Your Philadelphia Neighborhood Law Office
Full and Limited Tort
What is a tort?
What should I choose: Full or Limited Tort?
A tort is a physical or psychological wrong or damage against another person (whether intentional or not), resulting in harm; including negligence, libel, and accidents. When someone suffers damage they may choose to file a civil litigation suit. There are 3 types of torts; intentional torts, negligence torts and strict liability torts.
Intentional Tort is an act where the intention to harm is the main motivation in performing the act itself. Assault is an example of an intentional tort. A negligence tort is when a party fails to show that they took the proper care to prevent an accident. An example of this would be if a driver knew their brakes were failing; and chose to use their automobile anyhow; resulting in an auto accident. The third type of tort, strict liability tort; is where the law may allow you to gain recovery for a loss without demonstrating negligence; generally when one person puts another in danger just because they are in possession of a dangerous product, animal or weapon.
The most frequent cases we see are where torts come into play are with Automobile Accidents. When you choose your automobile insurance coverage in PA and NJ; you can choose to have Limited Tort or Full Tort. In terms of your insurance policy, this can be rather confusing. Many people just choose without knowing what they are choosing. Here we will try and simplify it for you.
Limited Tort
Limited tort coverage means that you can sue for limited recovery after you have been in an accident. For example, you can sue for medical bills that you incurred, but you cannot go after pain and suffering that you may have gone through or will continue to go through. This is especially important if you have been in a serious accident. When you chose this option on your insurance, you may have never been in an accident or you may not have been thinking about just how bad accidents can be. Most people choose this coverage looking to save a few dollars on their insurance premiums. While saving money may be a lure to most folks, this is one choice that in the right circumstances could cost you more in the long run. In Pennsylvania, in order to be paid for pain and suffering with limited tort, you must sustain a “serious impairment” of a body function.
Full Tort
Full tort coverage means that in addition to the medical bills you may recover for in Limited tort; you may also seek compensation for pain and suffering. We highly recommend this option rather than the other option which may just leave you jumping over dollar bills to pickup pennies. The sum of extra money you spend for Full tort on those monthly car insurance payments will more than pay for themselves if you find yourself a victim of a serious automobile accident. The additional compensation will help you get your life back on track.
If you have been in a car, truck or motorcycle accident we can help you get the compensation you deserve. Call Leo M, Flynn. Esquire at Martins Mill Legal Center, LLC. at 215-305-6222 now!
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