Bodily Injury Coverage

"Bodily Injury (BI) Liability protects against monetary loss resulting from legal liability for injuries to a person occurring in the United States, Canada or Mexico."

Simple right? Well not entirely. What limits do you select? What type of limits do you select? It isn't a perfect answer for everyone, but here is a good "guide"

Type of Limits: Combined Single Limit or Split Limits?

CSL: In an accident, you are afforded your limit per person and a limit per accident under bodily injury (i.e. $100,000 per person and $300,000 per accident). You are then given a limit for Property Damage (a different coverage for damage to... property. You can read about Property Damage Coverage under that title in our Archives).

Your options range from $20,000 per person & $40,000 per accident (state minimum- yikes!) to $1,000,000 per person and $1,000,000 per accident. 

Combined Single Limits actually lumps the per person and per accident limit together. It also lumps Bodily Injury and Property Damage (read about it under that title in our database) under the same limit. This does a few things: 

1. Instead of having $100,000 per person and $300,000 per accident for Bodily Injury and $300,000 for Property Damage ($600,000 total between BI & PD), you now have $300,000 total between the two.
2. Instead of spreading the money to 3 different people ($100,000 X 3 people = $300,000), one person may use up the entire limit, leaving others and the building you ran into without coverage and you in hot legal-water. 

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​All that said, Split Limits for a couple of added dollars is the way to go.

What Limits Do I Pick?

Most people would say, you choose limits that are at least twice your (you and your immediate family's) net worth. A good exercise to figure this out is to total up all your assets; these are things like money in the bank, equity in your house, value of investments, value of vehicles, value of any other properties or inheritances. 

Common options are:

• $20,000/$40,000 - Michigan minimum limits - DON'T DO IT!
• $50,000/$100,000
• $100,000/$100,000
• $100,000/$300,000 - the minimum an agency should propose!
• $300,000/$300,000 - this is not CSL, you have another limit for PD
• $250,000/$500,000
• $500,000/$500,000
• $500,000/$1,000,000
• $1,000,000/$1,000,000 - higher limits are available through a Personal Umbrella Policy.

*Keep in mind, your situation may be different. Do not use this as a guide to create your own insurance policy, nor hold us accountable as we do not know your individual situation!