While a large percentage of the public welcomes the legalization of recreational marijuana, Injury Lawyer in Brampton worry about the ways that easy access to pot could affect accident benefits. The legalization of a substance does not do away with the insurer’s awareness of that same substance’s effect on the human system. No company wants to insure a driver that has fallen under the influence of alcohol or marijuana on repeated occasions.
The ways that an insurer might alter the rules, regarding the provision of accident benefits
Sometimes the promise of a benefit has been made part of a Statutory Agreement. According to such an agreement, a driver involved in an accident after being convicted of a criminal offense cannot demand coverage. Insurers could use that rule as a reason for denying coverage to a driver that had been arrested for driving while under pot’s well-established influence.
Insurance companies welcome a request for additional coverage, when that request comes from a policy holder with a good driving record. The company gets more money, and the policy holder is not apt to get in an accident. Usually, the chances that the policy holder’s car might be stolen or vandalized are rather small.
Yet that is not the situation if a marijuana-user goes after such additional coverage. In that case, the insurance company would not welcome the larger amount of money that would be coming from the pot-user, because he would seem to be a risky policy holder. For that reason, insurers might decide to forbid such coverage in cases where damage to a vehicle had resulted from a driver’s willingness to smoke pot and then sit at the steering wheel of a motored vehicle.
Finally, an insurance company might use price changes, in order to put limits on the number of drivers that would seek a policy, knowing that their pot-loving habits could increase their chances for having a car accident. If the company found that the potential policy holder had been convicted of driving while under the influence of marijuana, then the company’s policy might call for imposition of a premium hike.
The premium is what the policy holder needs to pay annually. A huge hike in that premium could make the annual payments too high for the driver that is spending money on his or her habit. Hence, the premium’s price would dictate who and who could not pay for the coverage offered by the insurer.
What are the chances that such possible changes might be introduced?
The answer to that question is rather obvious. Just look at the measures adopted to limit the number of benefits paid to a driver that got injured while ignoring the warning against impaired driving. Insurance companies will not make special provisions for those drivers that suffered a mild impairment, because they had smoked a joint earlier and then decided to sit at the steering wheel in a moving, motored vehicle.
