Hit by an Uninsured Driver? How Uninsured Motorist Coverage in Texas Works

Uninsured motorist coverage in Texas is the part of your own auto policy that pays your medical bills, lost income, and other damages when the driver who hit you has no insurance, or drove off and can’t be found. That is UM coverage. Underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage does the same job when the other driver’s insurance is too small to cover what you lost. Texas insurers must offer both, and your policy includes them unless a named insured turns them down in writing.

The harder part is that a UM or UIM claim is made against your own insurance company, and you usually have to prove the other driver was at fault and what your injuries are worth before it pays. If you were hit by an uninsured driver in Texas and are weighing whether to call a Texas car accident lawyer, here is how the coverage works, where it trips people up, and which deadlines matter.

Uninsured vs. Underinsured Motorist Coverage: What Each One Covers

The two coverages sit together in your policy and answer two different situations.

• The at-fault driver has no liability insurance. UM pays the damages the at-fault driver is legally responsible for.
• The at-fault driver fled and is never identified. UM pays the same, if the contact requirement is met (see the hit-and-run section below).
• The at-fault driver’s insurer is insolvent and can’t pay. UM pays the same; Texas treats that vehicle as uninsured (Tex. Ins. Code § 1952.102).
• The at-fault driver is insured, but under your UIM limit. UIM pays the shortfall, up to your UIM limit.

Texas defines an underinsured vehicle by comparing limits: the other driver’s liability limits against the underinsured limit on your own policy (§ 1952.103). The Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) says the coverage can pay your medical bills, car repairs, a rental car, replacement of property that was in your car, and pain and suffering.

Texas Insurers Must Offer Uninsured Motorist Coverage, and Only a Written Rejection Turns It Off

Texas Insurance Code § 1952.101 says an insurer may not issue an auto liability policy unless it provides UM/UIM coverage in the policy or as a supplement. That requirement does not apply if any insured named in the insurance policy rejects the coverage in writing. TDI’s auto insurance guide says it plainly: insurers must offer it, and if you don’t want it, you must say so in writing.

• Check your declarations page. It lists the coverages and limits you actually have.
• Ask for the signed rejection if you think you declined. If your policy shows no UM/UIM and you remember signing nothing, ask your agent or insurer for the written rejection. If none exists, you may have coverage you didn’t know about.
• One named insured can reject for everyone, including a spouse who handled the paperwork.
• Renewals don’t automatically restore it. If coverage was rejected earlier with the same or an affiliated insurer, the insurer need not add it back unless the named insured asks in writing.
• Limits have a ceiling. UM bodily injury limits can’t exceed your own bodily injury liability limits (§ 1952.105), and UM property damage carries a $250 deductible (§ 1952.105; TDI).

Texas Minimum Liability Limits and Why UIM Matters

Texas requires drivers to carry at least $30,000 of liability coverage for injury or death to one person, $60,000 for two or more people in one crash, and $25,000 for other people’s property. That is the “30/60/25” in insurance ads (Tex. Transp. Code § 601.072; TDI’s auto insurance guide). As of this update, those are still the figures.

Here is why that matters. Say a driver with minimum limits runs a red light and breaks your leg. You need surgery, therapy, and three months off work, and your damages total $120,000. The other policy pays $30,000 at most. With $100,000 in UIM coverage on your own policy, your insurer owes the difference, $90,000 in this example, because UIM pays what you are legally entitled to recover, not above your policy limit, “reduced by the amount recovered or recoverable” from the other driver’s insurer (§ 1952.106).

Read “recovered or recoverable” twice. A UIM insurer may take credit for the other policy’s limit even if you never collected it, so you generally pursue the at-fault driver’s insurer first, and you talk to your own insurer before you release anyone.

How a UM or UIM Claim Works, Step by Step

The path usually looks like this, though details vary by policy.

1. Get medical care and call the police. A police report documents the crash, and TDI says hit-and-run UM claims require one. Our guide on what to do if you are in a car accident covers the scene.
2. Notify your own insurer promptly. Policies set notice conditions, and late notice can give the insurer a reason to dispute the claim.
3. Find out what the other driver carries. Ask their insurer for the policy limits in writing. That decides whether yours is a UM or UIM claim.
4. Don’t settle with the at-fault driver without your insurer’s written okay. Most policies require consent, and Texas law gives an insurer that pays a UM/UIM claim a right to recover from the responsible party up to its payment (§ 1952.108). Settling without consent can put your UIM benefits at risk.
5. Build the damages file: medical records, bills, proof of lost income, photographs.
6. Send a documented demand and negotiate.
7. If you can’t agree, resolve it in court. That is next.

Why Your Own Insurer May Not Owe You Until Fault and Damages Are Established

UM/UIM pays what you are “legally entitled to recover” from the other driver (§ 1952.101). So the question is not only whether you were hurt. It is whether the other driver was legally responsible and what your damages are worth. Your insurer stands in the other driver’s shoes.

The Texas Supreme Court explained what that means for timing. In Brainard v. Trinity Universal Ins. Co., 216 S.W.3d 809, 818 (Tex. 2006), it held that a UIM insurer has no contractual duty to pay benefits until the insured obtains a judgment establishing the other motorist’s liability and underinsured status. Brainard was a UIM case. Texas courts have not squarely extended that holding to every uninsured motorist claim, but UM and UIM coverage both turn on the same phrase, what you are “legally entitled to recover” from the other driver (§ 1952.101(a)). Expect your insurer to make the same argument.

In Allstate Ins. Co. v. Irwin, 627 S.W.3d 263 (Tex. 2021), the Court added that you needn’t sue the other driver first. A declaratory judgment action against your own insurer can establish liability and damages. The insured in that case settled with the other driver for her $30,000 limit, asked his insurer for his $50,000 UIM limit, and was offered $500. The two sides were that far apart.

