Family Exclusions in Car Insurance Policies

Protecting your family in an automobile accident is one of the most important things you can do. That should be easy enough to accomplish! Simply call your insurance agent and ask for full coverage. Perfect! Unfortunately, sometimes it is not always this simple due to the “intrafamily exclusion” that may be in an insurance policy. This is actually a common exclusion in the State of Ohio. For example, you are driving your wife to a hair appointment and you cause a serious accident. You submit your wife’s injury claims after the accident to your own insurance company. After some time waiting, the insurance company finally tells you they’re position – there is no coverage. Upset and mad, you discuss the matter with an attorney who tells you that under the intra family exclusion, there is no coverage in the policy. Under Ohio law, your wife as a family member living in your household can not bring a claim against you for your negligence. This is called the “intra family exclusion” doctrine. Ironically, if your neighbor had been injured in this same accident, she would have been covered up to the liability limits under your automobile insurance policy. In another scenario, if your wife had been driving with a friend, she would also be covered for her injuries. Some insurance policies are expanded to preclude coverage if a family member was a pedestrian or if another family vehicle is involved. This doctrine has also been applied to include uninsured motorist coverage. 

If you’ve researched the ins and outs of car insurance policies, you know that they are complex documents that are difficult to understand. Due to the length and complexity of an automobile insurance policy, most people never review the fine print in their policy. While we certainly don’t blame them and know how arduous it can be to understand an insurance policy, most people simply go online, get a quote for their insurance policy and click purchase. What they usually don’t know is that deep in the fine print of most policies is what’s called the “intrafamily exclusions” clause. Language in these clauses preclude any family member that is in your automobile during an accident from recovering for injuries caused by your negligence!

Practically speaking, because they are excluded by this specific language, your family would have to file a personal injury lawsuit against you to recover all damages they’ve sustained. This would not be the same result if your neighbor was injured. Your neighbor would be able to make a claim under the liability provisions of your policy up to your insurance limits but your own family often cannot if this language is present! In essence, family exclusion language in a car insurance policy results in no coverage to your family. This is very unfair and has the potential to devastate a family!