Although all drivers in Georgia are required by law to carry adequate liability insurance, the fact remains there are occasionally drivers who are driving an uninsured vehicle.
In the unfortunate scenario that you are injured by an uninsured driver, you are in roughly the same position as if you were injured by a hit and run driver. The differences are only slight.
The first thing to remember is that even though liability follows the car in Georgia, there are other potential sources of liability insurance you can collect against. This means that the first source of liability coverage is the auto insurance covering the vehicle that was used to cause the collision.
Assuming this vehicle was uninsured, it is probably unlikely that there is secondary liability insurance to cover the at fault party. That being said, it is still a possibility.
The first thing to look at is to see if the at fault driver had any auto insurance policies in his name that might cover him. Possible scenarios are he owned other vehicles, or maybe he wasn’t even the owner of the car he was driving during the collision and had no idea that particular car had no coverage.
The next thing to consider is if the vehicle was owned by someone else, whether the owner had valid insurance in his name for other vehicles. The owner of the vehicle may have lent the car to the at fault driver, and may be vicariously liable. Therefore, you want to know what possible coverages the vehicle owner may have.
Finally, you want to know what the at fault driver was doing at the time of the collision and whether he was on a work assignment for someone else- even if that person or company did not own the vehicle. The person or company therefore could potentially be liable, and also have valid insurance coverage to cover their liability.
If all of those searches are fruitless, it is possible there is no valid liability coverage. In that event, you can still collect against any available uninsured motorist coverage you have.
Unfortunately some people have no uninsured motorist coverage, and therefore there is no possibility of an insurance recovery. However, even if they do have coverage, it might not be a sufficient amount to fully compensate them for their damages.