insurance covers the expenses of others if you cause a wreck. Unless you invest in collision coverage or other supplemental insurance beyond the basic state requirements, you don’t have much control over the coverage available to you.
Liability insurance applies when you are at fault for a crash. When another driver is the one who causes a wreck, you are dependent on the coverage that they pay for it. Quite a few drivers in Arkansas have inadequate coverage, and some of them may not have any insurance at all. Will you be able to recover your lost wages from the other driver’s insurance after a wreck?
What insurance does Arkansas require?
To legally register a vehicle in Arkansas, a driver needs to have both bodily injury and property damage liability coverage. State law requires $25,000 worth of property damage coverage. A driver needs the same amount of bodily injury liability coverage, and their policy will cover twice that amount if one wreck hurts two or more people.
Unfortunately, that bodily injury liability coverage should cover not just someone’s medical bills but also any income losses they experience because of their injury. Even something that you will eventually recover from, like a broken arm, could mean six to eight weeks off of work and thousands in medical bills. You may find yourself with more financial losses than the other driver’s policy will cover.
Can your policy protect you?
If you invested in supplemental coverage like collision insurance or underinsured motorist protection, your own policy can help cover some of your losses. Otherwise, you are only able to claim the maximum amount of coverage the other driver carried. Your losses could exceed their coverage by tens of thousands of dollars.
If your injury is severe or will have a lasting impact on your income, you may have no options for full compensation other than a lawsuit against the driver who caused the wreck. Learning more about how insurance functions after an Arkansas car crash can help you handle a claim and better protect yourself.