It’s a sinking feeling: you were hurt in a crash that wasn’t your fault, and then you find out the driver who caused it has no insurance, or nowhere near enough to cover what you’re facing. A lot of people assume that’s the end of it, that if the at-fault driver has nothing, they get nothing. In Texas, that’s often not true. The coverage that can save you may be sitting on your own policy right now, whether you realize it or not.
The Coverage Most Texans Have Without Knowing It
Texas law requires every auto insurer in the state to offer uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, usually written together as UM/UIM. Here’s the part that matters most: you can only decline that coverage by signing a written rejection. If you never signed one, the coverage applies by default, typically at limits matching your regular liability coverage.
The practical result is that a large number of Texas drivers have this protection and don’t know it. This is codified in Texas Insurance Code § 1952.101, and it means the first thing worth doing after a crash with an uninsured driver is simple: pull out your auto policy’s declarations page and look. If it lists uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage, you have it.
UM and UIM: Two Different Problems, Two Different Fixes
These are related but distinct, and knowing which one applies to your situation matters:
Uninsured motorist (UM) coverage applies when the at-fault driver had no insurance at all, was never identified, or whose insurer has gone under. Hit-and-run crashes usually fall into this category too.
Underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage applies when the at-fault driver did have insurance, but not enough to cover your damages. UIM pays the gap between what their policy covers and what your losses actually are, up to your own UIM limit.
That second scenario is more common than people expect, and here’s why. Texas’s minimum required liability limits haven’t been raised since 2011, while medical costs and vehicle prices have climbed dramatically since. A driver carrying only the state minimum can cause a serious injury and simply not have enough coverage to make you whole, sometimes their entire policy is exhausted by a single hospital visit. In many serious injury cases in Texas, UIM coverage ends up being the main source of recovery, not the at-fault driver’s policy at all.
The Uncomfortable Truth About Claiming It
Here’s something a lot of people find surprising, and it’s important to be honest about it. When you make a UM/UIM claim, you’re filing it against your own insurance company, the one you’ve been paying premiums to. You might expect them to simply take care of you. In reality, a UM/UIM claim can become adversarial, because in that claim, your insurer is effectively standing in for the driver who hit you, and it has a financial incentive to minimize what it pays out.
That doesn’t mean your insurer is the enemy. It means a UM/UIM claim isn’t automatically the friendly, straightforward process people assume it will be, and it’s a real reason these claims often benefit from someone advocating on your side, even though it’s “your own” coverage.
A Note on Hit-and-Run Crashes
If you were hit by a driver who fled and was never identified, UM coverage often applies, but watch for one specific catch. Texas policies frequently require proof of actual physical contact with the vehicle that hit you. If a car ran you off the road without ever touching your vehicle, that “no contact” situation can complicate a UM claim. This is exactly why reporting the crash to police promptly and documenting everything, including any evidence of contact, matters so much in a hit-and-run.
What You Can Do Right Now
Two practical steps, whether or not you ever call a lawyer:
- Check your declarations page to see whether you carry UM/UIM coverage. Many people are relieved to find they do.
- If you find you rejected it, consider adding it back. The cost is usually modest compared to the financial risk it protects against, and with a meaningful share of Texas drivers uninsured, it’s protection worth having.
Hit by an Uninsured or Underinsured Driver in Houston?
If the driver who hurt you can’t cover your losses, your own coverage may be able to, but claiming it isn’t always as simple as it should be. The call is free, and you pay nothing unless we recover for you.
For general car accident information, see our main Car Accident Lawyer page.
Legal content reviewed by Houston attorney Monique Sparks, founder of Sparks Injury Law.