Colorado Insurance

Recent changes to Colorado insurance law mean that consumers are better protected when they are injured or have property damaged as the result of a collision with an uninsured or underinsured driver. These changes to insurance law in Colorado mean that consumers will be able to access the benefits they thought they were getting when they bought their car insurance policy. This is good news for all drivers in Colorado, since finding out after an accident that they don't have the level of coverage they thought they had in place put an additional strain on an already-stressful situation.

Colorado Insurance: Changes To State Law Prior To January 2008

Before January 1, 2008, your insurance company could choose to offset the amount paid by the other driver's insurance company following an accident against the amount of coverage that you have in place. In addition, insurance companies had the right to include ant-stacking language as part of their policy wording. This meant that if you own more than one vehicle (with a separate policy for each one), you were barred from adding the policy limits for multiple Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist plans together so that you would be entitled to a higher level of coverage.

Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist coverage is put in place to protect you if you are injured or your property, such as your car, garage, shed, fence, or mailbox, is damaged as the result of an accident where the other driver either doesn't have insurance or doesn't have enough insurance in place to pay for these damages. Colorado drivers are legally required to have auto insurance in place, but that doesn't mean that all of them obey the law.

Colorado Insurance: Post January 2008

As of January 1, 2008, consumers in Colorado can use all the Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist coverage they have available to them to protect themselves against the actions of an at-fault driver without insurance or who doesn't have enough coverage to fully compensate them for their injuries or damage to property.

Your insurance company may send you a letter asking you to waive this provision. You would be ill advised to take this step. If you are paying for insurance coverage, then you should be able to get benefits when you suffer a loss.

Here's an example of how the new legislation affects consumers:

You have been injured as the result of a motor vehicle accident and have $200,000 in medical bills and lost wages you want to be compensated for. Since the accident was caused by a driver who didn't have insurance, you look to your Uninsured/Underinsured policy to pay benefits.

In the past, you would have been limited to the coverage available under the policy attached to the vehicle you were driving at the time. If you only had $50,000 or $100,000 in coverage, then you would need to pay the balance of the bills on your own.

For the sake of this example, let's suppose that you own two vehicles and have separate policies on each. The total policy limits for Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist coverage is more than the $200,000 in damages that you sustained and it's after January 1, 2008. You can combine the benefits available from the policies you own and use them to pay for your injuries and to compensate you for your lost wages.

Colorado Insurance: Taking Action To Get The Protection You Need

Even though this law takes effect, as of January 1, 2008, it only applies to policies issued or renewed after that date. To make sure you can take advantage of the changes to the legislation, you need to contact your insurance company. You need to have the insurer issue a new policy or update your existing policy so that the law applies to your situation.

Colorado insurance companies are also required by law to give customers the option of buying the same level of Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist coverage as what they have in place for Bodily Injury claims. (The Bodily Injury coverage pays benefits when you are the at-fault driver in an accident.)

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