By David B. Pittman, Attorney At Law
Founder, Pittman Law Firm, P.L. | Bonita Springs, Florida
If the driver who hit you in Bonita Springs doesn’t carry enough insurance to pay for your injuries, you do not have to get stuck paying the leftover hospital bills yourself. After your own $10,000 Personal Injury Protection (PIP) coverage pays first, our firm looks to your Underinsured Motorist (UIM) policy, insurance policies held by family members in your household, and anyone else who shares responsibility—like the actual owner of the car or the driver’s employer. Just make sure you never sign an insurance release or cash a settlement check before our office gets written permission from your own insurer, or you can forfeit the rest of your money.
Over my 30+ years of practicing law in Southwest Florida, I have sat across from hundreds of injured people at our Bonita Beach Road office who assumed that because the other driver caused the wreck, that driver’s insurance would cover everything. Then comes the bad news: Florida lets people legally drive down US-41 and I-75 without carrying a single dollar of Bodily Injury insurance. Even when an at-fault driver does have coverage, it is often a bare-minimum $10,000 policy—an amount that a single ambulance ride and afternoon at Gulf Coast Medical Center or NCH Baker Hospital will wipe out on day one.
Here is how our firm tracks down the rest of the money you need to pay your doctors and replace your lost paychecks.
Key Takeaways for Injured Bonita Springs Drivers
- Florida Doesn’t Require Bodily Injury Insurance: Under Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles rules,regular drivers only have to buy $10,000 in PIP (for themselves) and $10,000 in Property Damage coverage (for your bumper). They can be 100% legal on the road and still carry zero coverage for your injuries.
- Your Own PIP Pays First—If You See a Doctor in 14 Days: Florida’s No-Fault law requires your own auto policy to pay 80% of your initial medical bills and 60% of your missed wages up to $10,000, no matter who caused the wreck. Wait until day 15 to get checked out, and you lose that $10,000.
- Cashing the Other Driver’s Check Too Soon Can Ruin Your Case: If you take the at-fault driver’s $10,000 limit and sign their release without first giving your own Underinsured Motorist carrier a formal 30-day written notice,your own insurance company can legally refuse to pay you a dime.
- There Is Often More Insurance Than What’s on the Police Report: Between policies covering the car’s title owner, commercial work policies, and household policies, our office looks far past the insurance card handed to the Lee County Sheriff’s deputy at the scene.
- You Have Two Years to File: Since Florida updated its negligence laws in 2023, you have two years from the date of the crash to file a lawsuit against the at-fault driver.
Where Does the Money Come From When the Other Driver’s Policy Runs Out?
When an insurance adjuster calls you three days after a crash near Imperial Parkway and offers to send you a quick check for their driver’s $10,000 policy limit, they aren’t doing you a favor. They are trying to close their file cheaply before you realize how much your medical care is actually going to cost.
Before we ever let an at-fault driver off the hook for a small policy, our office digs into five other places to find coverage:
1. Your Own Underinsured Motorist (UIM) Coverage
In Florida, Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist (UM/UIM) coverage is the single most valuable protection you can buy.If the driver who hit you has no bodily injury insurance—or has a small policy that doesn’t come close to paying for a surgery or months of physical therapy—your own UM/UIM policy steps in to cover the difference, including your lost income and pain and suffering.
Even if your insurance card says you don’t have UM coverage, don’t take your insurer’s word for it. Under Florida law, an insurance company must give you UM coverage unless they can prove you signed a specific written rejection form when you bought the policy. We force them to produce that signed form. If they can’t find it, they have to give you the coverage.
2. “Stacked” Policies and Family Members in Your Home
If you have two or three cars insured in your driveway in Bonita Bay or Worthington, and you pay for “Stacked” UM coverage, your policy limit multiplies by the number of cars. A $50,000 policy across three cars becomes $150,000 in coverage. You may also be covered under an auto policy owned by a spouse or blood relative who lives under the same roof with you.
3. The Person Who Actually Owns the Car
In Florida, a car is legally considered a “dangerous instrumentality.” Put simply: if someone lends their car to a friend, a teenager, or an uninsured relative who then runs a red light at Bonita Beach Road and Old 41, the person whose name is on the vehicle’s title is financially responsible for the crash. We routinely find that a driver with a $10,000 policy was driving a car co-owned by a parent or relative carrying a $250,000 policy.
