<p>I need to know what the minimum/recommended insurance coverage is for car insurance in CA (Los Angeles). Because our son has graduated we can’t use our Virginia (especially since we don’t live there anymore and the house has a sales contract on it [YEA]) or our Wisconsin policies to cover him even though we own the car. He has registered the car in CA and gotten a CA driver’s license.</p>
<p>Your advice is appreciated considering that three years ago we bought him the Matrix based on the comments I received here.</p>
<p>California state law requires minimum Bodily Injury Liability coverage of $15,000 per injured person up to a total of $30,000 per accident, and Property Damage Liability coverage with a minimum limit of $5,000. This basic coverage is often referred to as 15/30/5 coverage. </p>
<p>Those are the minimum limits. When my son bought his first car last week my insurance agent suggested to me that my son keep the same limits that I have on my car. He decided on higher limits than the minimum.</p>
<p>Thanks. Those minimums seem very low. For bodily injury liability we currently have $100,000 for each person and $300,000 for each occurrence plus $5,000 medical insurance for each person. Is this what you are talking about? Plus we have protection against damage done to us by an uninsured motorist. Do you do that in CA too?</p>
<p>Be sure to have the uninsured motorist be a good high amount, in some areas there are a lot of people who don’t carry insurance or only carry the minimums, so you’ll want that.</p>
<p>On the low minimums, when our D went on to her own policy, the insurance company pointed out that she has no assets, other than the car, so she was not at risk of a lawsuit and could buy the minimums, as no one would be suing her, should she be in an accident. That would only be if your son owns the car and you are not on it at all, nor are you on the insurance. As long as no one can attack your assts, the minimums can be a safe starting place.</p>
<p>My agent said that there have been instances in which a young adult was involved in an accident and carried minimum insurance coverage, but since the parents partially supported the student, the injured party successfully sued the parents’ insurance as well as the student. I too thought the minimums would be fine for my son but since the difference in premium was less than $100 it seemed to make sense to go for the higher limits rather than the minimum. They also pointed out that if the student will also be driving your vehicle even occasionally its best to have the same limits on all auto policies.</p>
<p>AAA insurance let you go up higher like 300/500 for a small increase in fee. I would go higher just for peace of mind, but at least the minimum should be 100/300 combination.</p>
<p>Those minimum limits are dangerously low, in my opinion, even if someone has few or no assets. When someone is in an accident caused by someone else’s negligence, they’re not going to make the decision whether or not to sue based on the limits of the defendant’s insurance. In many cases, if not most, they wouldn’t be aware of that information when they are likely to retain legal counsel. Even if your child has few tangible assets, if a judgment is won against them, they could find themselves losing what few assets they have, and then having wages garnished. It’s not a good thing to risk, considering the additional amount of insurance is fairly reasonable. The other issue to consider would be, would it really be fair to only be responsible for a portion of damages you cause, whether they’re for bodily injury or property damage? Suppose you cause an accident which disables a person permanently? It amazes me that the state would permit such low minimum amounts.</p>
<p>We’ve always had $100K/300K on our cars. But a person at H’s work was hit by a car (she was a ped) and we realized that if WE had hit her instead, that our insurance might not have been enough to cover.</p>
<p>We upped our insurance to $250K/$500K and added an umbrella policy to add another $1 mil coverage. </p>
<p>This is overkill for your son, of course. But we are saving for the kids’ education and would hate to have to tell the kids they have to go to CC because a lawsuit wiped out our college savings!</p>
<p>Definitely get uninsured motorist coverage if your S is to stay in California. There are lots of illegals (and others) driving around uninsured and IMO, the less likely one is to have insurance, the more likely one is to be in accidents (it’s true anecdotally with many people I know at least - most the victims of accidents with illegals).</p>
<p>I agree that the statutory minimum coverage is irresponsibly low. If nothing else, how would you feel if your son accidentally rolled his car and caused a serious injury to a passenger? The statutory minimums would barely cover the ambulance and emergency room costs, let alone any other medical care. This statement:
is actually dead wrong, at least as to its conclusion - any lawyer hired to recover on behalf of an injured party will settle out of court for the policy limits against an essentially judgment-proof student without hesitation rather than go through the time and expense of trial. So from a purely selfish point of view the minimums may be adequate. But that doesn’t change the fact that the responsible thing to do is to have reasonably adequate insurance to compensate people your son may accidentally injure. The extra cost for higher liability coverage is relatively small.</p>
