What Is PIP (Personal Injury Protection)??

I get questions all the time from injury victims who want to know about PIP or personal injury protection. This is no fault coverage that exists through your own insurance policy, your own automobile insurance policy. It exists in Maryland, the District of Columbia, and in Virginia. Now in Virginia, it is called Med pay. PIP is something that you can purchase with your personal injury protection portion of your auto insurance policy, something you pay extra for. It’s possible for you to waive your PIP. So you really need to think about what you’re doing when you’re purchasing your automobile insurance. It’s a good idea to pay a bit of extra money to have PIP and not waive your PIP. Usually PIP is sold in increments of $2,500. This applies to automobile insurance. Car accidents, motorcyclists, pedestrians hit by a car, bicyclists, any accident involving a car and implicating automobile insurance or some kind of commercial policy for a work vehicle or truck. PIP in the District of Columbia functions very differently. In the District of Columbia, you’re going to have to choose whether to use your PIP or to pursue a liability claim, you can’t do both. In Maryland and Virginia, you could do both. You’re typically making your PIP claim against your own insurance. This throws people off because they often wonder “well it’s the other driver’s fault. Why am I having my own insurance to pay me?” But that’s how PIP works, it’s no-fault coverage. It’s exactly how the name sounds or what it suggests. It’s coverage that you can get no matter who’s at-fault. So let’s say that you caused the accident, you can still recover under the PIP portion of your policy. Now, a couple of things to keep in mind, if you’re a pedestrian or a bicyclist, you have auto insurance but you’re just out for a stroll and you get struck by a car and it’s somebody else’s fault, you can get a recovery many times under your own PIP and the other driver’s PIP. When you meet with your lawyer, tell them about your insurance policy, any resident insurance policies, and umbrella insurance that you may have, even if you think that they might not be relevant to the case, it’s important to tell your lawyer about it because it may be relevant.

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