Understanding Limited Tort vs. Full Tort When You’re Injured

Dealing with limited tort vs. full tort when you’re injured can be confusing, whether you were hurt as a driver or passenger. Full tort offers the most rights possible. However, suppose you (or the driver of the car you rode in) opted for limited tort. You may be able to seek compensation for economic damages, such as medical bills, but not non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering. That is, unless an exception applies. These exceptions may include impaired drivers, out-of-state vehicles, and serious injuries, depending on the facts and applicable law. If you claim an exception, the insurance company may try to fight it. A personal injury lawyer may be able to help.

The differences between full and limited tort

Full tort coverage lets you sue an at-fault driver for all allowable damages, both economic and non-economic. It gives you a stronger legal position after a crash than limited tort does.

Limited tort can mean lower insurance premiums, but the discount a driver might save on these could cost the driver tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars later. Unless you qualify for an exception, you cannot seek compensation for non-economic damages. You can still recover for economic damages such as medical expenses, lost income, and out-of-pocket costs.

When you can still sue for pain and suffering under limited tort

Limited tort does have exceptions that let you sue for pain and suffering and other non-economic damages.

• Drunk or impaired driver: Limited tort generally does not bar non-economic damages when the at-fault driver is convicted of driving while under the influence (DUI) or accepts Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) for DUI, pursuant to Pennsylvania law.
• Out-of-state vehicle: Drivers with vehicles registered out of state might not trigger limited tort coverage.
• Pedestrian, bicyclist, motorcyclist/motorcyclist passenger: Limited tort selections do not apply to pedestrians, and may not apply to bicyclists, motorcyclists, or their passengers, depending on policy language and circumstances. They can often seek non-economic damages.
• Commercial/non-private passenger vehicle: Limited tort may not apply if you’re injured while an occupant of a vehicle other than a private passenger motor vehicle (for example, certain buses or taxis). For example, they may be insured under commercial liability policies, and some are subject to federal rules. However, not every work vehicle defeats limited tort.
• Serious injury: Whether an injury qualifies as serious under state law can be heavily litigated, with serious medical analysis involved.
• Intentional act: In cases where one driver deliberately strikes another vehicle, uses the car as a weapon during road rage, or intentionally forces another driver off the road, injured people might have more room to recover non-economic damages. Like with serious injury, these situations are fact-specific with room for dispute. Strong evidence, such as video footage, helps.

Other, more technical exceptions may exist depending on policy language, including issues involving uninsured drivers, multi-vehicle policies, or minor children. With multivehicle policies, they could be structured or issued in certain ways that defeat limited tort. With minor children, the policy language may allow for an exception. Yet other exceptions exist. A personal injury lawyer can assess your case to see if one might apply.

Insurance companies and limited tort

Even when a clear exception to limited tort applies, the insurance company may still contest the claim. For instance, the insurer may say that the at-fault driver does not meet the impaired driver criteria. The insurer might use various tactics to deny claims or drag out the process in hopes that the injured person accepts a lower settlement offer. (Impaired driver criteria can vary, depending on whether commercial vehicles or drivers under 21 years old are involved. Evidence often comes in the form of toxicology, police, and witness reports.)

If a limited tort exception clearly applies in your case, you cannot count on the insurance company to agree. Insurers also know that the aftermath of a crash is stressful. People often deal with injuries, financial worries, employment worries, and much more. A person who is hurt may have less bandwidth to deal with policy hassles.

The effect of limited tort on an injured person

The impact of limited tort on an injured person can be considerable if the person is hurt severely and their daily life changes, but the injury is not serious enough to the courts or insurers to qualify for an exception.

Serious injury is one of the exceptions to limited tort, but qualifying is not always clear-cut. Courts often look to factors such as death, permanent disfigurement, or serious impairment of bodily function when evaluating serious injury. However, courts or insurance companies may see matters differently than injured people do, even in cases with chronic pain, some permanence, some loss of function, or huge disruption of daily life.

A person could wake up every day with considerable back or neck pain that interrupts their sleep. Their life could become about managing pain rather than living freely. They may avoid activities they used to do and grit through the pain at work until one day, it affects their promotion chances. They face potentially high out-of-pocket medical costs, lost earning potential, frustration and anger, and anxiety about the future. Their pain is real, as are their injuries.

Working with a personal injury lawyer can make a huge difference. These lawyers understand how Pennsylvania courts define serious injury and what evidence they require to show the true impact of an injury.

A lawyer can be a huge help in protecting your rights. If you or a loved one has been hurt in a car accident, contact us at Carmody and Ging today to understand possible next steps.