Louisiana Law requires motorist to carry liability coverage on any automobile they own. This coverage pays for property damages or personal injury for which you may be legally responsible, up to your policy’s dollar limits.

In Louisiana, each vehicle is required to have 10/20/10 liability limits. Those limits provide payments of $10,000 for bodily injury to one person, $20,000 for bodily injury to more than one person in a single accident, and $10,000 coverage for damage to someone else’s vehicle or other property.

Beyond the mandatory liability auto insurance that LA law requires, there are optional coverages such as uninsured motorist that a driver may want to also purchase. Louisiana allows both uninsured/underinsured motorist bodily injury (UMBI/UIMBI) and uninsured/underinsured motorist property damage (UMPD/UIMPD) to be added on as additional types of car insurance.

According to the Louisiana Department of Insurance, Uninsured/Underinsured motorist coverage pays benefits to you if your car is hit by a driver who has no insurance or too little insurance to pay for the full amount of your injuries. Any bodily injury you or an occupant of your vehicle suffers due to an accident caused by another driver is covered under this policy. Hit-and-run drivers may be classified as uninsured motorists if there is a disinterested witness to the accident.

You may choose to purchase uninsured motorist economic-only coverage. This coverage is the same as uninsured motorist coverage except that it covers only the actual costs of injuries to you and the occupants of your vehicle. Pain and suffering are not included under this coverage.

Uninsured/Underinsured motorist property damage coverage provides for repairs to your vehicle if you are in an accident with an uninsured driver. A $250 deductible applies under this coverage, and your recovery is limited to $10,000 or the actual cash value of the vehicle, whichever is less. If your policy includes collision insurance, this coverage is not available.