According to the Insurance Journal, the Colorado House has passed a bill requiring that an insurance company be appointed as agent of the insured person in lawsuits that are the results of accidents where the at-fault driver is considered “uninsured.”
The measure, House Bill 1164, defines an “uninsured driver” as a driver who cannot be served with a lawsuit after a reasonable attempt, when there is no insurance company covering that driver listed in the police report for the accident, and when the driver’s insurance information is not known by the person who was injured, when the at-fault driver was being served with the lawsuit.
According to the text of the bill:
The general assembly is very much concerned with the financial loss visited upon innocent traffic victims by negligent motorists who are financially irresponsible. In prescribing the sanctions and requirements of this article, it is the policy of this state to induce and encourage all motorists to provide for their financial responsibility for the protection of others, and to assure the widespread of availability to the insuring public of insurance protection against financial loss caused by negligent financial irresponsible motorists.
The general assembly also said that motor vehicle accidents can have a “…substantial economic impact in terms of lost wages, medical bills and property destruction.”
The bill is headed to the Colorado Senate for review.