Legal Question in Insurance Law in Indiana

Does our car insurance premiums provide us any reguired service from our agents?

I have a 1999 leased car that was involved in an accident Dec. 10th. No one called the police at the time of the accident.

My son was using my car because his needed repair work. He just started a new job and had to wait for the first paycheck to get his car fixed. He is temporarily home going to school and working. He is almost 24 years old. The problem is-- I forgot that I excluded him from my policy almost 3 years ago. I did so because I am a single parent who raised 4 children by myself for the last 10 years and didn't want to pay the high premium at the time.

I went to the insurance co. web page and they said they update policies. They did not! I had no reason to exclude him because he has had his own car and own insurance policy.

As it stands now, they denied claim because of the exclussion. I have been with this company for about 20 years. Very few claims. Paid the reguired full coverage of a leased car. What purpose is an insurance policy if it doesn't cover the car that is insured.

Don't they have an obligation to update the people that pay them every month?


Asked on 1/29/00, 7:33 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Steven Murray Steven W. Murray, APC

Re: Does our car insurance premiums provide us any reguired service from our age

Your son probably has his own insurance coverage

for using your leased car. If his was unavailable

because it was waiting to be repaired, then your

leased car is a "temporary substitute" auto which

should be included in his policy under "autos we

cover" or the policy definition of "covered auto."

Your policy renewed every 6 months or each year, and

the fact he was excluded is shown on each renewal.

That probably constitutes the insurer's notification

to you of what your policy does and does not cover.

Most states require coverage for permissive users.

Some do not allow exclusions from that rule, some

do.

I suggest he file the claim with his own company,

say he was using a substitute/temporary auto ( use

whatever terms are in his own policy) and go from

there.

And personal policies do cover the auto, as long as

there is no excluded driver. The premiums are

higher for different and younger drivers, and that

is why these rules exist. If you had an agent, he

should have explained all of this to you.

Good luck.

Steven Murray

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Answered on 1/31/00, 8:16 pm


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