Auto Insurance Claims: LA minimums, insurance contract, auto coverage

Question
My son was involved in an accident where another vehicle hit him and another vehicle, damage to both. The driver has LA minimums of 10/20/10 and they are now telling my son that since the other vehicle damaged has filed a claim of almost 6K, he will probably not get what is needed to get his vehicle back. It is not drivable and estimates are in the range of 8K. No rental is being offered either, two weeks after the acccident.  What recourse do we have?  

Answer
Penny,

Unfortunately the other driver's insurance contract looks like it won't cover both vehicles total repair costs.  For those that don't know: 10/20/10 means $10k for individual bodily injury, $20k for total bodily injury to all people in the accident and $10k for property damage.

A few ideas:

(1) I'd make sure that the insurance carrier divides the limited proceeds pro-rata between the two cars and doesn't pay out one claim in full and then stiff the other car.

(2) If your son has his own auto coverage you may be able to look to his own policy for the shortfall.  Call your insurance broker and/or read your insurance policy to see if there's additional coverage provided by your own policy in the case that the other driver has too little (or no) insurance.  Sometimes this is called under-insurance or uninsured coverage.

(3) You could also sue the other driver and recover for any injuries your son suffered (if any) under the first "10" in the "10/20/10" you stated above.

Best of luck,

Ernest Ferraro