No-fault benefits, also known as first party benefits, are benefits that your own insurance company pays you if you are involved in a car accident, regardless of who is at fault. In Pennsylvania, the only required no-fault benefit is medical coverage. Under the Pennsylvania Motor Vehicle Financial Responsibility Law, Pennsylvania motorists are only required to carry $5,000 in medical benefits. That amount of coverage is often inadequate to pay the hospital and medical bills in motor vehicle accidents involving serious injuries.

We recommend that you purchase at least $100,000 in medical benefits coverage. The cost for this additional coverage is usually not that high, especially in comparison to the extra coverage obtained. Your insurance company is also required to offer you extraordinary medical benefits that provide additional medical benefits of up to one million dollars to protect you in the event of a catastrophic accident.

Another no-fault benefit that you may purchase is income loss coverage. The advantage of having income loss benefits is that you will be paid for your lost income, up to the limits of your coverage, while you are disabled and recovering from a motor vehicle accident. You may recover this income loss coverage regardless of whether you or another person is responsible for the accident. This coverage, in most cases, pays up to 80% of your actual loss of gross income while you are disabled. However, this coverage does not pay for the first five days you are off work. Lost income for the first five days is part of your claim against the party who was at fault.

If you do not have no-fault income loss benefits, in most cases, you will not receive any payment for lost wages from the responsible parties or their insurance companies until the case is settled or tried. Depending on the complexity of the case and the issues involved, this may take months, or even years if the claim results in a lawsuit. This often creates undue financial hardship for a family whose primary wage-earner is left disabled by an accident. The cost of obtaining income loss coverage on your own policy is minimal. We highly recommend that you and your family purchase this coverage.

Another available no-fault benefit is a death benefit, which is paid to the personal representative of your estate, in the tragic event that you suffer death within 24 months of the date of a motor vehicle accident. In essence, this accidental death benefit is like a life insurance policy, covering a death in your family caused by a motor vehicle accident.

You may also purchase funeral benefits to cover the funeral, burial or cremation expenses of a person who suffers death within 24 months after a motor vehicle accident.