Insurers can and do pay by agreement. The point is that they aren’t contractually required to until liability and damages are established, so a real disagreement over fault or value can end up in front of a judge.

Let me be fair about the framing. A UM/UIM claim is a contract claim. You paid premiums for this coverage and you are entitled to a fair evaluation. Your insurer has to test whether the other driver was at fault and whether your damages are what you say, and good-faith disagreement about value is normal. The lesson is not to go into it unprepared.

Two Texas rules help you. If a dispute turns on whether the other vehicle was really uninsured, the insurer carries the burden of proof (§ 1952.109). And a suit against your insurer over UM/UIM coverage may be brought only in the county where you lived when the accident happened, or where it happened (§ 1952.110).

Stacking UM/UIM Coverage: What Texas Allows and What It Doesn’t

“Stacking” means adding coverage limits together. Texas isn’t generous about it.

• Within one policy, no. UM/UIM policy forms must say the total limit for any one person from a single occurrence can’t exceed the limit shown in the policy, however many vehicles or claims are involved (§ 1952.104(1)). In Upshaw v. Trinity Cos., 842 S.W.2d 631 (Tex. 1992), the Texas Supreme Court upheld that rule against a driver who had paid UM/UIM premiums on three vehicles in one policy.
• Across separate policies, sometimes. If you are covered under your own policy and a household relative’s policy, both may be in play. It depends on each policy’s “other insurance” and limit wording.
• Never more than your damages. UIM fills a shortfall. It doesn’t pay more than you lost.

Hit-and-Run Claims: When an Unknown Driver Counts as an Uninsured Motorist

If the driver fled and was never identified, the claim goes to your UM coverage. TDI confirms UM/UIM pays when the other driver can’t be found.

Texas attaches a condition. UM policy forms must require that when the owner or driver of the vehicle is unknown, actual physical contact occurred between that vehicle and you or your property (§ 1952.104(3)). A car that cuts you off and sends you into a guardrail without touching you is the classic claim that can fail here. If you’re unsure whether there was contact, ask a lawyer before assuming either way.

TDI’s guide says a police report is required for hit-and-run claims, and many policies also require prompt notice to both police and insurer. What helps: a same-day report, witness names, nearby camera footage (ask early, since recordings can be overwritten), photographs of paint transfer and damage, and medical records tying your injuries to the crash.

PIP, Collision, and UM/UIM: Which Coverage Pays for What

Your policy may carry all three.

• UM/UIM. Fault is required: the other driver must be legally responsible. It pays medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering, and with UM property damage, repairs.
• PIP. No fault is required (§ 1952.155). It pays your medical bills and some lost income, up to the PIP limit.
• Collision. No fault is required. It pays repairs to your car, minus your deductible.

PIP is part of Texas policies unless a named insured rejects it in writing (§ 1952.152). The law does not require an insurer to provide more than $2,500 in aggregate PIP benefits per person (§ 1952.153), so many policies carry exactly that. Check your declarations page for yours. It is a useful first source for medical bills because you don’t prove fault, but it runs out fast after a serious injury. If you have both collision and UM property damage coverage, you can claim under either or use both, with one primary (§ 1952.107). How PIP and UM/UIM payments interact depends on your policy wording.

What to Do When Your Insurer Denies or Lowballs a UM/UIM Claim

Say the adjuster offers a number that doesn’t come close to your surgery and lost wages, or denies the claim. You have options.

• Ask for the reason in writing. Is the dispute about fault, coverage, treatment, or value?
• Answer with documentation: records, bills, wage proof, photographs.
• Don’t sign a release or cash a check marked full and final until you understand what you’re giving up.
• Consider a complaint to TDI. TDI asks the company to respond, but it can’t decide who caused a crash or make an insurer pay unless the refusal violates the law or the policy. It works best alongside a documented demand.
• Resolve it formally. As Irwin explains, a lawsuit against your insurer is a recognized way to establish liability and damages.
• Have a lawyer read the policy and the offer. UM/UIM claims have their own rules, and a consultation before you accept or reject is worth having.

If You Have No UM/UIM Coverage: Other Places to Look

• PIP or medical payments coverage, if you have it, pays medical bills regardless of fault.
• Collision coverage repairs your vehicle, minus the deductible.
• Health insurance may pay treatment, though it may also have a right to be repaid from any recovery.
• The uninsured driver personally. A judgment is only as good as what the driver owns or earns, and a driver who couldn’t afford insurance often can’t pay a judgment.
• Someone else who shares responsibility. If the driver was working, the employer may be responsible, and in some circumstances so may an owner who lent a car to an unfit driver.

The Deadline Problem: Two Years From the Crash Is the Safe Working Rule

Two clocks can apply.

The injury claim. Texas gives you two years to sue for personal injury, counted from when the cause of action accrues, which for a crash injury is generally the day of the crash (Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a)). In a wrongful death case, two years from the death (§ 16.003(b)). See our guide to the car accident lawsuit process in Texas.

The insurance contract. Your UM/UIM claim is also a claim on a contract, and your policy may have its own deadline to sue. Texas limits how short it can be: a contract term setting a period shorter than two years is void (§ 16.070). That is a floor, not the whole answer. When the clock on a UIM contract claim begins, given that the insurer’s duty to pay doesn’t arise until liability and damages are established, is something lawyers argue about, and I wouldn’t stake a case on the argument.

So treat two years from the crash as your working deadline and put it on a calendar. If the claim hasn’t resolved well before then, talk to a lawyer about filing in time to protect both the claim against the other driver and the claim on your policy. Notice deadlines are separate and often shorter: tell your insurer promptly, and in a hit-and-run, call the police right away.