Chris Hammons | November 7, 2024 | Personal Injury
What happens if you total a leased car? A serious accident involving a leased car can be challenging to navigate, and what happens next depends on several factors: who was at fault, the coverage of the at-fault driver’s insurance, and the level of insurance carried by the other driver. Each of these elements plays a role in determining the financial and legal outcomes following the car accident.
What if the Accident Was the Other Driver’s Fault?
Oklahoma requires every driver with a car registered in Oklahoma to carry the following insurance:
- $25,000 bodily injury liability per person
- $50,000 bodily injury liability per accident
- $25,000 property damage liability per accident
Unfortunately, Oklahoma is one of the states with the highest rates of uninsured motorists, at 13.4% as of 2024. If you’re lucky and the at-fault driver was insured, their liability insurance will cover damage to your vehicle up to $25,000. Even if your car is worth more than $25,000, if you’re even luckier, the at-fault driver will have more than $25,000 in property damage liability insurance.
If you’re unlucky and the at-fault driver was driving without insurance, you’ll have to either sue the at-fault driver out of their personal assets or rely on your own insurance resources. Your own car accident insurance resources might include:
- Uninsured motorist insurance (optional)
- Collision insurance (not required by Oklahoma, but required by the leasing company)
- Gap insurance (sometimes required by the leasing company)
This should be sufficient to cover your losses unless you are operating a very high-value vehicle.
What if I Totaled My Leased Car Without Insurance?
When you lease a car, you are responsible for insuring it at your own expense. Oklahoma requires you to carry liability insurance to cover the other driver’s losses. The leasing company, however, will also require you to purchase at least the following amount of insurance:
- Comprehensive and collision coverage: This will cover any damage to the car, no matter whose fault the accident was. It will even pay out if someone steals your car.
- Liability coverage (Oklahoma also imposes this requirement, but the leasing company may require you to carry higher coverage limits).
- Gap insurance (potentially) Gap insurance covers you if the amount you owe on your lease exceeds the amount that your insurance will pay you for the accident. Gap coverage will cover this “gap.”
These insurance policies will cover damage to your leased car (if policy limits are high enough). If you cause injuries or damage to the other driver, your liability insurance, as required by Oklahoma, will pay your liability. You could be in financial trouble if the amount of damage you inflicted on the other driver exceeds the limits of your liability insurance.
Comparative Fault
We’ve covered what happens if someone else wrecks your leased car. We’ve also covered what happens if you wreck your car yourself. However, most accidents don’t work this way. In most accidents, there is blame to go around. The accident might be 35% your fault and 65% the other driver’s fault, for example.
In that case, a court will apportion blame (or negotiating parties will agree on the distribution of blame). Anyone with over 50% fault will recover zero damages under Oklahoma’s modified comparative fault rules. If you are assigned 50% or less of the blame, you can recover, but your recovery will be reduced by your percentage of fault. For example, if you are 30% to blame, your final reward will be reduced by 30%.
How a Car Accident Attorney Can Help
An Oklahoma City auto accident lawyer with Laird Hammons Laird Personal Injury Lawyers can help you by investigating your accident, negotiating a settlement, fighting to lower the precentage of fault assigned to you, and even taking your case to court, if necessary.
Contact Our Car Accident Lawyers at Laird Hammons Laird Trial Lawyers for a Free Consultation
For more information, please contact an experienced car accident lawyer at Laird Hammons Laird Personal Injury Lawyers to schedule a free initial consultation today. Our law office is located in Oklahoma City.
We proudly serve Oklahoma County, OK, and its surrounding areas:
Laird Hammons Laird Personal Injury Lawyers – OKC
1332 SW 89th St,
Oklahoma City, OK 73159
(405) 497-0480
