New Colorado Insurance Law Effects Uninsured Motorist Coverage

Founding partners Kyle Bachus and Darin Schanker of Bachus & Schanker, LLC, recently worked with numerous others who advocate for Colorado consumers as well as the Colorado Senate in enacting a proposed bill in the field of auto insurance. As a result of all their hard work, this bill became a new Colorado Insurance Law that will impact your un-insured/under-insured motorist coverage (UM/UIM).

This new law will help consumers receive the coverage they pay for if injured by an uninsured driver. Effective January 1, 2008, this new law will change Colorado’s UM coverage in two important ways:

1.) Before the January 1, 2008 law change an insurance company could “offset” the amount paid by the at-fault driver’s insurance company against the amount available under your own UM policy;

2.) Before January 1, 2008, insurance companies were able to include “anti-stacking” language in their UM coverage’s that prevented those who pay for multiple policies on multiple cars in the same household from adding the UM coverage’s on each separate policy together in order to maximize coverage.

This new law makes the UM coverage you purchase “stack” on top of the total amount of insurance available from the “at-fault” driver. For example, beginning January 1, 2008, if you buy $50,000 of UM coverage to protect your family, the entire $50,000 will be available to you on top of the insurance available from the at-fault driver if you need it.

“This is a very important coverage that should not be waived. We see many insurance companies reacting to this new law by sending their policy holders letters asking them to waive the coverage altogether. This is not a good idea under any circumstances,” exclaimed Kyle Bachus.

This bill, which is now law, can be found on the Colorado Legislature website.

For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Car and Motorcycle Accidents.