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Tort Option

In Pennsylvania, you and your family need full insurance protection. What an insurance company may call "full coverage" is not always full protection. In Pennsylvania you are required to select a Tort Option. The choices are called "Full Tort" and "Limited Tort".

An accident victim who selects Full Tort has the right to seek money damages for pain and suffering without having to demonstrate that they sustained a serious injury. Accident victims who select the Limited Tort must prove that they suffered a "serious injury" which is defined as "death, serious impairment of body function or permanent serious disfigurement".

We recommend that you select only the "Full Tort" Option in Pennsylvania. By selecting the "Full Tort" Option you retain your traditional legal rights to recover for the types of damages that can result from a motor vehicle accident.

Unfortunately, people who chose "Limited Tort" have given up the right to recover damages for their bodily injuries, unless they fit into specific categories of injuries. Worse yet, your selection of the limited tort threshold will also prevent relatives that live with you from making a recovery for the bodily injury even though they are not involved in the selection of the insurance coverages or the payment of the policy.

Many people purchase the Limited Tort threshold insurance simply because it is cheaper. However, once involved in a motor vehicle accident many people who have selected the limited threshold insurance discover that they are unable to recover any monies whatsoever for the bodily injury and despite having suffered a serious injury they are left without monetary recovery.

If you have Full Tort coverage, you, your family and other resident relatives of your household will be entitled to receive compensation for pain and suffering, medical bills, wage losses, losses of enjoyment of life and other damages from the negligent party who causes the accident. Regardless of the severity of the injury, a person with Full Tort coverage has the right to sue the responsible party. It is estimated that the selection of the Limited Tort option saves approximately 10% on your insurance bill. In exchange for saving about 10% on your insurance bill you give up your right (subject to some limited exceptions) to sue for pain and suffering regardless of whether the other driver was at fault.

At COOPER & SCHAFFER we recommend that you select the "Full Tort" Option.

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