Lawyer Listings Add, Update, or Remove Listings

Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Coverage

Coverage on your own policy that pays when the driver who hurt you had no insurance, or nowhere near enough - and it is the coverage people most often discover they declined.

Informational only - this is not legal advice. These definitions explain general legal vocabulary in plain English. They are not advice about your situation, reading them creates no attorney-client relationship, and the law differs from state to state and changes over time. For advice you can rely on, speak to a lawyer licensed in your state.

Looking for a lawyer rather than a definition? Skip to the state-by-state list of Car Accident law firms.

What it means

Uninsured motorist coverage applies when the at-fault driver had no liability insurance, or cannot be identified at all, as in a hit-and-run. Underinsured motorist coverage applies to the much more common situation where the other driver had insurance but the policy limit is smaller than the harm done. Both sit on the injured person's own policy, and both are the reason a serious injury caused by a minimally insured driver is not automatically uncompensated.

Because the claim is made against one's own insurer, it has a different shape from a claim against a stranger. The insurer is simultaneously the party that owes the contract and the party disputing the amount, and there are usually notice requirements, cooperation duties and consent requirements - in particular, settling with the at-fault driver without the insurer's consent can forfeit the underinsured claim entirely.

Whether the coverage must be offered, whether it can be declined and how, and whether limits from several vehicles or policies can be combined are all state questions, and the answers vary widely.

California's statute is a useful example of how the offer-and-rejection rules work. Every auto liability policy issued there must include uninsured motorist coverage, and the coverage can be deleted or reduced only by a written agreement signed by the named insured, in a form the statute prescribes (Cal. Ins. Code § 11580.2(a)(1)). The same section defines when a hit-and-run vehicle counts as uninsured and requires the insurer's written consent before an insured settles with a driver who is at fault. Other states take different positions on each of these points, so the first document to read in a dispute is the policy, and the second is the state's own uninsured motorist statute.

Where this comes from

This is a matter of state insurance law and the policy contract; there is no federal statute governing it. States differ on whether an insurer must offer the coverage, whether a rejection must be in writing, and whether coverage from multiple policies may be stacked - and the policy language itself supplies terms the statute does not.

When people hire a lawyer for this

Two moments matter. The first is before any settlement with the at-fault driver, because consent requirements are routinely missed and the forfeiture they cause is not reversible. The second is when an own-insurer claim is denied or valued far below the harm, since a dispute with one's own insurer can raise contractual and bad-faith questions that a straightforward injury claim does not.

Worried about the cost? A lawyer can be hired for one part of a case only (limited-scope representation), may be paid from what a claim recovers (contingency fee), or may be free through a pro bono program or legal aid; a court can also waive its own filing fees.

Find Car Accident law firms in your state

Choose your state to see Car Accident law firms in the city where we list the most; your city may be under “other cities”, A to Z.

Alabama (Birmingham)
+1 other city
- Montgomery
Alaska (Anchorage)
Arizona (Chandler)
+6 other cities
Arkansas (Little Rock)
California (Los Angeles)
+18 other cities
- Anaheim
- Fremont
- Irvine
- Long Beach
- Modesto
- Oakland
- Sacramento
- San Bernardino
- San Diego
- San Francisco
- San Jose
- Stockton
- and 6 more with fewer listed firms
Colorado (Aurora)
+2 other cities
- Colorado Springs
- Denver
Connecticut (Bridgeport)
Delaware (Wilmington)
District of Columbia (Washington)
Florida (Jacksonville)
+7 other cities
Georgia (Atlanta)
Hawaii (Honolulu)
Idaho (Boise)
Illinois (Chicago)
Indiana (Indianapolis)
+1 other city
- Fort Wayne
Iowa (Des Moines)
Kansas (Kansas City)
+1 other city
- Wichita
Kentucky (Lexington)
+1 other city
- Louisville
Louisiana (Baton Rouge)
+2 other cities
- New Orleans
- Shreveport
Maine (Portland)
Maryland (Baltimore)
Massachusetts (Boston)
Michigan (Detroit)
Minnesota (Minneapolis)
+1 other city
- Saint Paul
Mississippi (Jackson)
Missouri (Kansas City)
+1 other city
- St. Louis
Montana (Billings)
Nebraska (Lincoln)
+1 other city
- Omaha
Nevada (Henderson)
+3 other cities
New Hampshire (Manchester)
New Jersey (Newark)
+1 other city
- Jersey City
New Mexico (Albuquerque)
New York (New York City)
+2 other cities
- Buffalo
- Rochester
North Carolina (Fayetteville)
+5 other cities
North Dakota (Fargo)
Ohio (Columbus)
+3 other cities
Oklahoma (Tulsa)
+1 other city
- Oklahoma City
Oregon (Portland)
Pennsylvania (Philadelphia)
+1 other city
- Pittsburgh
Rhode Island (Providence)
South Carolina (Columbia)
South Dakota (Sioux Falls)
Tennessee (Memphis)
+1 other city
- Nashville
Texas (Irving)
+11 other cities
Utah (Salt Lake City)
Vermont (Burlington)
Virginia (Chesapeake)
+3 other cities
Washington (Seattle)
+2 other cities
- Spokane
- Tacoma
West Virginia (Charleston)
Wisconsin (Milwaukee)
+1 other city
- Madison
Wyoming (Cheyenne)

