Personal Automobile Coverages
Structure of the PAP
A personal auto policy runs Part A (liability), Part B (medical payments), Part C (uninsured/underinsured motorists), Part D (collision and other-than-collision), and Part E/F (duties and general provisions). Connecticut requires 25/50/25 liability limits and UM/UIM at the bodily injury liability limits.
Key definitions drive outcomes: your covered auto, newly acquired auto (liability is automatic; physical damage coverage applies only for a short window, commonly 14 days, if the insured has no other coverage), temporary substitute, and non-owned auto. The reasonable belief of entitlement rule protects a user of a covered auto; the regular use and business use exclusions cut coverage off.
Traps that appear in questions
- Uninsured vs underinsured. Uninsured includes hit-and-run and phantom vehicles; underinsured is measured by comparing the tortfeasor's limits to the insured's UIM limits, not by whether damages exceed the tortfeasor's limits.
- UIM math. Under the limits approach, UIM pays the insured's UIM limit minus amounts already recovered from the at-fault driver.
- Collision vs other-than-collision. Animal strikes, glass, fire, theft, and vandalism are OTC; hitting a pothole or another car is collision.
- Diminished value, loss of use, and transportation expenses are separate buckets with their own sublimits.
- Permissive use ends at the point the user exceeds the scope of consent.
Worked example - UIM
Insured carries 100/300 UIM. An at-fault driver with 25/50 limits pays $25,000 for injuries worth $150,000. UIM responds for $100,000 − $25,000 = $75,000, because UIM pays the gap only up to the insured's own UIM limit.
Rule of thumb: read the definitions page before the insuring agreement - most auto disputes are definitional, not factual.