Uninsured Motorist Coverage in Tennessee

Hit by an Uninsured Driver in Tennessee? Your Own Policy May Be the Case

When the driver who hit you has no insurance, your recovery usually runs through your own uninsured motorist coverage.

In Tennessee that happens constantly: 21.3 percent of drivers here were uninsured in 2023, the fifth-highest rate in the country.^[1]

Tennessee law requires insurers to include UM coverage in every auto policy unless it was rejected in writing.

Many drivers are covered and do not know it.

The first document worth reading after a crash with an uninsured driver is not the police report. It is your own policy.

Here is how Tennessee UM and UIM claims actually work.

Why UM Coverage Decides So Many Tennessee Injury Claims

Two Tennessee numbers collide after a crash. The state requires drivers to carry only 25/50/25 minimum coverage, and one in five drivers carries nothing at all. Put a serious injury against that math and the at-fault driver's insurance, when it exists, is exhausted almost immediately.

Uninsured motorist coverage exists for exactly this collision. It is your own policy standing in for the insurance the other driver should have had, paying the medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering that driver owes you and cannot cover.

What Tennessee Law Requires: Coverage You Have Unless You Rejected It

T.C.A. § 56-7-1201 sets three rules worth knowing before you ever open your declarations page:^[2]

• UM coverage is automatically included in every Tennessee auto liability policy unless the named insured rejected it in writing
• The limits default to your liability limits. A driver carrying 100/300 liability coverage carries 100/300 UM coverage unless a lower amount was selected, and it cannot drop below the state minimums while UM is in place
• A written rejection binds everyone on the policy, which cuts both ways: one signature years ago can eliminate the coverage, and the absence of that signature means the coverage exists no matter what the insurer's first phone call suggests

The practical move follows directly: never accept "you don't have UM coverage" as an answer without seeing the written rejection. If the insurer cannot produce one, the coverage is there.

UM vs. UIM: Two Gaps, One Protection

Uninsured motorist (UM) coverage applies when the at-fault driver has no liability insurance at all, or in qualifying hit-and-run situations where the driver is never identified.

Underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage applies when the at-fault driver has insurance, just not enough. Their policy pays its limit, and your UIM coverage addresses the gap between that limit and your actual damages, up to your own coverage amount.

In a state full of minimum-limits policies, UIM does quiet, heavy work: it is the difference between a $25,000 recovery and a recovery that reflects a $150,000 injury.

How a Tennessee UM Claim Actually Works

A UM claim is not a favor from your insurer, and it does not pay automatically. You must prove the same things you would have to prove against the at-fault driver: their fault, your injuries, and your damages. Your own insurer evaluates the claim the way the missing liability insurer would have, and it can contest fault percentages under Tennessee's 49 percent comparative fault rule, dispute the medical treatment, and negotiate the value.

Expect the file to be handled at arm's length, whatever your premium history looks like. The useful mindset: your insurer wears two hats, and on a UM claim it wears the other one. Notice deadlines, cooperation clauses, and consent requirements in the policy all have teeth, which is one more reason to bring the claim carefully and early. The wider claim process is covered on our Tennessee personal injury lawyers page.

Hit-and-Run Crashes and Drivers Who Are Never Found

When the driver who hit you fled and is never identified, UM coverage is usually the only path to recovery, and Tennessee applies its own proof requirements to unidentified-driver claims, including corroboration rules meant to filter out invented phantom vehicles. Report the crash to law enforcement immediately, preserve any camera footage fast, and treat the claim like the contested case it is. Our hit and run accident lawyers handle these claims and the proof problems that come with them.

Before You Assume There Is No Money in the Case

The most expensive mistake in an uninsured-driver crash is concluding there is nothing to recover. Between UM coverage you forgot buying, UIM sitting behind a too-small liability policy, household policies that may apply, and additional defendants who share fault, serious cases against uninsured drivers get funded more often than people expect.

Reading the policies costs nothing. Doing it inside Tennessee's one-year filing window keeps every option open.