Where our office is, in Muskegon, Michigan, when people ask for PL & PD they are normally asking for a lower cost policy. This is normally because either the vehicle is older and the client doesn’t feel they want to pay the extra cost for physical damage coverage or they just simply can’t afford the extra expense.

In Michigan, a “No Fault” state, the only way to get physical damage coverage is to buy it. If you are in an accident in Michigan, each car’s insurer pays to fix their client’s car if they’ve purchased the coverage.

Put another way, if you only have PL & PD (Personal Liability and Property Damage) your car will not be repaired buy either insurance company no matter who is at fault.

“So what good s that kind of coverage?” you might ask. I’m glad you asked.

First, you have  Bodily Injury coverage. This provides coverage for you if you are at fault in an accident and you injure someone to the point that they become dead, disabled, disfigured or loses in income in excess of $4000.00 per month. You can choose anywhere from $20,000 to $1,000,000 coverage on this. I wouldn’t recommend any less than $300,000.  Without the physical damage on the policy this should be affordable for most people.

A second type of coverage provided by PL & PD is Property Damage. If you run your vehicle into a building, guard rail, pole or some other property that belongs to someone else, they can file a claim with your insurance company and save you the expense of having to make restitution for the damage.

A third type of coverage is PIP. (Personal Injury Protection) In Michigan, insurance companies must pay 100% of medical expenses if you personally are injured. This can have a value of thousands of dollars.

With PL & PD you can also choose to have Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist coverage. This allows a person in your car protection in case you are not at fault in an accident but the person who hits you has either no insurance or the minimum required by law. If you or your passenger are awarded money for a settlement ( for becoming dead, disabled, disfigured or loses in income in excess of $4000.00 per month) from the “at fault” party, but they have no money or too little coverage to cover what you are awarded, this coverage can really save the day.

The reason the law makes a basic policy like PL &PD mandatory is that it helps make sure each driver can take responsibility for their actions. It makes sure people don’t have to suffer financial loss as a result of our actions. Even the hospital, if we didn’t have insurance would have to wait until a person fully recovered and gets back to work, catches up all their other bills and then paid them back at a small amount per month. With PIP coverage they can be paid in a timely manner and you don’t have a stack of medical bills waiting for you when you get home.

Hopefully, this makes you feel a little better and a little more responsible. You really are helping yourself and society at large by owning PL & PD coverage.

Please call me at (231) 744-9099 or visit our site at www.muskegonautoinsurance.net

Tags: Amp, Buy Insurance, Car Insurance, Car Protection, Injury Coverage, Insurance, Insurance Companies, Insurance Company, Insurer, Medical Expenses, Michigan Insurance, Muskegon Michigan, Personal Injury Protection, Personal Liability, Physical Damage Coverage, Pip, Pl, Restitution, Thousands Of Dollars, Underinsured Motorist Coverage

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 8th, 2009 at 12:06 am and is filed under Insurance Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.