What Is Uninsured And Underinsured Motorist Coverage And Why Should You Care?

If you own a vehicle in New Jersey, you are required to carry auto insurance. For many people, it is as simple as that, and they try to obtain the cheapest policy possible to meet the legal requirements. But sadly, many motorists in New Jersey are unaware that while your automobile insurance covers damages you may cause in an accident, your policy can also protect you and your loved ones.

While there are many parts to an auto insurance policy, here we will only look at two major components of a policy: Liability Coverage, also known as 3^rd party coverage, and Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist (UM/UIM) coverage, also known as 1^st party coverage. Both liability and UM/UIM generally have both bodily injury and property damage components. We will be dealing only with the bodily injury component for our purposes here.