Accidents Involving Uninsured Motorists: Who Pays When the Other Driver has no Insurance?

Typically, one has Medical Payments (Med Pay) coverage on their policy in the amount of $1,000, $5,000, $10,000 or more, and that takes care of medical bills up to the policy limits.  Uninsured Motorist coverage covers the rest, in addition to lost wages, pain and suffering and any other economic and non-economic expenses.  If your friend’s UM coverage is not enough to cover his bills, one or both of two things must be true.  First, he must be fairly seriously injured, perhaps requiring a hospital stay or ongoing care.  Second, he must have the minimum limits available in his state, usually $15K. If either or both of these are the case, and he has no health insurance (I’m hoping he does), then he may wind up having to pay for his expenses beyond what is covered out of his own pocket.  His insurance company will likely try to recoup their losses (anything they pay out under Med Pay and/or UM coverage) by suing the uninsured motorist.  Often, however, the uninsured motorist has no money (or they might have purchased insurance).  If the case is that your friend just doesn’t think the insurance company is offering him enough money to settle his UM claim, and there is more money in the “pot”, (in other words, they are offering him less than the limits available and he thinks he should get the whole amount), he may need to hire an attorney to help him prove that they are not evaluating his claim fairly.