By John Foote, Partner

For over two decades, Fonvielle Lewis Foote & Messer has been stressing the importance of purchasing Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist (UM) Coverage when you purchase your car insurance. After all, UM coverage is the only coverage that can be used to pay you for pain and suffering, unpaid medical bills, unpaid lost wages, disfigurement, permanent impairment and other damages suffered by you or your family members in an automobile accident.

In other words, UM is the only coverage that protects you whenever you’re the innocent victim of someone else’s fault … especially when the at-fault driver doesn’t carry adequate insurance himself. Very few drivers in Florida carry substantial insurance liability coverage, so UM is the single most important purchase any family can make to protect themselves.

The real problem with UM coverage is that insurance companies do not push their clients to buy it as hard as they should. In fact, many times they try to persuade people to “waive” their UM coverage just to save a few premium dollars. This is a grave mistake that should be avoided at all costs.

Along those same lines, the insurance companies are constantly changing their policies to exclude UM coverage in various circumstances. One such situation that is becoming more and more frequent is where someone is injured while riding a motorcycle. As you might imagine, “the other driver,” who never even saw the motorcycle, causes most motorcycle-related accidents. And, most motorcycle accidents involve very serious and expensive injuries. Accordingly, these instances are when the innocent injured victims need their UM coverage the most.

But do the insurance companies care? No, because they have now drafted their policies so that anyone who is injured while riding a motorcycle CANNOT receive any UM coverage benefits. If the same person had been injured in a car accident while walking, riding a bicycle or riding in a car, they would be entitled to UM benefits, but just because they were on a motorcycle they are now barred from getting the compensation and benefits that they truly deserve as a completely innocent victim.

Riding a motorcycle is a risk in and of itself; riding a motorcycle without UM coverage is a dangerous risk that makes no sense. If you drive a motorcycle, please call your insurance agent and specifically ask what can be done to purchase substantial UM coverage that covers your motorcycle. You may actually have to buy a separate policy through a different company, but the need is so great and the price is so small that doing so is crucial. Fonvielle Lewis Foote & Messer represents a large number of injured motorcycle owners, and we can tell you from experience that they certainly don’t regret buying UM!