If you own a home in Arizona, you need several forms of insurance coverage to protect you, your family, and your possessions. One type of coverage that many homeowners may not know that they need is personal injury coverage. When an injury occurs on your property, you could face thousands of dollars in liability costs. With personal injury coverage, you could protect yourself against these incidents.
What Does Personal Injury Coverage Protect?
When you purchase personal injury coverage on your homeowner’s insurance policy, you can protect yourself against multiple forms of damages that can come from a personal injury case. First and foremost, your insurance coverage will compensate the injured person for all of the losses associated with his or her injuries up to your policy limits. These costs may include medical expenses, pain and suffering, lost wages, and other economic and noneconomic damages. A Peoria personal injury attorney may be able to determine if your home insurance can be used to cover for injuries sustained by someone at your property.
However, your insurance coverage will only protect you up until the damages exceed your policy limits. For example, say that you purchase $100,000 in personal injury coverage for your Arizona home. Someone trips and falls on your premises and suffers from significant injuries. Your insurance will only compensate the injured person up to that $100,000 limit.
You may be on the hook for any costs above $100,000. However, this occurrence is quite rare in serious injury cases. Your homeowner’s insurance may have a provision, known as an umbrella provision, which can provide additional protection.
Why Is Personal Injury Coverage Important?
You do not want an accident to drain your financial resources. Many accidents can occur on your property, whether you are aware of the hazards or not. From slips and falls to falling objects to dangerous materials on your property, many dangers are present and you never know when an accident will occur.
Consider a standard slip and fall case that results in broken bones and other injuries. The injured person will have to receive medical care, which could lead to thousands in medical costs over time. He or she may have to receive surgery or physical therapy, which could increase his or her medical expenses. In addition, the injured person may need to take time off work to recover, resulting in weeks or even months of lost wages. Combined with non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering, emotional trauma, and disability, you could be on the hook for thousands more.
Without personal injury coverage, you will need to pay for these expenses out of pocket. However, if you do have coverage, your company will cover the vast majority of these expenses, if not all of them.
Negligence and Homeowners Insurance
Your homeowner’s insurance will cover many types of injuries, but certain injuries will not receive coverage under your policy. The majority of incidents you could claim coverage for will involve accidents, which fall under the realm of negligence. For example, if someone slips and falls on your property and suffers injuries, the injured person will need to prove that your negligence contributed to their injuries.
However, your insurance will not cover injuries that you intentionally cause. For example, if you assault someone on your property and he or she suffers injuries, your insurance company could deny your coverage. You will have to pay for these injuries out of pocket.
Legal Representation and Personal Injury Coverage
Another benefit of personal injury coverage on homeowners’ insurance is that you may have legal representation built-in to your policy. Your insurance company could help you obtain the services of a lawyer after an incident involving an injured person on your property. However, this attorney may not be the best fit for your situation and the policy may not cover certain types of incidents.
If you are experiencing liability issues due to a personal injury on your Arizona property, you need to call an attorney as soon as possible. Your attorney can help assess your policy and protect you against financial damage.