The Law Offices of James M. Freeman, P.C.

One of the frustrating problems I face with respect to getting a recovery for my clients is insufficient insurance coverage limits. The mandatory minimum coverage limits in Illinois require every automobile to carry liability insurance with a minimum of twenty thousand dollars per occurrence and forty thousand dollars total. That means that for any given occurrence the most such a policy would pay out is $20,000. Twenty thousand dollars isn't a lot of coverage. One could exhaust that much coverage with one night in a hospital.

Often one of the biggest factors limiting recovery for cyclists hit by automobiles is the coverage limits of the responsible party. In catastrophic cases in which clients suffer debilitating and permanent injuries the limiting factor of recovery is often the amount of insurance coverage.

I have repeatedly made the argument that uninsured motorists pose a special threat to car-free cyclists since such a cyclist will not typically have uninsured or under-insured motorist coverage (See my detailed discussion on this topic here). If you live with anyone who owns a car you should be sure that you are named as an additional insured on the under-insured motorists provisions of their policy. In the event that you are a student and you can claim your parents' address as your permanent address, you should remain a named insured on your parents' auto policy for purposes of UM/UIM coverage.

What is a cyclist to do if they want to obtain uninsured motorist coverage? There doesn't seem to be a good solution to this problem at this point. Insurance companies are unwilling to issue UIM coverage to cyclists. Ray Thomas wrote a fairly comprehensive article on the subject for Oregon Cyclist Magazine wherein he basically suggests that car-free cyclists buy a crappy car for $350.00 and purchase as much uninsured motorist coverage as they want on the vehicle. Then if they are involved in an accident the UM/UIM portions of the policy are activated by the loss.

Cyclists should consider the possibility and implications of a catastrophic injury in the event of an accident. With as many uninsured or under-insured motorists as we have on Chicago's streets today, one can't really depend on a driver to have sufficient insurance coverage to cover a major injury. Cyclists need to explore their potential sources of insurance coverage including health insurance and any possible under-insured motorist coverage and be sure that they are prepared for the possibility of an accident or crash.