Auto Insurance Claims: Verifying drivers liability cover, umbrella policy, umbrella coverage

Question
I have pursued by own claim against the insurer of a driver who caused injury to me. My claim exceeds the limit on the driver's policy and the insurer has agreed to pay up to the limit in full. How should or how can I check whether the driver has any other (umbrella) liability policy that might cover more of my claim?

Answer
Hi Roger,

In most states the other person is not required to disclose how much insurance coverage they have. The only way that I know of is to sue him. If you receive a judgement that he can not pay, he will turn it over to his umbrella policy if he has one. Another thing is that if he only had minimal coverage on his auto policy, he most likely did not have any umbrella coverage. In order to buy an umbrella policy you are required to carry the highest available amount of auto liabily coverage available. In most cases that would be 100/300. So only if the primary company if offering you $100,000.00 is there any likelyhood that the driver had an umbrella policy.

I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh