Before Exploring Florida, Discover Changes to Your Auto Insurance

The St. Lucie County Fair recently concluded, and there was a record attendance for the ten-day event.  The fair theme this year was “Celebrate 500 Years” since 2013 marks the 500 year anniversary of Ponce De Leon stumbling upon our great state of Florida while in his search for a fountain of youth.  As a reminder of this significant anniversary date, the state has placed signs along our major highways reminding us to “Explore Florida.”

As we do every year, our firm had a booth at the fair and in adherence to the celebrate Florida theme, we wanted to remind people that before they explore Florida, they need to learn about the changes to their auto insurance policies.  We handed out thousands of free information packets explaining the major changes to Florida No-Fault Insurance that went into effect January 1, 2013.  I was amazed at a large number of people, including some insurance agents, who were totally unaware of the recent insurance changes.

As of January 1, you now must obtain some type of medical care within 14 days of your vehicle accident or there will be no PIP benefits available under your auto insurance policy.  Therefore, taking a wait and see approach to injuries and medical care can now result in wait and lose.  Another huge change in the law reduces PIP medical benefits from $10,000 to $2,500 if an injured person is not correctly diagnosed with an emergency medical condition.  At this point, there does not seem to be a clear consensus on what exactly constitutes an emergency medical condition as defined in the new law.

Our firm still has information packets concerning these recent law changes.  The information is contained within a document holder that you can keep in the glove compartment of your vehicle.  If you would like to have this free information, contact us.

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