Some interesting facts about liability:

• Anyone driving illegally in Ontario (over the alcohol limit, or without a driver's licence, for example) is violating their insurance agreement. The insurance company is no longer required to pay the liability coverage on the policy if the insured rider causes damage in such a scenario. What the insurance company DOES have to do is to pay up to $200,000 to the injured party ("Absolute Liability"). However, the insurance company can (and will) get every penny of that back from the insured party.
• If the responsible party to an accident is carrying a lower liability limit than the injured party, and the damages to the injured party run over that limit, the injured party can (after unsuccessfully attempting to sue the responsible party) access the OPCF 44 coverage of his/her own insurance policy up to his/her own liability limit as needed, which is an excellent argument for carrying as high a limit as is offered by your insurance carrier.

Large numbers of motorcyclists are impulsively dismissive of the concept of liability when they consider their insurance coverage options. How much damage can a motorcycle do, they wonder, and even in the more dramatic situations that can be imagined, how likely are those situations to arise?

The likelihood of a motorcycle rider causing damage (and thereby being liable for the damage caused) can be decreased. The more skilled a rider is, the less likely that he will be the reason for an accident. The more awake and aware the rider is, the better the chances that he will not cause damage. The more practised and professionally trained a rider is... well, point made.

Motorcyclists do, in fact, occasionally hit pedestrians. Pedestrians then often require large amounts of money for rehabilitation and the incidentals of injury, and for pain and suffering. Such claims and settlements can be quite large, so carrying at least $1 million of liability coverage on a motorcycle insurance policy has become the standard. The additional cost to increase that limit to $2 million is usually minimal, so many motorcyclists are, prudently, making that additional outlay.

Property damage claims for damage done by motorcyclists are usually modest in comparison to bodily injury claims, but some of the numbers might surprise you. Damaged hydro poles usually cost tens of thousands of dollars to repair, for example. Many vehicles which motorcyclists run into can be worth upwards of $50,000 quite easily these days (yes, this example gets very involved when details of jurisdiction and coverage intrude; the point is simply that everything out there that can get damaged costs more than it ever did).

The ultimate goal of purchasing adequate insurance coverage for liability is to create protection against a debilitating, life-altering incident in which you become liable for large amounts of money when your negligence was of a non-criminal nature. The worst situation would be to have a person with very limited funds liable for hundreds of thousands of dollars to a person whose life is now ruinously altered both by being injured and by having a successful judgment to funds that don't exist. Liability insurance protects both parties, and society as a whole is better off as a result.