<p>kluge, I may not have expressed my comment clearly enough but it was in response to this in post #5 </p>
<p>“the insurance company pointed out that she has no assets, other than the car, so she was not at risk of a lawsuit and could buy the minimums, as no one would be suing her, should she be in an accident.”</p>
<p>While it’s true that a lawyer may make the determination to settle a claim for policy limits on a judgment proof defendant, at the time that a plaintiff makes the decision to seek legal counsel (which is the decision to which I was referring), it’s unlikely that they are going to be aware of what the policy limits are. So, for an insurance agent to tell someone that “no one would be suing her” is not good advice, in my opinion. A settlement may be reached after the suit is launched, prior to it going to trial, but that doesn’t mean that no one is suing her.</p>
<p>Most personal injury lawyers will have figured out the amount of insurance coverage long before filing suit. Typically there’s plenty of pre-filing negotiation in personal injury cases. Unless the injured person waits until very shortly before the statute of limitations is due to run out to see a lawyer a settlement probably would be reached in such a case before any suit was filed. And if not, the insurance company would handle the lawsuit once its filed in any case, and a post-filing, pre-trial settlement would still not result in a judgment against the insured student.</p>
<p>I’m not disagreeing with your advice, just your understanding of how personal injury cases are handled (in California, anyway.) The likelihood of a case being tried to a judgment against a student with low liability limits, and resulting in a judgment against that student for a sum in excess of those limits is actually quite low. If the injured party (and his/her lawyer) refuse to settle for the policy limits the insurance company still has the obligation to defend the insured student through trial (this is an aspect of the insurance policy which is independent of the obligation to pay the claim.) The cost to the injured party of taking the case that far, vs. the limited potential for recovery to the injured party from the student’s limited assets, makes it not economically rational to pursue that course. As a practical matter the insurance company’s advice was accurate; I just think it was bad advice for other reasons.</p>
<p>On the other hand, my D knew a couple of girls in undergrad who had nice funds of money available to them, $10k-$50k, received when they were passengers in cars involved in accidents. Neither situation involved any apparent or discussed injuries, just frequent references to “my settlement” money. That is a little scary, too, I would prefer my kids NOT be the driver for random co-students, society is too litiginous and drivers are too careless, esp in SoCal! I have asked my Ds to avoid volunteering to be a driver for things, esp those situations with a carload of kids, many times kids you don’t even know that well, piling in and heading off on some errand.</p>
<p>Just a quick reality check: My son was a passenger in a car on a downhill stretch of freeway when the driver lost control and spun out, hit the guardrail knocking out the headlights, and came to a stop facing ongoing traffic. Fortunately the first oncoming vehicle - a truck - swerved to avoid them; the second hit them head on at over 60 mph. The car was totaled (duh!) withe the left front wheel occupying the space where the driver was supposed to be. The driver had a compound fracture of his thigh bone, one passenger had a concussion, another a broken cheekbone. My son had a dark bruise in the shape of his seatbelt emblazoned across his chest and stomach, was taken to the ER in an ambulance ($1100!); lost 2 weeks of work and was very sore for a long time. He was able to hire a very good personal injury lawyer (friend of mine; father of son’s friend) who obtained what I though was a very good settlement - about $7,500.</p>
<p>The court system really is not a casino. My son had all the advantages working for him and got what I (a non-personal injury lawyer with over 30 years courtroom experience) thought was a very good outcome - and he netted a couple of thousand bucks above his wage loss (and is still dealing with the medical bill issues.) Beware of vague stories which suggest that cash rains down on people with dubious injuries once they file lawsuits. In my honest experience that doesn’t really happen.</p>
<p>We received a quote, but it was for coverage that was too low. I’m going to raise it to the 100/300. I was right about the sticker shock. The cost is somewhat higher than Wisconsin.</p>
<p>We are know arranging for individual health coverage for him under Kaiser.</p>
<p>Kluge, you are right. I know someone that hit a bike rider who’s a construction worker, the accident hurting the bike rider 2 middle fingers, which are important for construction work, but he only got $25K settlement fee because that was the limit of the liability insurance.</p>
<p>tsdad…please increase the limits and particularly be careful that he has decent uninsured motorists…in our area of SoCal anyway, there are many many uninsured/unlicensed/undocumented drivers and you can be on the hook for everything. The fact that they are breaking the law by driving without a license or insurance or the fact that they may not be legally in the country doesn’t seem to make a difference.</p>