| Auto Insurance Coverage for Underage Drivers |
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| Age and gender are two of the criteria used by insurers in the process of determining risks in the writing of motor vehicle insurance policies. As a result, auto insurance policies sometimes contain provisions that exclude from coverage incidents that occur while a covered vehicle is being operated by a driver under a specified age, or by a male driver under a specified age. Questions of coverage arise when, as is inevitable, such incidents of operation by underage drivers take place and result in injury or property damage. More... |
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| Automobile Insurance Policies: Refusals to Insure |
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| An automobile insurance company has the right to choose whom it will insure. If an applicant for automobile insurance is deemed to be a bad risk, the insurance company can refuse to issue an insurance policy. Ordinarily, the insurance company does not have to give the applicant a reason for refusing to insure him or her. However, insurance companies must act in good faith in their dealings with insureds and applicants. Although an insurance company can refuse to insure someone, they cannot refuse to insure a person for an improper reason. The same applies to the cancellation of an insurance policy. More... |
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| Auto Insurance Coverage for Unlicensed Drivers |
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| Possession of a valid driver's license, while a prerequisite for the legal operation of a car or truck on the public roads, is clearly not a prerequisite for being physically capable of driving a vehicle. As a result, a great many motor vehicles in the United States are driven by persons not legally licensed to do so. Such unlicensed operations, and the vehicular accidents that inevitably result from them, raise a number of issues in the area of motor vehicle insurance. More... |
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| Violation of Traffic Laws as Proof of Negligence |
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| In an automobile accident action against a driver for damages suffered in a car collision, the driver's violation of a traffic law can be evidence of his or her negligence. The law calls negligence based upon the violation of a specific requirement of law "negligence per se." Negligence per se means that as a matter of law negligence existed. While the violation of a traffic law is negligence as a matter of law, the violation does not mean that the driver is liable unless the negligence was the proximate cause of the plaintiff's injury. Negligence is ordinarily a question for a jury. It only becomes a question of law when a court determines that only one conclusion can reasonably be drawn from the evidence. If the violation of the traffic law is treated as negligence per se, the question of negligence will not be given to the jury. More... |
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| Stacking Provisions for Auto-Insurance |
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| Often more than one automobile insurance policy is in effect for vehicles involved in a collision. Sometimes a single insurance policy can contain several types of coverage that could be applied to the accident. When these situations exist, an insured or the passengers in the insured's vehicle may seek to combine the benefits of the multiple coverage provisions in the policy or policies. This is called "stacking." It can also be called "pyramiding." More... |
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