You are driving on a northern Mississippi highway when another driver loses control and crashes into you. Fortunately, you survive the accident, but the impact left you with neck and back injuries.
While you are recovering in the hospital, you find out that the other driver does not have auto insurance. How will you pay for your medical bills and lost wages? How can you hold the driver who caused the accident responsible for your pain and suffering and other damages?
It’s important to know that Mississippi is an at-fault state. That means an auto insurance company will not pay a claim made by an accident victim until that person proves that the company’s client is at least partly to blame for the crash. At the same time, Mississippi uses pure comparative fault, which allows people to recover at least some damages in a personal injury lawsuit if the defendant is at all responsible for the plaintiff’s injuries.
However, if the other driver lacked insurance, or their coverage was not enough to compensate you for the harm you suffered, you usually have two options: file a claim with your own insurance provider or sue the driver.
Lawsuit vs. uninsured claims
Suing the negligent driver directly only makes sense if they own enough financial resources to reasonably compensate your damages. If they do not have auto insurance, there is a good chance that they will not be able to afford any judgment that a jury awards you. However, a lawsuit may still make sense in some situations.
Your other option is to make a claim on your uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage. This is a common part of auto insurance, though not everyone has this form of coverage. It is there for situations where an uninsured or underinsured driver injured you.
