When you are injured in a Georgia collision, you need to put your Georgia Uninsured Motorist Insurance carrier on notice as soon as possible because the failure to do so can void coverage. Problems usually arise with these coverages when you are covered under your parent’s or grandparents policy and you don’t realize that until a year down the road when you finally hire a lawyer.
Depending on the facts of the case and the Uninsured Motorist Insurance policy language, you can be required to give notice in as few as 30 days of the crash. See Flamm v. Doe, 167 Ga. App. 587 (1983). In Manzi v. Cotton States Mutual Insurance Company, 243 Ga. App. 277 (2000), the Court of Appeals ruled that the insured’s failure to give notice within 60 days voided the coverage. Keep in mind that if the policy is worded correctly, you can lose thousands of dollars of potential insurance coverage just by not asking the right questions. Failing to hire an injury attorney when there are serious injuries involved can have dire consequences.
What are some other sources of Georgia Uninsured Motorist coverage? If you have multiple car policies even with the same carrier, so long as there are separate policy numbers, these policies likely stack under OCGA Sec. 33-7-11(b)(1)(D(ii)
You may also qualify as an additional insured on the policy of a relative that you live with pursuant to OCGA Sec. 33-7-11(b)(1)(B). One final place to look is at your employer’s policy if you were on the job at the time of the Georgia crash. See Chastain v. USFG 199 Ga. App. 86 (1991).
Attorneys can help you work through the stacking of these coverages because the stacking rules can be complex.