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FAQ Friday#1 – Do you need UIM and PIP? Are pedestrians always right?

Hello Facebook this is Matt Dubin Washington personal injury attorney going live for our first FAQ Friday I’m actually working from home today so I’m doing this on my phone apologize if it gets a little shaky trying to hold it as steady as I can so first I want to give credit to my friend Greg Herrmann in Texas for this great idea of FAQ Fridays we’re gonna try and do this every Friday so that if you have any questions about personal injury law the insurance claims process car accidents or anything really related to the field I want to answer your questions the best that I can so go ahead and follow us online at on Facebook with Dubin Law Group you can follow us in our Everett location or our Seattle location or both and post your questions and we’ll address them every Friday so let’s get right to it actually before I address the questions let me just say it’s been really hot in Seattle all Washington State is covered with smoke from the wildfires in Canada the air quality here is really bad so if you can stay indoors preferably with air conditioning but particularly if you’re vulnerable if you’re very old or very young or you have respiratory conditions it’s a really good time to stay inside right now because that air quality is at historic lows and it really can cause serious health problems so just be aware of that and take care so now let’s get right to the questions the first one is from Jody and let’s take a look Jody’s question was is PIP or UIM insurance necessary it’s a great question and let me just give a little bit of background pip is P IP stands for personal injury protection you I M stands for underinsured motorist coverage and it’s the equivalent is um which is uninsured motorist coverage these are both these are both first party coverages that you have with your own car insurance the short answer is yes PIPP and you I am are necessary but let me just tell you briefly why so hip or personal injury protection will pay for all accident related reasonable medical treatment if you’re involved in an accident this is important because you’re not going to get money from the at-fault person’s insurance until you settle your case but you need to get your bills paid now as you go hip coverage will provide payment for those it’s different from health insurance because there’s no copay there’s no deductible there’s no networks you don’t need referrals it’s only if you’re in an accident they’ll pay for that treatment and at the end of your case it will result in a better net recovery for you as far as the uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage that’s really important too even though Washington state law requires everyone to have a minimum of 25,000 in liability coverage 20% of the drivers on the road have no insurance at all if you get hit by one of these uninsured motorists you’re out of luck unless you have uninsured motorist coverage and that uninsured will act just as if it was the uninsured persons insurance and that way you’ll be able to get a recovery not just for your medical bills and lost income but also for your pain and suffering and other non-economic damages so yes you should have PIP coverage and uninsured motorist coverage and you should make sure you have as much of that coverage as you can afford an agent might try and tell you that you don’t need that much or you don’t need it at all don’t believe that you want to max out your pip and you I am believe me if you’re in an accident with an uninsured or underinsured person you’ll be glad you did okay the next question was from Michelle and Michelle wanted to know are pedestrians always right and another way I hear that question is do pedestrians always have the right-of-way and presently I get that question a lot and you might think yes pedestrians always have the right-of-way and that is simply not true pedestrians just like drivers have a duty to be careful the duty is to exercise reasonable care for your own safety now if you’re in a crosswalk and you have the light there’s a presumption that you are in the right that you’re right so yes the pedestrian is always right however if you see a car barreling towards the crosswalk and you just step in front of them just because you have a light you may share some responsibility for that you’ve got a duty to exercise care for your own safety and that means you can’t make stupid decisions you know for lack of a better term you can’t put yourself unreasonably in danger of course we see other situations where pedestrians dart out from in between parked cars into traffic mid-block sometimes at night sometimes wearing dark clothes a pedestrian has a duty to exercise reasonable care for their own safety so there are definitely circumstances where a pedestrian will be responsible in whole or in part for causing an accident even if it results in a serious injury to them so again the short answer is no pedestrians aren’t always right and as a pedestrian you really need to be careful and watch out for your own safety the last question I got is from Ryan and thanks for your question Ryan it was well the Mariners make the playoffs this year and I don’t have a crystal ball but I know there’s a lot of baseball left to be played the Mariners are only two and a half games out of the wild-card right now behind Kansas City and I think they’re also behind Tampa and they’ve got three more games against Kansas City this weekend so I would say anytime you’re into August and the team is over 500 they certainly got a shot this is an exciting young team to watch I’d like to see Felix do a little bit better in the stretch but yeah I think the Mariners have a reasonably good shot and let’s see what they can do against Kansas City this weekend and I certainly would feel better about it if they can take at least two out of the four and maybe three out of four but they could start with the win tonight so I’m gonna go out on a limb Ryan and say yes the Mariners make the playoffs this year and so that’s the FAQ Friday for today do I need PIP and you I am yes you do our pedestrians always right no they are not always right and will the Mariners make the playoffs I’m gonna say yes they will so thanks a lot to everybody who asked questions that’s the first FAQ Friday but you can count on it every Friday going forward so post your questions on our Facebook page and I’m looking forward to seeing you next week from me and everybody with the Dubin Law Group be safe out there and I’ll see you next time.