If the driver who hit you had no insurance, too little insurance, or drove off before you got a plate, your own uninsured and underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage is often what actually pays your medical bills and lost wages. The general concept of UM/UIM lives on the national hub. This page is about the parts that are specific to Nevada: the exact statutes and numbers, the filing deadlines, and a couple of traps that catch people here.
Your insurer has to offer it, but you don't have to buy it
Nevada does not force you to carry UM/UIM. It forces your insurer to offer it. Under NRS 687B.145(2), any company selling auto insurance in the state "must offer, on a form approved by the Commissioner, uninsured and underinsured vehicle coverage in an amount equal to the limits of coverage for bodily injury sold to an insured."1 So if you buy $100,000 in bodily injury liability, your insurer has to put $100,000 of UM/UIM in front of you.
You can turn it down, but the refusal has to be in writing. NRS 690B.020(1) says the coverage goes into every policy unless it is "rejected in writing, on a form furnished by the insurer describing the coverage being rejected."2 If nobody ever handed you that form, there's a real argument the coverage sits in your policy whether or not you remember choosing it. And once you've rejected it, the insurer does not have to keep re-offering it at renewal; you get it back by asking for it in writing.1
How much coverage, and what counts as "uninsured"
When UM coverage is in your policy, it can't drop below Nevada's minimum liability limits. Those limits, set by NRS 485.185, are $25,000 per person, $50,000 per crash, and $20,000 for property damage, usually written as 25/50/20.3 NRS 690B.020 ties the minimum UM amount to that same bodily injury floor, so the least UM you can end up with is 25/50.2
An "uninsured" vehicle in Nevada is broader than a driver carrying no policy at all. NRS 690B.020 also treats a car as uninsured when the at-fault driver's liability limits fall below the state minimums, and when the responsible insurer denies coverage or goes insolvent.2
Underinsured coverage in Nevada is gap coverage
UIM handles the common case where the other driver had insurance, just not enough of it. Nevada runs this as "difference" or gap coverage. NRS 687B.145(2) lets you "recover up to the limits of the insured's own coverage any amount of damages for bodily injury ... which the insured is legally entitled to recover from the owner or operator of the other vehicle to the extent that those damages exceed the limits of the coverage for bodily injury carried by that owner or operator."1
In plain terms, your UIM kicks in for the part of your losses that runs past the at-fault driver's bodily injury limit, capped at your own limit. Say the other driver carried the state minimum of $25,000, your injuries are worth $90,000, and you bought $100,000 in UIM. You collect the $25,000 from their insurer, then turn to your own UIM for the remaining $65,000.1 One consequence matters here: the other driver only counts as "underinsured" if their bodily injury limits are lower than your UIM limits. If you both carry 25/50, there is no gap for UIM to fill.
Hit-and-run and phantom drivers: the physical-contact rule
This is where Nevada quietly denies a lot of claims. If the at-fault driver is unknown, whether a hit-and-run or a "phantom" car that ran you off the road, NRS 690B.020 lets you use UM coverage only if there was actual physical contact between that vehicle and you or your car.2 A driver who forces you into a barrier without ever touching your vehicle generally will not support an unknown-driver UM claim in Nevada.
You also have to report it. The same statute requires that someone report the crash to law enforcement, meaning the city police, the county sheriff, or the Nevada Highway Patrol, within the time set by Nevada's accident-reporting statutes at NRS 484E.030, 484E.040, and 484E.050.2 Start the police report promptly. If you need a copy of it later, Nevada crash reports are covered separately.
Stacking more than one policy
If you're covered under more than one UM/UIM policy or vehicle, Nevada lets insurers block "stacking," but only if they follow NRS 687B.145(1) to the letter. A limiting provision has to be in clear language, be prominently displayed in the policy or endorsement, and it is void if you bought separate coverage on the same risk and paid a premium calculated for full reimbursement.1 When those conditions aren't met, recovery is capped at the higher of the applicable limits and prorated between coverages in proportion to their limits.1 The Nevada Supreme Court enforced exactly this in Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. v. Coatney, 118 Nev. 180, 42 P.3d 265 (2002), upholding an anti-stacking clause because it satisfied all three statutory conditions.4 Whether you can stack turns on the precise wording of your policy, so have the declarations page read closely before you assume the answer.
