Ross & Ross Law Office - Pennsylvania Limited Tort

Limited Tort v. Full Tort

In Pennsylvania, you have the ability to choose either limited tort or full tort coverage for your automobile. This election of coverage type has far reaching consequences in the event that you are involved in an accident.

With a limited tort policy, you are generally limited to recovering for economic damages. Or in other words you can only recover for medical bills, lost wages, and car repairs. That means that in general you cannot recover for pain and suffering if you elected limited tort coverage unless your injury is "serious." Sounds reasonable, right? The problem with limited tort coverage starts with the definition of a “serious” injury. A serious injury is an injury that results in death, serious impairment of a bodily function or permanent serious disfigurement. But what does it mean to you? Is your injury serious or not? I can tell you from personal experience that there is often a disagreement between injured persons and the insurance company over, for example, whether the injury to your shoulder is a serious impairment of a bodily function. Many, many cases end up in litigation because the insurance company refuses to acknowledge that an injury is serious. The tragedy is that the focus becomes not justice for the injured party, but whether the insurance company can get away with paying only a little bit by convincing a judge that the injury is not serious as defined by the law.

On the other hand, a full tort policy does not have these complications. With full tort coverage you have the right to pursue compensation for all of your losses — including pain and suffering. There is no artificially imposed limit on the amount that you can recover. The underlying philosophy of our system is that a person should be made whole – that is that they should be put back in the position that they were in before they were injured by the negligence of the Defendant. Since we don’t have time machines, the law provides the ability to seek monetary damages for all of the components of an injury, including medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering and mental and emotional distress. Selecting limited tort takes away your ability to be made whole again. For these reasons our firm highly recommends that you purchase a full tort policy.

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(814)-274-8612

From offices in Coudersport, Potter County, Pennsylvania, the attorneys at Ross and Ross, LLC serve the personal injury, bankruptcy, social security disability, divorce and family law needs of Western, Northwestern, Central and North Central Pennsylvania including the communities of Coudersport, Galeton, Shinglehouse, West Branch, Smethport, Port Allegany, Bradford, Roulette, and Wellsboro, as well as Potter County, McKean County, Tioga County, Cameron County, Bradford County and other areas of Western PA and Central PA.

***Legal Disclaimer: The contents of this site are for informational purposes only and do not constitute legal advice. No lawyer-client relationship exists until one of our attorneys meets with you and agrees to accept you as a client.

NOTEWORTHY RESULTS

Reached confidential settlement after litigation with manufacturer of paraphenylenediamine ( PPD ), which is a dangerous chemical in hair dye that can cause hair loss, blindness, rashes, and a host of other significant medical conditions.

Reached a confidential settlement with supplier of PPD, which can cause anaphylactic shock, coma, and death, in a case where hair dye cause severe injuries.

Reached a confidential settlement in a case against a fortune 500 company where a hair relaxer injured a client and caused burning and hair loss.

Collected $500,000 settlement after litigation with fortune 500 company for client injured by chemicals in hair dye.

Collected $220,000 for claimants injured by driver in hit and run.

Confidential settlement for client wrongfully evicted.

Confidential settlement for client whose car was wrongfully repossessed.

Confidential settlement for client wrongfully reported delinquent on car loan by national bank.

Disability benefits awarded in Social Security Appeal

Disability benefits awarded after initial denial in case where client made too much money by demonstrating that client's job was a make work job given to him to help him until the SSA recognized his disability.