Insurance terms can sound like a foreign language. I hope this will help with some easy to understand Insurance terms for your Auto Insurance policy in North Carolina.
According to the Consumer Guide on the Department of Insurance’s website and my 2 cents worth, here are some terms you will need to understand your personal auto policy.
Liability Coverage(required by N.C. State Law)
Your Liability coverage will pay for bodily injury and property damage for which any covered individual becomes legally responsible. The Personal Automobile Policy using any automobile or trailer, and any person using your covered automobile with permission. The policy will pay up to the limits listed on your policy.
Under this coverage you will have separate limits of liability per person injured and limits of liability per accident. If you are looking at your insurance policy, the liability section can be separated into three parts: Bodily Injury Liability, Property Damage Liability, and Supplementary Payments.
Bodily Injury Liability
This Coverage will pay for damages to other people as a result of an accident caused by you or another covered driver. Examples of damages that may be paid under the bodily injury liability part are lost wages, disability, rehabilitation, medical payments, funeral expenses, pain and suffering,and legal expenses due to law suit settlements.
Property Damage Liability
This coverage will pay for damages to the other persons vehicle (property) as a result of an accident that is caused by you or another covered driver. An obvious example of property damage is is actual vehicle you hit.
Supplementary Payments
This section provides payments for expenses due to Bail bonds, Premiums on appeal bonds and bonds to release attachments, Costs taxed against an insured and interest accruing after a judgement is entered, Loss of earnings because of attendance at hearings or trials at the insurance company’s request, Expenses for emergency first aid to others at an accident involving a covered auto, and other reasonable expenses incurred at the insurance company’s request.
This is not an extensive list of liability terms, however, hopefully it will give you some basic knowledge.
In later blogs i will add some more terms. Please send me an email if you have a specific question and i will do my best to answer the question.