No Fault (PIP) Coverage

• Higher income. If your income exceeds $2,000 per month, consider buying "supplemental no fault (PIP)" or APIP coverage. Typical options which cost relatively little offer $4,000 per month or $6,000 per month.

• Lower income. If your income is below $2,000 per month, you may want to drop any supplemental PIP coverage that your broker has selected for you automatically, and consider instead buying “Optional Basic Economic Loss”, or OBEL coverage, available in $25,000, $50,000 and $100,000 amounts from some carriers. This allows you to have your wages fully covered, and still affords you a total of between $75,000 and $150,000 in wage loss and medical expenses (compared to the $50,000 offered under New York State Law for basic PIP). OBEL gives you flexibility in that you can apply the additional coverage against either wage losses or medical expenses, or against both, once you have used up the basic PIP.

• Disability and Workers Compensation. New York State law requires you to apply for disability benefits from your employer before you can collect no fault wage losses, or worker’s compensation benefits from the employer’s carrier if the car accident occurs while you are driving during employment. We handle dozens of claims like this each year, and it takes anywhere from a week to a month to get the disability or comp claims set up before your no fault carrier begins payments. I strongly recommend that you ask your employer for the policy numbers and companies that carry the comp and disability coverages. You should keep this on hand so it is available before you need to put in a claim.

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