Uninsured motorist coverage rules in Maine

If the driver who hit you carried no insurance, took off, or had a bare-minimum policy that can't cover your medical bills, your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is what stands between you and an unpaid injury. Maine builds this protection into every auto policy by default, and the rules for how much you carry and when it pays are set by statute.¹²

Here's what's actually true in Maine.

UM/UIM is required, and it starts equal to your liability limits

Maine law does not let an insurer deliver an auto policy in this state without uninsured motorist coverage, which by definition also reaches underinsured and hit-and-run drivers.¹ The Bureau of Insurance puts it plainly: uninsured/underinsured motorists' coverage "is a required coverage under Maine law."²

The amount is the part people miss. Your UM/UIM coverage automatically equals the bodily injury liability limits you chose, unless you sign a written rejection to lower it.¹ Under 24-A M.R.S. Section 2902(2), that rejection has to be on a form the insurer provides, signed and dated, carrying specific language: "I understand that Maine law requires uninsured motor vehicle coverage limits to equal the limits I have selected for liability coverage for bodily injury or death in this policy unless I expressly reject such an amount of coverage."¹ The form has to reach the insurer before the policy's effective date. If it doesn't, you get the higher, equal coverage automatically.¹

Even if you do reject equal limits, there's a floor. Your UM/UIM can't drop below Maine's minimum bodily injury limits of $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident.¹³² Those same minimums (50/100, plus $25,000 property damage) are what every Maine driver has to carry for liability in the first place, along with at least $2,000 in medical payments coverage.³⁴ Maine has no true no-fault system; it's an at-fault (tort) state, so the at-fault driver's insurer pays, and your UM/UIM steps in when that coverage falls short.²

When underinsured coverage actually pays, and the offset

This is where Maine's rules get specific. A car counts as "underinsured" when the at-fault driver's bodily injury liability limits are lower than your own UM/UIM limits.¹ What matters is the size of the other driver's policy compared to yours, not how badly you were hurt. If the other driver carries the same limits you do, their car isn't "underinsured" under the statute, and your UIM won't add anything, no matter how large your injuries.

When the other car is underinsured, Section 2902(6) sets how much of your coverage is left to tap. Your available UIM equals your UIM policy limit minus what you actually recovered from the at-fault driver's liability insurance.¹

Say you carry $100,000 per person in UIM and the driver who hit you had only the $50,000 state minimum. If you collect that full $50,000 and your losses run higher, your own UIM pays up to $100,000 minus $50,000, so another $50,000, bringing your total to your $100,000 limit.¹ This is why carrying UM/UIM well above the 50/100 floor matters. Your recovery ceiling is your own limit, so the higher you set it, the more room you have when someone underinsured hurts you.

What it covers, and who

UM/UIM in Maine is injury coverage. It pays for bodily injury, sickness, disease, and death caused by an uninsured, underinsured, or hit-and-run driver.¹ It does not pay for the other driver's injuries, and the Bureau of Insurance is explicit that it "does not cover damage to your vehicle or other property."² For the damage to your car, that's collision coverage and, where it applies, a diminished value claim.

The people it protects reach beyond the person behind the wheel. UM/UIM covers family members and passengers hurt in your car, and it covers you and household family members injured by another vehicle while walking, biking, or riding in someone else's car.² Its stated purpose is to give you the same injury recovery you would have had if the at-fault driver had carried insurance to the same extent you do.²

Hit-and-run drivers and insurers that go broke

If the driver who hit you can't be identified, Maine treats that hit-and-run vehicle as uninsured, so your UM coverage applies.¹² Notify the police promptly. Maine requires a crash to be reported when it causes injury, death, or apparent property damage of $2,000 or more.² (For getting a copy of the report afterward, see Maine crash reports.)

There's a second trigger that's easy to miss. If the at-fault driver did have insurance but the insurer becomes insolvent and can't pay, Section 2902(3) treats that vehicle as uninsured too. That route carries a hard deadline: you have to give your own insurer written notice of the occurrence within two years.¹

Deadlines and the things that can shrink your claim

A UM/UIM claim is ultimately about the injury the other driver caused, and Maine's general six-year statute of limitations for negligence claims applies to car accident injury suits.⁵ Six years is generous by national standards, but waiting is still a mistake: evidence fades and your policy has its own prompt-notice conditions.

Two more Maine rules can cut into what you collect. First, comparative fault. Under 14 M.R.S. Section 156, your damages are reduced by your share of the blame, and if you're found equally or more at fault than the other driver, you recover nothing.⁶ Because your UM/UIM insurer effectively stands in the shoes of the at-fault driver, that same reduction applies to your UM claim. Second, subrogation. When your insurer pays a UM claim, Section 2902(4) gives it the right to recover from the person actually responsible, so any later settlement with the at-fault driver has to account for what your insurer already paid you.¹

One quirk is worth knowing if you've held a policy a while. If you've kept the same UM limits with the same insurer for two straight years, you're conclusively presumed to have accepted that amount going forward, until you tell the insurer in writing that you want to change it.¹ Renewing or reinstating with the same insurer within 30 days counts as continuous coverage, so you don't have to sign a new rejection.¹

If your claim is being underpaid

UM/UIM claims are filed against your own insurer, which means the company deciding your payout is the one you pay premiums to. Disputes over whether the other driver was "underinsured," how the offset is calculated, and how fault is split are common, and the numbers turn on statutory language most adjusters read far more often than you will. If an offer doesn't square with the rules above, a Maine car accident attorney can check the math before you sign a release.

This article is general information about Maine law, not legal advice.

Sources

Maine Revised Statutes, 24-A M.R.S. Section 2902 (Uninsured vehicle coverage; insolvency of insurer). https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/24-a/title24-Asec2902.html
Maine Bureau of Insurance, A Consumer's Guide to Personal Auto Insurance (updated November 2024). https://www.maine.gov/pfr/insurance/sites/maine.gov.pfr.insurance/files/inline-files/12.6.24Consumers%20Guide%20to%20Personal%20Auto%20Insurance.pdf
Maine Revised Statutes, 29-A M.R.S. Section 1605 (Required insurance coverages and limits). https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/29-a/title29-Asec1605.html
Maine Revised Statutes, 29-A M.R.S. Section 1605-A (Medical payments coverage). https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/29-a/title29-Asec1605-A.html
Maine Revised Statutes, 14 M.R.S. Section 752 (Six-year limitation on civil actions). https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/14/title14sec752.html
Maine Revised Statutes, 14 M.R.S. Section 156 (Comparative negligence). https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/14/title14sec156.html

Uninsured Motorist Coverage Rules in Maine