Recovery Amount: $550,000

Our clients, a mother and father, along with their son, were on their way to Mississippi to visit their daughter who attends Mississippi State University when a man from Hoover, Alabama caused a violent collision sending all 3 of our clients to local hospitals. Our clients were driving a relative’s car at the time of the collision. The man who caused the wreck had the bare minimum liability insurance limits of just $25,000.00 per claimant with an aggregate total of $50,000.00 per incident. We sent our letter of representation to the relative’s car insurer to see if the policy carried Uninsured Motorist Coverage. The insurance adjuster wrote us back stating the policy “carried $500,000.00 of liability insurance but there is no uninsured motorist coverage available.” Under Georgia law, EVERY policy of car insurance must include Uninsured Motorist Coverage in an amount equal to the amount of liability insurance purchased unless you sign a form rejecting the coverage. Our client’s relative told us that she did not recall rejecting this coverage but she was not sure either way. We demanded that the insurance company produce the signed rejection. Instead of producing the signed rejection, the insurance company sent a letter to our client’s relative, insisting she sign this form. She called us instead. Because the carrier could not produce a signed rejection of the uninsured motorist coverage, we were able to force the carrier to provide $500,000.00 of Uninsured Motorist benefits. The carrier promptly tendered its limits.