Oregon Underinsured Motorist Changes Benefit Injured Victims

The Oregon Supreme Court and teams of attorney advocates for justice delivered a win for Oregonians who are injured by underinsured drivers.  A driver is underinsured if the driver does not have enough insurance to fully compensate the person they hurt.  Oregon laws require all auto insurance policies to have underinsured motorist coverage.  However, for years insurance companies have issued multiple automobile insurance policies to their customers and then denied underinsured motorist coverage under all but one of the policies.  Their injured customers wondered, “after I paid for several insurance policies, why can’t I collect the insurance money the company promised?”

The Oregon Supreme Court decided the insurance company’s practice of denying coverage to all but one underinsured motorist policy violated Oregon law.  This means that people injured by a driver who does not have enough insurance can now look to their own insurance company to fulfill all its promises on all available insurance policies.  The full Oregon Supreme Court decision is called Batten v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins. Co. and can be viewed online, for free, at the State of Oregon Law Library at https://ecs.page.link/PiA2D