Your insurer can't chase you for a UIM payment
One rule runs strongly in your favor. Under NRS 687B.145(4), an insurer that pays you underinsured motorist benefits "is not entitled to subrogation against the underinsured motorist who is liable for damages to the injured payee."1 The UIM dollars you collect are yours to keep; the company can't claw them back out of a later recovery from the at-fault driver. Even so, read your policy's notice provisions before you settle with the other driver, because many policies still require you to tell your UIM carrier first.
The deadlines are not what you'd guess
Two very different clocks start after a Nevada crash. The lawsuit against the driver who hit you is a personal-injury claim with a two-year statute of limitations under NRS 11.190(4)(e), or three years for vehicle-damage claims under NRS 11.190(3)(c).5
Your UM/UIM claim is different. Because it's a claim on your own insurance contract, the Nevada Supreme Court treats it as a written-contract action with a six-year limit under NRS 11.190(1)(b), and the clock does not start on the crash date. In Grayson v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., 114 Nev. 1379, 971 P.2d 798 (1998), the court held that the six years don't begin to run until your insurer actually denies the claim.6 Insurers tried to shorten that window with policy language, and in State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Fitts, 120 Nev. 707, 99 P.3d 1160 (2004), the court struck down a clause requiring any UM/UIM suit within two years of the accident, holding it void against Nevada public policy.7
Don't read those cases as a reason to wait. You still owe your insurer timely notice under the policy, memories fade, and physical evidence disappears. The point is narrower: a Nevada UM/UIM claim is not automatically dead just because two years have passed since the wreck.
Med-pay, and why there's no PIP
Nevada is not a no-fault state and does not sell personal injury protection. Your insurer does have to offer optional medical-payments (med-pay) coverage of at least $1,000 under NRS 687B.145(3), which can cover early bills no matter who was at fault, and there's no Florida-style 14-day deadline to use it.1 If your car lost resale value even after a proper repair, that's a separate diminished-value claim.
UM/UIM disputes in Nevada usually come down to three things: the policy wording, the physical-contact rule, and which clock applies. That means the facts of your own policy matter more than any general rule of thumb. If you want someone to read your declarations page and press the claim, you can find a Nevada attorney here.
This is general information, not legal advice.
Sources
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Nevada Revised Statutes 687B.145 (offer of UM/UIM equal to bodily injury limits; underinsured "gap" coverage; anti-stacking and proration; no subrogation on UIM payments; optional med-pay). https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-687B.html
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Nevada Revised Statutes 690B.020 (uninsured vehicle coverage requirement; written rejection on an insurer form; physical-contact and police-report rule for unknown vehicles; minimum coverage tied to Chapter 485). https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-690B.html
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Nevada Revised Statutes 485.185 (minimum motor vehicle liability limits: $25,000 per person, $50,000 per crash, $20,000 property damage). https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-485.html
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Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. v. Coatney, 118 Nev. 180, 42 P.3d 265 (2002) (anti-stacking limitation valid where it meets the three requirements of NRS 687B.145(1)). https://www.courtlistener.com/c/P.3d/42/265/
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Nevada Revised Statutes 11.190 (two-year limit for personal injury under (4)(e); three-year limit for property damage under (3)(c); six-year limit for written contracts under (1)(b)). https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-011.html
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Grayson v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., 114 Nev. 1379, 971 P.2d 798 (1998) (six-year contract limitations period for UM/UIM claims does not begin until the insurer denies the claim). https://www.courtlistener.com/c/P.2d/971/798/
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State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Fitts, 120 Nev. 707, 99 P.3d 1160 (2004) (policy clause requiring UM/UIM suit within two years of the accident is void against Nevada public policy). https://www.courtlistener.com/c/P.3d/99/1160/