Related terms

Entries on the same subject:

Other entries in the same area of law, each written from the same primary sources.

CDL DisqualificationThe federally defined list of offenses that take away a commercial driver's license - including offenses committed in a personal car, and a lower alcohol limit than applies to other drivers.
Contesting a Traffic TicketWhat a moving violation citation actually is, the difference between an infraction and a traffic misdemeanor, and the procedures - hearing, written defense, traffic school - for answering one.
Driving Record PointsThe system most states use to score moving violations against a driver's record, with a license suspension when the total crosses a threshold - and an interstate compact that makes an out-of-state ticket count at home.
DUI / DWI (Impaired Driving)Driving while impaired by alcohol or drugs - a charge that almost always runs as two separate cases at once, one criminal and one over the license.
Field Sobriety TestsThe roadside balance, coordination and eye-movement exercises an officer uses to build probable cause for an impaired-driving arrest - usually voluntary, and never the same thing as the chemical test that follows.
Hours-of-Service Rules (Commercial Trucking)Federal limits on how long a commercial driver may drive and work, and the electronic records that show whether those limits were kept.
Ignition Interlock DeviceA breath-testing device wired into a vehicle that stops it starting if the driver has been drinking - required by many states after an impaired-driving conviction as a condition of driving at all.
Implied Consent and Administrative License SuspensionThe rule in every state that by driving you have agreed to a chemical test for alcohol or drugs after a lawful arrest - and the license suspension that follows a refusal or a failed test, separately from any criminal case.
Leaving the Scene of an Accident (Hit and Run)The legal duties every state imposes on a driver involved in a crash - to stop, to exchange information and to help anyone hurt - and the separate criminal offense of driving away instead.
Lemon Law and Warranty RightsRules that entitle a buyer to a refund or replacement when a new vehicle has a defect the manufacturer cannot fix in a reasonable number of attempts.
Negligent Entrustment (Lending a Vehicle)The claim against a person who lent a car to someone they knew, or should have known, was unfit to drive it - the owner's own negligence, separate from the driver's.
Odometer Fraud and the Odometer DisclosureRolling back or replacing an odometer to hide a vehicle's true mileage is a federal offense, and every transfer of a vehicle must come with a written mileage statement the buyer can sue over if it is false.
Salvage and Rebuilt TitlesThe title brands a state applies to a vehicle an insurer has declared a total loss, what a rebuilt brand means, and the federal database built to stop a branded title being washed clean in another state.
SR-22 and Financial Responsibility FilingsThe certificate an insurer files with the state to prove a high-risk driver is carrying the required liability coverage - what triggers it, why it is not itself insurance, and what happens if the policy behind it lapses.
Tire Defect Claims (Tread Separation and Blowouts)Injury claims after a tire fails, where the question is whether the tire was defectively made or designed, was too old or was recalled, rather than only how the driver reacted.
Used Car Buyers Guide (FTC Used Car Rule)The window sticker a dealer must display on every used vehicle offered for sale, stating whether it comes with a dealer warranty or as is - and why the sticker overrides the contract.
Vehicle Safety RecallA manufacturer's federally supervised obligation to notify owners of a safety defect and fix it free of charge - and the rules on what a dealer may sell with a recall still open.

« All glossary terms

Part of the LawyerLand plain-English legal glossary. Definitions are written from primary sources - statutes and court rules - and each entry states the authority it rests on, or says plainly when the doctrine is state law with no national rule.

If you cannot afford a lawyer, civil legal aid programs provide free help with many of these problems: civil legal aid programs by state.

Related free reference tools: statute of limitations for a personal-injury claim, by state, quoted from each state's official text - part of LawyerLand's legal reference tools.