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Want to hear something scary? Idaho’s mandatory minimum requirement for bodily injury liability coverage is only $25,000.00 “per person” and $50,000.00 “per occurrence.”

Terrifying, right? Even If you’re not scared yet, to quote the great Jedi Master Yoda – “you will be.”

The problem

Maybe you’re not as scared as I am, because you might not know what any of this means. That’s okay – it’s what I’m here for.

Bodily injury liability coverage is the insurance coverage for an at-fault driver that is used to compensate an injury victim for their medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. What the above mandatory minimum amounts mean is that if you are involved in a crash with an at-fault driver driving around with only the mandatory coverage minimums, no single person that was hurt in your car could receive more than $25,000 from the liability coverage to compensate them for their personal injuries, and even if you were driving a bus with 16 people, the maximum liability payout for that crash is capped at $50,000.00 – no matter how many people were hurt or how badly they were hurt.

In short, you could suffer a life-changing crash because of another’s negligence which caused you to incur a six-figure sum of medical bills and rendered you physically unable to work for the rest of your life – and the only insurance coverage there is to compensate you is a $25,000 per person bodily injury liability policy.

Are you shaking in your boots yet?

The answer

Fortunately, you do not need to be scared – you just need to be ready. How?

By purchasing underinsured motorist (“UIM”) coverage. UIM coverage is a separate coverage purchased by you on your own auto policy (what we attorneys call a “first party coverage”). UIM coverage acts as a safety net to compensate you for damages you sustain in a crash that exceed the bodily injury liability limits of the at-fault driver – in essence, it is your auto insurance kicking in to make you whole when the at-fault’s bodily injury liability coverage is insufficient to make you whole.

Think of it as you insuring yourself against others “cheaping out” on the liability coverage they buy.

Idaho law requires auto insurers to offer you UIM coverage but permits you to opt out – don’t opt out.

Generally, UIM coverage in Idaho comes in two types – “offset” coverage and “stacking” coverage. “Offset” coverage means that your UIM coverage limits will be reduced by the amount of the bodily injury liability coverage of the at-fault driver. For example, if you purchased $100,000 of UIM coverage, and the at-fault driver had $50,000 in bodily injury liability coverage, the first $50,000.00 in your UIM coverage would be offset by the $50,000.00 bodily injury liability coverage of the at-fault driver, leaving you with only $50,000.00 in remaining UIM coverage to tap into.

By contrast, “stacking” UIM coverage is just what it sounds like – your UIM limits stack on top of the amount of the at-fault driver’s liability coverage. Assuming the same scenario above, with “stacking” UIM coverage, you’d be left with the full $100,000 in available UIM limits even if you recovered the full $50,000 bodily injury liability limits from the at-fault driver’s coverage. If you have the option, spring for the “stacking” UIM coverage.

The most common unsolicited advice I provide my clients is to purchase UIM coverage, and plenty of it. It’s the best thing you can do you to make sure you and your family are protected from the negligence of others.

Austin Strobel is a personal injury attorney at the Idaho Advocates, with 10 years of experience practicing on both sides of personal injury claims of all varieties.

This column provides general information and is not to be considered legal advice. Readers with specific legal questions should consult an attorney. The Idaho State Bar Association provides a lawyer referral service, which can be reached by calling (208) 334-4500.