When purchasing auto insurance in Pennsylvania, drivers are faced with a crucial decision: whether to select full tort or limited tort coverage. This choice can significantly impact your, and your family members that reside with you, ability to seek compensation in the event of an accident, so it’s essential to understand the differences between these two options.
What is Tort Insurance?
A “tort” is a wrongful act that causes harm to someone, and under tort law, the person who is harmed can seek compensation from the person responsible for the harm. In auto insurance, tort options determine your right to sue for damages after a car accident.
Full Tort Insurance
Full Tort insurance gives you the unrestricted right to sue the at-fault driver for both economic and non-economic damages after an accident. This includes:
- Economic Damages: These are quantifiable financial losses, such as medical bills, lost wages, and property damage.
- Non-Economic Damages: These refer to compensation for pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of life’s enjoyment—damages that are more subjective and harder to quantify.
With full tort coverage, you maintain the right to pursue compensation for these non-economic damages, regardless of the severity of your injuries. This can be particularly important if you suffer long-term effects, such as chronic pain or a reduced quality of life, that go beyond the costs of medical treatment.
Limited Tort Insurance
Limited Tort insurance, on the other hand, restricts your ability to sue for non-economic damages. While you can still seek compensation for economic losses like medical expenses and lost income, your ability to recover damages for pain and suffering is generally limited. Most attorneys that find out you have limited tort coverage will not even take your case unless your injuries involved serious, like altering injuries to the point you are no longer able to work.
However, there are exceptions to this limitation. You may be able to sue for non-economic damages under limited tort coverage if your injuries meet the legal definition of “serious injury,” which can include:
- Death
- Significant disfigurement
- Dismemberment
- Permanent loss of a bodily function
- Permanent and serious disfigurement
These exceptions are meant to provide recourse in cases where the injury has a profound impact on your life, but they set a high bar that many injuries do not meet.
Cost Differences
Limited tort insurance typically comes with lower premiums compared to full tort coverage. The trade-off, however, is the limitation on your right, and your resident family members rights, to sue for non-economic damages, which could be significant depending on the nature of the accident and your injuries.
While full tort insurance may be more expensive upfront, it provides broader protection and greater flexibility in pursuing compensation if you are injured in an accident. This can be especially valuable if you suffer injuries that, while not meeting the threshold for a “serious injury,” still have a significant impact on your life.
Viking Law always recommends obtaining full tort insurance no matter what.