Newsletters

Insurance Coverage for Motorcycles

Whether it is warmer weather or increased fuel costs, more motorcycles are evident on America's roads and highways. There is a greater danger involved in riding a motorcycle than in driving a car. As a result, insurance companies treat motorcycles and their riders differently than automobiles and their passengers. Such treatment does not violate the constitutional right of equal protection under the law.

Insurer's Right to Subrogation

When one person pays to another person an amount due to the second person by a third person, the first person has a right to recover from the third person the amount paid to the second person. This right of payment is called a subrogation. Subrogation is a doctrine of equity. It is the substitution of the first person in the place of the second person, who had a claim upon the third person. When an insurance company pays its insured for a loss under an insurance policy that was caused by a third party, the insurance company acquires the right of subrogation against the third party.

Household/Family Members Exclusions in Motorists Insurance

Exclusions in a motorist insurance policy that deny coverage to members of an insured's family or household may or may not be valid in a particular case. Further, several factors must be considered before an injured party may be found to be a member of an insured's family or household. It is best to check current case law before accepting that these exclusions in a motorist insurance policy bar an injured person's recovery from the insured's policy.

Assigned Risk Coverage

State assigned risk plans basically operate by creating a pool made up of those drivers who would otherwise not be able to obtain necessary insurance coverage and apportioning the responsibility for providing coverage on the members of that pool among the insurers who write motor vehicle policies in the state. As a consequence of the unique and higher-risk nature of the assigned risk business, state laws covering assigned risk plans often contain detailed provisions concerning application for, participation in, and termination of assigned risk coverage.

Comprehensive Coverage

Cars and trucks can be damaged in a wide variety of ways and by a wide variety of instrumentalities, both while they are in operation and while they are parked and at rest. Comprehensive coverage under motor vehicle insurance policies has been devised in order to provide owners and operators of vehicles with protection against the risk that such damage to a vehicle will occur.