Umbrella Insurance

What Lawsuits Typically Trigger Umbrella Coverage

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Understanding when umbrella insurance provides protection can help you decide whether it’s right for your situation. At Bartal Insurance in Scranton, PA, we help clients understand how umbrella policies respond to lawsuits that exceed their standard liability limits.

Auto Accident Liability Claims

Serious car accidents often result in the largest liability claims, making auto incidents among the most common triggers for umbrella insurance. If you cause a collision that severely injures multiple people, medical bills and lost wages can quickly exceed your auto policy’s liability limits. For example, a 300,000-dollar auto liability limit may seem sufficient until you face a lawsuit seeking 2 million dollars for long-term injuries or disabilities. Umbrella insurance covers the amount beyond your auto policy limits, protecting your savings and other assets.

Property-Related Injury Lawsuits

Injuries that occur on your property can also lead to costly liability claims. A delivery driver slipping on icy steps or a neighbor’s child getting hurt on your trampoline can result in medical bills and pain and suffering damages that surpass your homeowners’ liability coverage. Dog bite claims are another common source of lawsuits, especially when the injuries require reconstructive surgery or cause permanent scarring. Umbrella insurance provides additional protection when these costs exceed your homeowners policy limits.

Personal Injury and Defamation Claims

Umbrella policies often provide coverage for personal injury claims that do not involve physical harm. This includes lawsuits involving libel, slander, or invasion of privacy. Social media disagreements, neighborhood disputes, or business-related conflicts can escalate into costly defamation claims. These situations are typically not covered under standard auto or homeowners policies, making umbrella insurance especially valuable.

Protecting Your Financial Future

Umbrella insurance offers an affordable way to protect yourself against lawsuits that could jeopardize your long-term financial security. Considering the relatively low cost of umbrella policies compared to the high dollar amounts associated with liability claims, this coverage is a smart choice for many families with assets to protect. For personalized umbrella insurance guidance, contact Bartal Insurance in Scranton, PA, today.

Why You Need Liability Protection From Umbrella Insurance

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When you own a home and a car, it’s important to have sufficient protection for them. While you may have a home and auto insurance policies, they might not provide enough coverage. You may think there’s plenty of liability insurance, but the reality is that you might fall short. That’s where umbrella insurance comes in. It can be the difference between being able to pay for an accident and not being able to. When you need umbrella insurance, we can help. Give us a call now at Bartal Insurance in Scranton, PA.

Liability Coverage in Umbrella Policies

When you need to protect your vehicle and home, you have a home and an auto policy. Each of these comes with multiple types of coverage, including liability protection. This protects you financially in case of an accident that happens either in your home or with your vehicle. Often, there isn’t much of this liability coverage in either policy. This can make it difficult for the policy to pay for a serious and expensive accident. With umbrella insurance, however, you get much more liability coverage for both of these policies at the same time.

Using Umbrella Insurance

With much more liability coverage, your umbrella policy can come in when your home or auto policy isn’t able to pay all of the expenses for an accident. These policies can only pay up to their maximum, which may not be enough for an expensive accident. When this happens, your umbrella policy can step in and pay the rest of what’s owed for expenses like car repairs and bodily injuries.

Get Umbrella Insurance

It’s a good idea to have this coverage just in case you need it. If you don’t have an umbrella policy and need more liability coverage, call Bartal Insurance in Scranton, PA.

What’s Considered Damages in A Court Case?

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If you’ve been named in a lawsuit, you may have seen the term damages and want to know what that means. Several different things can be outlined as damages; if you’re found to be responsible, you’ll have to cover these expenses. 

Medical Expenses

Some of the most common damages in any suit are medical expenses related to the case. This could be for bodily injury or mental health treatment. If the party has to incur future costs due to these damages, then your insurance will cover what’s already been paid and the cost for future expenses. 

Property Damage

Any personal damage that was destroyed, such as a vehicle, equipment, or anything else that needed to be repaired or replaced, can be considered property damage. Anything recorded as being damaged in the suit will need to be covered. 

Punitive Damages

In some cases, punitive damages can be related to different cases. These are used as a form of financial punishment for the act that was committed. They will exceed basic compensation and cover additional costs and are only awarded in extreme cases. These are usually found in drunk driving or extreme cases. 

Liquidated Damages

In cases of construction or development, liquidated damages could be part of the original contract. If they were and you’re found responsible for these damages, then you’ll have to pay a sum to cover the cost of the liquidation that went into the project. This can be a total sum or a certain amount arranged per day. 

If you’re looking for a personal quote on umbrella insurance in the Scranton, PA community, contact our team at Bartal Insurance today. 

Does umbrella insurance only help if there is a lawsuit?

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No one wants to be involved in a lawsuit. The most common way for people to be involved in a lawsuit is after an accident when someone is injured, usually an automobile accident. 

If you live in Scranton, PA, you may have even seen an accident yourself or been involved in one. An umbrella policy from Bartal Insurance won’t keep you from being in an accident, but it could keep you from having to deal with a lawsuit after an accident.

How Does Umbrella Insurance Work?

With a standard policy, such as a homeowners or auto insurance policy, you have specific policy limits. Especially when there is a serious accident, an accident victim could use up the money from those limits quickly. Even what looks like a minor fall could result in months of physical therapy.

Once you hit your policy limits, the insurance company won’t pay any more on the claim. At that point, you become responsible for paying for everything out of pocket. If you have an umbrella policy, though, you have extra protection.

Once you have reached the maximum limits on your other policies, your umbrella policy will kick in, and you will continue to pay on the claims. Umbrella policies tend to be large, usually coming in increments of $1 million, so you should be protected.

An Umbrella Policy Saves Money and Stress

If you don’t have the money to pay a claim, the injured party is more likely to file a lawsuit. That is the only way they have to recover, and their insurance company may insist on a lawsuit. 

Your Scranton, PA umbrella policy will also pay for attorney fees when there is a claim or a lawsuit. If you are interested in having a higher level of protection for yourself and your family, call Bartal Insurance today.

What is umbrella insurance and why do I need it?

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Many people have no idea what umbrella insurance is. It is one of the most misunderstood types of insurance. One thing it isn’t is insurance for your umbrella. Bartal Insurance offers umbrella insurance to Scranton, PA residents and we are delighted to be able to share our expertise in insurance with our customers. We are independent insurance agents, and we offer more choices, which allows us to offer better rates.  

Why Umbrella Insurance?

Umbrella insurance is excess liability coverage. What that means is that it adds an additional level of protection to the liability coverage that you already have. Umbrella insurance is not a policy you can have if you don’t already have a policy with liability coverage. Many different types of insurance have liability coverage, including home, auto, condo, renters, boat, motorcycle, and more. 

How it works is that if you have legal action against you, your primary insurance will provide protection up to the limit of the policy. If legal fees and a judgment go beyond the coverage that you have, you are responsible for paying the rest out of your own pocket. When you have an umbrella policy, your primary policy will pay up to its limit, and then the umbrella will go into effect.

An umbrella insurance policy protects your assets. It is affordable and can make all the difference when you get sued. If you have any assets at all, you can benefit from umbrella insurance. Suing people has become all too common, and if you want to protect what you have worked so hard to accumulate, umbrella insurance is an important coverage to add. 

Give Us A Call

In and around Scranton, PA, you can count on our team at Bartal Insurance to help with your insurance needs. Call us today to learn more about umbrella insurance coverage.