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

Car-free cyclists run the risk of being victimized by uninsured or under insured motorists. As I have stated many times in the past, most people in Illinois don't care about under-insured or uninsured drivers because most people in the state of Illinois drive cars. Since most people are drivers, they probably have their own uninsured motorist coverage under their auto policy. Most auto policies offer $100,000 to $250,000 in uninsured or under-insured motorist coverage.

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.

A number of people have asked me about liability insurance coverage for car-free cyclists, perhaps in response to my previous post. Suppose you are a car-free cyclist and you cause an accident in which someone is injured or their property is damaged. What do you do about the injured party's claim against you?

On March 20, 2008, the Third District Appellate Court delivered the opinion of Standard Mutual v. Rogers. In this case the Court addressed the issue of whether or not a driver hit by a bicyclist could make a claim for personal injuries under his uninsured motorist policy that protected against operators of uninsured motor vehicles. Standard Mutual v. Jimmie Rogers, Docket No. 3-07-0138, (Ill. 3rd Dist. 2008).

Recently I attended traffic court with one of my clients. I am always shocked to see the light punishment people receive for not having insurance. For instance, I saw a woman plead guilty to blowing a stop sign and no insurance. She was fined $25.00 for blowing the stop and $50.00 for not having insurance. The court then assessed $55.00 in court costs for a whopping total of $130.00 in fines and costs.

People often think that if the driver flees after an accident there is no possibility of recovery. That may be true, but often it is not. I have personally handled cases in which we were able to locate a hit-and-run driver through thorough investigation. In each instance the initial assumption by the police was that the driver was uninsured, and therefore, fled the scene. In each instance this turned out to be untrue, and the driver did have valid insurance.