I'm an attorney and, of course, an Airhead. Setting aside whether mandatory liability insurance should be necessary for our bikes, I though it might be worthwhile to post a short "Insurance 101" primer just so we are all on the same page. Pardon me in advance if this is too basic - when I give talks to groups about this, most of what I'm putting in here is not too basic -- so here goes:

Liability insurance - Insurance you buy to cover your liability ($$) to someone else whom you injure or whose property you damage through operation of the insured vehicle. i.e. I hit you with my bike and break your leg, my liability ins. steps in and pays what I owe you for medical insurance, etc. This comes in two flavors: Property damage - Pays to fix your bike / car / mailbox / whatever when I hit it with my vehicle.

Bodily Injury (BI) - Pays for damages resulting from injuries to persons injured by the operation of my vehicle. Commonly stated as a "per pers= on / per injury" limit. Thus, 25/100 Bodily Injury coverage means the insurer will pay up to $25,000 per person injured in a collision caused by me, up to a maximum of $100,000 per collision regardless of the number of people injured by me. Thus, if you are driving alone and I hit your car and injure you - you can recover your damages up to a maximum of $25,000. If there are four or less people in your car they can each recover up to $25,000. If there are five or more they can each recover up to $25,000 with a combined ceiling of $100,000. In automobiles, where, we all know, it is much easier to cause injury because of the vehicle's greater mass, it is advisable to make sure your BI liability limit is higher than the value of everything you own that you care about. I always recommend that people carry at least 100/ 300 BI on their cars. On a bike, obviously it is much less likely that we will injure people so some lower limit is often tolerable. The reason we want this limit that high is that if an injured person files a suit against you and seeks more than your policy limits, you are in an "excess" situation. It is possible that the plaintiff (guy who sued you) could recover an amount in "excess" of your policy limits. The insurance co. only has (absent some exceptions I won't bore you with here) a duty to defend you and then pay the resulting judgment UP TO ITS POLICY LIMITS. Thus if Plaintiff files an action against you for $100,000 and your limits are $25,000 you could possible end up paying the $75,000 difference PERSONALLY. The few $$ per month in extra premiums for increased BI liability is well worth the peace of mind if it is ever needed.

Collision - You buy this coverage to protect property damage to your vehicle caused in a collision which is either your fault, or no one's fault. Usually very expensive. Often unavailble for bikes of the age most of us ride. Rarely worth it unless the yearly premium is less than 1/3 the value of the vehicle that year.

Comprehensive - You buy this coverage to protect property damage to your vehicle caused by anything other than a moving collision without regard to fault. Tree sap boogers up the new Von Dutch paint job - that's a comprehensive claim. Wind blows it over at a rest stop - that's a comprehensive claim. The same analysis applies here as to collision.

No-Fault Medical, also called PIP (Personal Injury Protection) - you buy this to provide some limited amount of medical coverage for you and your passenger which is given regardless of fault. Even if you drive into a tree your PIP would pay medical . In some states, Oregon among them, you cannot get PIP for motorcycles at all. In almost all cases where you can it is so expensive that it's not worth paying for unless you have no other health insurance.

Under insured / Uninsured motorist coverage (UIM/UM) - This comes in two flavors (property and BI) just like liability insurance. This is insurance you buy for yourself that pays your damages if you are injured (or your bike gorked) by an uninsured or underinsured motorist. Let's say Bob the meth freak is driving uninsured and hits you. He has nothing against which you could ever collect. However, being a smart Airhead (is that a contradiction?) you have recognized that many of our fellow denizens of this swamp have no sense of pesonal responsibility. You have therefore bought UIM/UM coverage. Your own carrier pays you as if it were his carrier, for the damages for which Bob the meth freak is liable to you. THIS IS THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT INSURANCE WE CAN CARRY ON A MOTORCYCLE. Buy this coverage in amounts at least equal to your liabilty limits. Other drivers are idiots and WILL NOT SPEND THEIR OWN MONEY JUST TO HELP YOU. You must take responsbility for this. UM/UIM is not substantially more expensive than liability coverage and is well worth it. Note, some carriers will not issue UM/UIM coverage in amounts greater than the liability coverage you buy.

Umbrella insurance is another possibility to consider if you have substantial assets at risk. An umbrella policy, basically applies to the same coverages as all your other policies but provides additional policy limits. For example, if your auto liability ins. limit was $100,000 for bodily injury and you had an umbrella of $1,000,000 and you caused an injury to someone that damaged them to the extent of $500,000 the umbrella policy would pay the $400,000 left over after your liability policy was exhausted. Keep in mind that few umbrella policies are written to apply to UM/UIM situations so this would not help you if a bonehead injured you, but it would provide suprisingly cheap coverage for you in the event you were negligent.

Hope this use of bandwidth was helpful.

Glad to field related questions privately or on the list.

Brooks Cooper
Die Grune Kuh '92 R100 GSPD
ABC # 3664