Let's Talk About Third Party Liability
 

I know this has been talked about in the past, but I thought I'd start a fresh discussion on this.

The basic insurance coverage includes $200K of Third Party Liability.

You can optionally extend this to $500K, $1M, $2M or even more.

How much coverage do you choose for your car insurance?

For those that get $2M or more, why do you feel this is necessary?

Do you have any friends or family members that has ever needed to use $1M or even $500K or $200K of the coverage?

I mean, to get sued for $1M in damages, I would think that you would have needed to kill at least one person with your vehicle... and you would have to be at fault too.

What's the likelihood of that actually happening?

i usually opt for the most...in this day and age, there are really good lawyers out there and also very good actors/actresses. I would rather not risk it.
A simple head injury can yeild disasterous results if you dont have adequet coverage...Imagine a car full of injuries... 100K isn't hard to obtain now with neck/spinal/head injuries... i heard of some people hitting 200K+ for a head trauma.

Likelihood of the event is low, but that's why the premium for the amount of coverage is quite low as well for amounts in excess of $200K. Whether you want to carry more than the $200k liability comes down to your personal risk tolerance. I think I carry $2M.

Incidentally, I think you're more likely to see a very large claim if you don't kill someone. Imagine ganking, but not killing, a 30 year old neurosurgeon such that they don't function too well and definitely can't practice. That's 30+ years of lost earnings and a whole host of other issues that your claim will be for... or how about ganking a minivan full of neurosurgeons on their way to a conference? :D

I carry 2million or 3 i believe on my 300zx,
I don't know why I do lol, better safe than sorry?

Majority of clients that I deal with, usually have a minimum of a million, however most clients usually carry 2-3 million. Few people take 5 million, and few people take less than a million. It is like a bell curve (lots in the middle, few at both ends). For liability it isn't very much for a person with a reasonable discount.

It is true, better safe than sorry. This is insurance; nothing happens then nothing happens. But when something does happen, its there to protect you.

I find it very strange, in that it seems like in general, everyone thinks they are good drivers... but yet, people are seemingly contradicting that by buying so much third party liability insurance. It's a contradiction because it would only ever be used if THEY were at fault for the accident.

This past year, I opted my coverage down to $500K. I simply don't believe I'll ever be responsible for an accident so serious that I'll be on the hook for more than a $500K settlement.

You never know...thats the point of insurance. Ya ya were all amazing drivers. But shit happens...

Calculate the cost if you could for me of hitting a doctor and his nurse wife. Now they can work at their chosen professions. Whats the cost over 10 years. 20? how about 40? Oh wait forgot to mention it was their minivan with kids....their hurt too....

Add it up tell me what you think it COULD cost.....not what YOU would be responsible for.

Anything under 1 million is taunting danger....it'll never happen to me right? Ya thats also every drunks excuse to drive home after the bar. Plus the additional cost of that extra 500,000 is really not very much....niether is the little bit for 2 instead of 1 million.

Just my thoughts

How much did you save?

lol I can see where this is leading.

Since it's a civil matter, you could be found partly at fault even if you don't think you are at fault at all. At where I am living, the manditory minimum amount of 3rd party death or bodily injury damage is ~CAD$14 million.

Is putting your future at risk worth saving a few bucks? If so, why not opt for the $200k coverage instead? As sad as it sounds, you can't pick and choose whom you're going to hit and you don't know what their professions are until you hit them. A medical doctor would easily make $100-200k a year, how long is your $500k coverage going to last?

We are dealing with ICBC.

When doesn't ICBC find you at fault for anything ?

I dunno... $75? I need to renew my insurance in the next few weeks, so I'll make sure I get the exact differences in cost between $500K, $1M, $2M and maybe more.

Say the difference between $500K and $2M is $150.

If I drive for a span of 40 years, that's $6000. What do I think of the chances that I'll kill someone while driving in the 40 years and be at fault for it? Probably like 0.000001%.

So what is the figure for Vancouver? Keyword is "could".

I don't believe it's putting my future at risk, when the chances of it happening are about as good as me winning the lottery.

1) First of all, I'd have to actually get in an accident.
2) Secondly, I'd have to be at fault for the accident.
3) The accident would have to be severe enough for someone to die or permanently injured
4) The person who died or is permanently injured is a high paying professional

Considering I've never been in any major accident, nevermind one that is my fault in the 12+ years I've been driving, I think the chances of having all four happening are incredibly low.

