Finding Every Insurance Policy After a Washington Crash

The insurance card is evidence—not the complete coverage picture

After a collision, a driver commonly provides an insurance identification card containing an insurer name and policy number. Washington requires insurers to provide such cards, and state regulations specify identifying information that must appear on them.

But an insurance card ordinarily does not answer:

• the liability limits;
• who qualifies as an insured;
• whether another person owns the vehicle;
• whether another policy also covers the driver;
• whether the driver was acting for an employer;
• whether an umbrella or excess policy exists;
• whether the vehicle was being used for rideshare or commercial purposes;
• whether UIM applies to the injured person;
• whether PIP was purchased or rejected; or
• whether an insurer is asserting a coverage exclusion or reservation.

Build a coverage map before valuing settlement

A useful Washington coverage investigation separates liability coverage from first-party coverage and then identifies every policy that could occupy either category.

Start by separating the driver from the vehicle owner

Many crashes involve a driver who does not own the vehicle. That means the crash can immediately involve more than one insurance relationship.

Coverage can depend on the policy's definitions of "insured," "you," "family member," "covered auto," "temporary substitute," "nonowned auto," permissive use and related terms.

Household insurance may matter even when the household vehicle was not involved

Washington automobile policies can extend particular coverages based on insured status rather than solely on the vehicle involved in the crash. This is especially important when investigating UIM.

Ask whether the injured person, driver or another relevant person:

• is a named insured on another automobile policy;
• has a spouse or state registered domestic partner with another policy;
• qualifies under a household or family-member definition;
• lives in a household containing other insured vehicles;
• recently replaced or acquired a vehicle;
• was temporarily using another vehicle; or
• has multiple policies issued by the same or different insurers.

Employment and business use can reveal an entirely different insurance layer

Determine what the driver was doing at the moment of the collision. A privately titled vehicle can still be involved in work, delivery, sales, service, transportation or another business activity.

Questions that reveal employment coverage

• Where was the driver going?
• Where was the driver coming from?
• Was the driver on the clock?
• Was a customer, passenger, product or equipment being transported?
• Was the driver using a company phone or dispatch system?
• Was mileage being reimbursed?
• Who owned the cargo or equipment?
• Was the trip required or authorized by an employer?
• Did a company own, rent or lease the vehicle?

Rental, car-sharing and rideshare use require their own coverage search

Washington's transportation-network-company insurance requirements change according to the driver's operational status. The exact timeline of the trip therefore becomes part of the insurance investigation.

Umbrella and excess policies can change a serious-injury case

A catastrophic crash can exceed the primary automobile policy. Search for insurance above the primary policy rather than assuming that the liability declarations page represents the entire limit available.

Potential sources include:

• personal umbrella insurance;
• commercial umbrella insurance;
• follow-form excess policies;
• fleet excess programs;
• corporate risk-management programs;
• self-insured retentions followed by excess insurance; and
• multiple insurers occupying different coverage layers.

Search the injured person's own insurance independently

A complete Washington investigation does not stop with insurance carried by the person who caused the crash.

Underinsured motorist coverage

RCW 48.22.030 generally requires Washington automobile policies to provide UIM coverage unless the named insured or spouse has rejected all or part of bodily-injury UIM in writing.

Identify:

• every automobile policy under which the injured person may be insured;
• each UIM limit;
• any written UIM rejection;
• other-insurance or anti-stacking provisions;
• the identity of every named insured; and
• every vehicle and policy potentially implicated.

Personal Injury Protection

RCW 48.22.085 requires Washington automobile insurers to offer PIP, subject to written rejection by the named insured.

Determine whether PIP applies under:

• the injured person's own policy;
• a household policy;
• the policy covering the occupied vehicle; or
• another policy under which the person qualifies as an insured.

Obtain the documents that actually define coverage

A declarations page is valuable, but it is not the insurance contract. The complete policy and its endorsements determine the contractual coverage subject to Washington law.

Washington also permits many insurers to deliver policies electronically. RCW 48.185.010 requires specified information accompanying declarations pages and preserves an insured's ability to request a paper copy of the policy and endorsements without charge when that statute applies.

First-party claimants have an additional Washington disclosure protection

Current WAC 284-30-350 provides that an insurer may not fail to disclose to a first-party claimant all pertinent benefits, coverages or other policy provisions under which the claim is presented.

Once suit is filed, Washington discovery expressly reaches insurance agreements

Washington Civil Rule 26 provides a direct discovery mechanism when insurance may satisfy all or part of a judgment.

The same rule also expressly reaches documents from or on behalf of the insurer to the covered person or representative that affect coverage, including documents:

• denying coverage;
• extending coverage; or
• reserving rights.

Disclosure of an insurance agreement through discovery does not, merely because it was disclosed, make the insurance information admissible at trial.

Coverage letters can be as important as the policy itself

When an insurer disputes coverage, obtain the carrier's written position and identify:

• the policy provision relied upon;
• the factual premise for the insurer's position;
• whether the insurer is denying all coverage or only part of it;
• whether a defense is being provided under a reservation of rights;
• whether another insurer is identified as primary;
• whether the insurer contends another policy must respond first; and
• whether the insurer reserves additional defenses not yet determined.

Build an insurance inventory before accepting any limits settlement

A useful working inventory should identify each possible policy separately.

Citizen workflow for finding Washington insurance coverage

Primary authority behind this guide