Utah Legislature: Lawmakers ponder insurance, liability

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Legislature considering three bills that would change current laws on auto insurance companies, accident victims and liability.

St. George attorney and Republican Sen. Stephen Urquhart is sponsoring the bills, saying he has in the past successfully negotiated on legislation with insurance companies and trial attorneys who represent accident victims.

"It tends to be a thing when you look in an area of law, you see a couple of things that need to be improved," Urquhart said.

As an attorney, he is in private practice. "I do not deal with any of these" issues at work, he said.

He got into the issues of insurance companies, accident victims and liability a few years ago, when he ran a bill that set the claim an injured person can get from an insurance company in arbitration at $25,000.

This year, Urquhart is sponsoring SB105, which would increase that amount to $50,000.

SB62 would require insurance companies, in instances in which their client was hit by a noninsured or under-insured person, to provide a written response to the customer's demand of coverage in a "reasonable amount of time," and the insurance company of the underinsured must pay the covered person's demand (or their insurance company's demand) immediately.

A third bill, SB70, Urquhart is proposing would limit parents' liability to the amount of liability insurance they have purchased, assuming it's the legal amount, if their minor children crash a car they let them drive if there's injury or death of one person and $100,000 if there is injury or death of more than one.

Under current state law, which Urquhart said most parents are unaware of, "your liability is potentially through the roof, it's unlimited, even though you've done nothing wrong."

And it's not just parents who are liable but any adult who allows a minor to drive his or her car. In cases in which parents allowed children to drive knowing harm could be done, the law doesn't apply because it's a negligence case, Urquhart said.

SB105 and SB70 await the governor's signature, while SB62 passed in the Senate and is waiting in the House.

e-mail: lhancock@desnews.com

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