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From: msb@lsuc.UUCP (Mark Brader)
Newsgroups: net.legal,net.auto
Subject: Uninsured motorism
Message-ID: <748@lsuc.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 10-Aug-85 13:58:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: lsuc.748
Posted: Sat Aug 10 13:58:43 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 10-Aug-85 14:22:59 EDT
References: <202@SCIRTP.UUCP> <378@kontron.UUCP> <586@ttidcc.UUCP>
Reply-To: msb@lsuc.UUCP (Mark Brader)
Distribution: net
Organization: Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto
Lines: 37
Summary: There should be insurance against uninsured motorists

> > What if you or I were hit by an uninsured driver?
> > We could tally huge medical bills with no means
> > to pay for them. I think you can never confiscate
> > someone's automobile liability insurance because
> > others will often suffer the most.
> 
> Which brings up an important point.  This can happen to you
> NOW!  My attorney has handled many cases where
> innocent people were severely injured by uninsured drivers
> and were unable to collect. ...

Which suggests that, in jurisdictions where motorists are allowed
not to have insurance (that's most of them in North America, isn't it?),
insurance companies should sell policies that protect you not only
against your own liability but also against that of the uninsured
driver who runs into you.

In other words, suppose I collide with J, and J is at fault,
and I suffer serious injuries; then J's insurance might have to pay
me, say, $250,000.  But if J is uninsured, J merely owes me
that money, and since he can only pay $5,000, I'm out $245,000
(minus what my particular government chips in), and J declares
bankruptcy or something.

Under my proposal, my own insurance, although primarily for the
purpose of paying J if I had been at fault, would pay me the $250,000
in this case.  J gets the same treatment as before, because he still
owes $250,000 -- only now he owes it to my insurer, not me.  So there
my proposal does not confer any benefit to J, but does to me -- at a
cost of a slightly higher premium.  I say slightly higher because most
drivers *are* insured, so the risk of this is small.

I favor mandatory liability insurance for drivers, but this seems to
be a workable alternative.  I've never heard of such policies actually
existing anywhere.  Do they?

Mark Brader