What happens when insurance policy limits can’t cover my catastrophic injury costs?
A serious injury can run up costs that exceed the at-fault party’s insurance many times over. Georgia’s minimum auto liability limits are only 25,000 dollars per person, and even a well-insured driver may carry far less coverage than a lifetime of care requires. When the available policy will not cover the harm, the question becomes where else recovery can come from.
The at-fault party’s own assets ¶
An insurance limit caps what the insurer must pay, not what the responsible party owes. A defendant remains personally liable for a judgment above their policy. In practice, collecting from an individual’s personal assets is often difficult, because many people lack significant reachable wealth and some protections exist for certain property. But where a defendant is a business, a commercial trucking company, or an individual with real assets, pursuing the excess can be worthwhile, and a judgment can sometimes be collected over time.
Stacking up every available source of coverage ¶
Catastrophic cases usually depend less on one large policy than on combining several. Common additional sources include:
- The injured person’s own uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage under O.C.G.A. § 33-7-11, which can pay when the at-fault driver has too little insurance, and which may be available across more than one vehicle or policy.
- Umbrella or excess policies held by the at-fault party that sit above the primary auto coverage.
- Employer or commercial policies when the driver was working, often with much higher limits than personal auto insurance, sometimes reached through claims like negligent hiring or entrustment.
- Other responsible parties, discussed below, who carry separate coverage of their own.
An insurer’s duty and the risk of bad faith ¶
When a claim clearly exceeds the policy limit, an insurer that unreasonably refuses a fair offer to settle within those limits can expose itself, and potentially its insured, to liability beyond the limit. Georgia recognizes claims for an insurer’s bad-faith failure to settle, and time-limited demands governed by O.C.G.A. § 9-11-67.1 are one mechanism that can create that exposure. This sometimes opens a path to recovery larger than the stated policy amount.
The bottom line ¶
When policy limits fall short of a catastrophic injury’s true cost, the focus shifts to assembling coverage from every angle: the defendant’s assets, the claimant’s own UM/UIM benefits, umbrella and commercial policies, additional defendants, and, where an insurer mishandles a clear claim, a bad-faith theory that can exceed the limit. Identifying these sources early is often what makes a full recovery possible.
This article is for general educational and informational purposes only and is not legal advice. It does not create an attorney-client relationship, and Georgia law may change. For advice about a specific situation, consult a licensed Georgia personal injury attorney.