Once again, who here even knows of anyone who has ever been in a situation where they have been liable for $1M?

Is it? Is it REALLY? I sure don't believe so. Maybe for someone that tends to drive recklessly and/or carelessly...

That's a pretty crappy example. They may think the same way, but it's the reality of the situation that counts. If you're driving drunk, obviously the chances of getting into an accident increase exponentially. But to be at fault for a serious accident that kills someone? Incredibly low odds of that happening.

And the little bit for $3M instead of $2M. And the little bit for $4M instead of $3M. And the little bit for $5M instead of $4M.

Heck, everyone should get $100M of Third Party Liability! Who knows... you might just happen to run over Jimmy Pattison.

I've got 3million, I think that's the max.

No, I just looked it up and the max is $5M.

I don't think you need to persuade anyone though. If you are happy with $500k coverage, then $500k is all you need. But for those of us who will never win the lottery while we are bound to hit the jackpot of shit with the luck that we have, we'd rather pay a little more for peace of mind.

You can be driving safe for 99.9% of the time with no chance of any major accidents happening caused by you; but it only takes that 0.1% of lapse in concentration to put you in debt for the rest of your life. If you are sure that you can pay full attention to the driving condition 100% of the time, be it after 4-5 hours of sleep or after 10 hours of work, then yeah, you probably don't even need $500k coverage.

I'm not sure that this is "possible" because an injury claim would be transparent to the person at-fault. As the insured, you transfer your monetary risk, up to policy limit, to ICBC. If you carry $5M liability you'll probably never know what the payout to that doctor was.

It all comes down to personal risk tolerance.

^agreed. If you're comfortable with $500,000 then all the more power to you.

Don't forget that TPL doesn't just cover bodily injury. It covers any damage caused in an accident (i.e. hit a power pole that causes feedback to 'X' amount of city blocks and fries a lot of electronics, BC Hydro will be looking at ICBC to pay for that).

Just hope that you do not injure anyone in a specific area that they rely on for their everyday work (i.e. you T-Bone a neural surgeon and their hand is crushed in the accident. ICBC would possibly have to pay out for future earnings if the surgeon is no longer able to do what he used to.)

Don't get me wrong, I'm not actually trying to persuade anyone here to go out and reduce their coverage... but what I am doing is trying to provide reasonable arguments as to whether it really is actually necessary to have $2M or even $1M coverage.

It's hard to express the exact feeling, but to me it's almost like an urban myth that people SHOULD have at least $1M coverage. I mean, how did this belief come to be accepted as the standard? Is it because every insurance agent says so? Is it because of people's inherent fear of causing an accident, or feel they are risking their life financially by not getting it?

I think it would be the risk factor associated with driving. Everytime you drive, there's a certain degree of risk to it and (some/most) people do not want to transform the driving risk to financial risk.

Well, just for discussion sake, my friend works for his dad who's a lawyer that fights ICBC cases. I don't remember the details as the conversation was from a couple years ago already, I briefly remember that my friend was looking at a case where the payout of the claim was more than a couple million dollars.

You probably won't ever need it that high.

But sometimes it's smart to protect against the disaster scenario that can wipe someone out unexpectedly.

Like if you have lots of dependents, maybe it's worth it to get life insurance.

You could put all your money in GE. They'll be around 50 yrs from now, guaranteed. But no one's gonna do that, just in case.

are u guys fucking serious?

i have the basic 200k. i'm not gonna have any at fault accidents anytime soon and def not gonna kill anyone. icbc's a joke and i'm not gonna give them anymore money than i have to

^LOL he's actually got a point, quick question, would it be cheaper to buy the cheapest basic insurance from icbc then go to a third party insurance company for the extras?

5 MILLION

worst case scenario:

if you hit a minivan full of aspiring doctors, they dont die, but lay bedridden in the hospital for life = that will easily put you to over 10 million


Difference between 3 to 5 million coverage: $150 or so


To the RS'ers that actually have assets: stick with 3 million+. ALL can be taken away just like that & force you into bankruptcy
To the others: 200k is ok, you go bankrupt, 7 yrs and you can be financially free!


Simple advice: Ask your lawyer what he or she bought on their own vehicle!

lol i like your thinking


get some BBK, and super sticky tires. Than you should be fine unless u are fucking drunk
with that setup and some semi common sense i doubt anyone on this board can cause over 1 mill damage