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Uninsured Motorist Coverage in Texas
When the driver who hit you has no insurance, or nowhere near enough, your own policy often holds the recovery.
Texas requires insurers to include uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage in every auto policy unless the named insured rejected it in writing.
No signed rejection in the file means the coverage exists, whether or not you ever knew you had it.
Hit by an uninsured or underinsured driver? Call (888) 713-6653 for a free review. You Win or It's Free.
At-a-Glance: Texas UM/UIM Coverage
- UM/UIM is in every Texas auto policy unless rejected in writing (Tex. Ins. Code § 1952.101)
- UM covers the uninsured driver and the hit-and-run; UIM covers the driver with too little
- It covers you in your car, in someone else's, and on foot
- Your own insurer becomes the adversary in a UM/UIM claim, and negotiates like one
- Fault and damages still have to be proved, the same as any injury claim
What UM and UIM Actually Cover
Uninsured motorist (UM) coverage stands in when the at-fault driver carries no insurance at all, and in Texas that includes the hit-and-run driver who is never identified. It pays what that driver's liability policy should have: your medical care, lost income, and pain from the crash.
Underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage picks up when the at-fault driver's limits run out before your damages do, a routine event when serious injuries meet Texas's 30/60/25 minimums, covered on our minimum insurance page.
The coverage follows the person rather than the vehicle: driving, riding as a passenger, and walking down the street. A pedestrian struck by an uninsured driver claims on their own household's auto policy, a connection many families never make.
The Written-Rejection Rule, and Why It Rescues Claims
Texas Insurance Code § 1952.101 bars insurers from issuing an auto policy without UM/UIM coverage unless the named insured rejects it in writing.[1]
The burden sits on the insurer. When a serious claim arrives and the declarations page shows no UM/UIM, the first demand is the signed rejection. If the company cannot produce one, the coverage exists by operation of law at the statutory minimums. Policies get sold quickly, paperwork gets lost, and that demand has turned "no coverage" into a recovery more times than insurers like to admit.
Your Own Insurer Is Now the Adversary
A UM/UIM claim feels like it should be friendly. It is not. Your insurer owes the money the at-fault driver could not pay, which means it saves money the same way any carrier does: disputing fault, minimizing the injuries, and delaying.
You still must prove the uninsured driver's fault and your damages, the same case you would have built against the other carrier, and Texas's 51 percent bar applies the same way. The difference is procedural: policy conditions like prompt notice and consent-to-settle clauses that can forfeit the coverage if mishandled. Settling with the at-fault driver's carrier without your own insurer's written consent is the classic mistake, and it can extinguish the UIM claim entirely.
Hit-and-Run and the Order of Operations in a UIM Claim
After a hit-and-run, report it to police immediately and preserve every camera source fast: identifying the driver keeps a liability claim alive, and if no one is found, the UM claim stands in. Our Texas pedestrian team runs this sequence constantly, because people on foot are the most frequent hit-and-run victims.
In an underinsured case, the sequence is everything: the at-fault carrier's limits get tendered, your insurer's consent gets secured in writing, and the UIM demand follows with the damages fully documented. Run out of order, the same facts can produce no recovery at all. Our Texas car accident lawyers treat the sequence as part of the case, not an afterthought.