4. The Driver’s Employer
Was the person who hit you on the clock? In a busy town full of contractors, landscapers, delivery drivers, and property managers, people use their personal trucks and sedans for work errands every day. If the driver was doing something for their job when they hit you, their boss’s commercial insurance policy—often worth $500,000 to $1,000,000—can be put on the hook.
5. Personal Umbrella Policies and Real Assets
Before we recommend accepting a low policy limit, we require the at-fault driver to fill out a sworn financial statement and we check their real estate and business holdings. Having been a licensed Florida Real Estate Broker for 25 years alongside my 30+ years as a personal injury lawyer, I know how property and assets are held in Southwest Florida—and how to spot when a careless driver is hiding real wealth behind a cheap auto policy.
The #1 Mistake That Costs Injured Drivers Thousands
If you take one piece of advice from this article, make it this: Never cash the at-fault driver’s check or sign their release without talking to a lawyer first.
Here is the trap we save people from every week:
- You get hurt in a wreck on US-41, and the at-fault driver only has $10,000 in coverage.
- Their adjuster mails you a $10,000 check with a standard release form.
- You figure you will take that $10,000 now and ask your own $100,000 Underinsured Motorist policy to pay the rest of your hospital bills later.
- You sign the paper, deposit the check, and call your own insurance company—who promptly tells you that you just voided your entire $100,000 policy.
Florida law requires you to send a formal certified letter to your own UM insurance company and give them 30 days to approve the settlement before you sign the other driver’s release. If you skip that step, you let your own insurance company off the hook completely. Our office handles that paperwork for you so you get both checks without risking a penny.
Common Questions About Underinsured Drivers in Bonita Springs:
Will my insurance rates go up if I use my own Underinsured Motorist coverage?
No. Florida law strictly forbids an insurance company from raising your rates or canceling your policy because you filed an Uninsured or Underinsured Motorist claim for a wreck that wasn’t your fault. You have already been paying monthly premiums for that safety net—you don’t get penalized for using it when someone else hits you.
How do I know the other driver is telling the truth about how little insurance they have?
We don’t take their word for it. Under Florida law, once our office sends a formal demand letter, the at-fault driver’s insurance company has 30 days to provide a statement under oath listing every policy they have, the exact dollar limits,and any umbrella coverage.
What if the driver who hit me took off (Hit-and-Run)?
If a hit-and-run driver clips you on I-75 or Bonita Beach Road and takes off, Florida treats that runaway driver the exact same way as an uninsured driver. As long as you report the crash to the police and see a doctor within 14 days, your own Uninsured Motorist policy will step in to cover your medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
Should I give my health insurance card to the hospital after a car crash?
Yes, always. Your $10,000 in auto PIP coverage only pays 80% of your initial bills, and an emergency room visit will burn through it fast. Having your doctors bill your health insurance or Medicare gets your medical bills knocked down to contracted discount rates, which means you keep more of your settlement money in your pocket at the end of the case.
Don’t Get Hit Twice — Call Our Bonita Springs Office Before You Sign
When the driver who hurt you doesn’t have enough insurance, both insurance companies—theirs and yours—are hoping you will take a small, quick check and go away. At Pittman Law Firm, P.L., our motto is Don’t Get Hit Twice: once by a careless driver on the road, and a second time by an insurance company protecting its profits.
When you call us, you don’t get passed off to a case manager at a massive out-of-town TV firm. We treat our clients like family, and I personally look at your policies, the crash report, and the other driver’s background to find every dollar available for your recovery.
Before you sign any insurance paperwork, call Pittman Law Firm, P.L. at 239-992-8259 or stop by our main office in Windsor Place (3525 Bonita Beach Rd, Suite 107, Bonita Springs, FL 34134) for a free consultation. There is never a fee unless we recover money for you.
About the Author: David B. Pittman, Esq.
David B. Pittman is the founder of Pittman Law Firm, P.L. in Bonita Springs, Florida. A graduate of The Citadel and the University of South Carolina School of Law, David has spent more than 30 years representing injured people and families across Bonita Springs, Fort Myers, Naples, Estero, and throughout Lee and Collier Counties. He holds an AV-Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell, is a member of the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum, and has been a licensed Florida Real Estate Broker for 25 years.
Legal Disclaimer
The information in this blog post is provided by Pittman Law Firm, P.L. for general educational purposes only and is not legal advice. Reading this post or contacting our office does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every accident case depends on its own facts and policy language, so you should speak directly with a licensed Florida personal injury attorney before taking action on a claim. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.