Uninsured motorist coverage rules in North Dakota

If the driver who hit you had no insurance, carried too little, or fled the scene, the coverage that steps in is your own uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage. North Dakota forces every auto policy to include it, so you almost certainly have it even if you never asked for it. What it pays, and how hard your own insurer can push back, comes straight from statute. Here is how the rules actually work in North Dakota.

What every North Dakota policy has to include

State law bars any insurer from delivering, issuing, or renewing an auto policy on a vehicle registered here unless the policy includes uninsured motorist (UM) coverage at the limits set by North Dakota's financial responsibility law.¹² Those limits are $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident for bodily injury.²³ Underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage is required separately, and the statute is explicit that it must be provided "at limits equal to the limits of uninsured motorist coverage."⁴ The floor for both is 25/50.

One point trips people up. In North Dakota, UM and UIM cover bodily injury only. The statutes speak of "compensatory damages ... for bodily injury, sickness, or disease, including death."¹⁴ Damage to your car runs through liability, collision, or a diminished-value claim, not through UM/UIM.

You can't waive it, but one exclusion exists

North Dakota gives policyholders no general right to reject UM or UIM. The single carve-out is in section 26.1-40-16: by written agreement with the named insured, a policy can exclude a specific person or class of people from coverage, or cut their limits through a restrictive endorsement.⁵ That tool exists to keep a high-risk household member off a policy. It is not a way to drop the coverage for yourself. If an agent ever told you that you "waived" UM/UIM, ask to see the signed exclusion, because a blanket waiver isn't permitted.

When the other driver counts as uninsured or underinsured

Section 26.1-40-15.1 defines an "uninsured motor vehicle" three ways: one with no bodily injury liability policy at all, one whose insurer denies coverage or has gone insolvent, or a hit-and-run where the owner or driver can't be identified.⁶ The hit-and-run branch carries a North Dakota catch. For a phantom vehicle, the claim counts only if the unknown car made actual physical contact with you or your vehicle, or the crash is "independently verified by a disinterested witness."⁶ A single-car wreck you blame on a car that ran you off the road, with no contact and no independent witness, will not qualify.

An "underinsured motor vehicle" is one where the at-fault driver did carry liability insurance, but the bodily injury limit is lower than your UIM limit, or it was drained paying other people hurt in the same crash.⁶ That comparison, their limit against yours, is what triggers UIM.

How much your coverage actually pays

North Dakota UIM tops up what the at-fault driver couldn't cover, up to your limit. It does not hand you a second full policy stacked on top of what you already collected. The statute caps your insurer's payment at the lower of two figures: the compensatory damages you proved but did not recover from the at-fault driver, or your UIM limit.⁴ Say your damages come to $60,000, the at-fault driver's insurer pays its $25,000 limit, and you carry $50,000 in UIM. Your unrecovered loss is $35,000, which is below your $50,000 limit, so UIM pays $35,000.

Before that math, your recovery drops by anything paid or payable under workers' compensation (North Dakota's Workforce Safety and Insurance) and under any medical payments or personal injury protection coverage.⁷ Losses those sources already covered come off the top.

No stacking, and a priority order when policies overlap

If you insure more than one vehicle, you can't add the limits together. Section 26.1-40-15.4 says UM/UIM limits "may not be added to or stacked upon" the limits on other vehicles, regardless of how many cars or policies are involved.⁷ When more than one policy could apply, you recover under the highest single limit, and the statute fixes the order: first the policy on the car you occupied, then a policy where you are a named insured, then one where you are an insured but not the named insured.⁷ A lower-priority policy pays only the amount by which it exceeds the higher one.⁷ If your insurer does pay, it can chase the at-fault driver to recover through subrogation.⁸

Buying above the 25/50 floor

You can ask for higher UM/UIM limits, and the insurer must offer them, though it doesn't have to sell more than your bodily injury liability limit or $100,000 per person and $300,000 per accident, whichever is less.¹ Since UIM only reaches losses above the at-fault driver's coverage, and plenty of North Dakota drivers carry nothing but the 25/50 minimum, raising your own UM/UIM is where real protection shows up. Worth a direct conversation with your agent.

The no-fault threshold and your deadline

North Dakota is a no-fault state under the Auto Accident Reparations Act. Every policy carries basic no-fault benefits (PIP) up to $30,000 per person per accident, paying medical and wage losses no matter who caused the crash.⁹ The trade-off is that you can't recover for pain and suffering from the at-fault driver unless your injury is "serious," which the Act defines as death, dismemberment, permanent disfigurement, a disability lasting more than 60 days, or medical expenses above $2,500.⁹ Because UM/UIM pays what you would be "legally entitled to collect" from that driver, the same threshold gates the non-economic part of a UM/UIM claim.

A UM/UIM claim is a contract claim against your own insurer, and the underlying injury runs on North Dakota's six-year statute of limitations.¹⁰ Don't wait it out. Tell your insurer early and in writing, and get the wreck documented through the official crash report. In a UM/UIM fight, section 26.1-40-15.2 provides that each side pays its own attorney's fees unless the policy says otherwise or the insurer is found to have acted in bad faith.¹

If an insurer is lowballing your UM/UIM claim or arguing that your injury doesn't clear the serious-injury threshold, that's usually when it pays to talk with an attorney.

This is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

1. North Dakota Century Code § 26.1-40-15.2, Uninsured motorist coverage. https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t26-1c40.pdf

2. North Dakota Century Code § 39-16.1-11, Motor vehicle liability policy minimum limits. https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t39c16-1.pdf

3. North Dakota Insurance Department, Auto insurance requirements. https://www.insurance.nd.gov/consumers/insurance/auto

4. North Dakota Century Code § 26.1-40-15.3, Underinsured motorist coverage. https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t26-1c40.pdf

5. North Dakota Century Code § 26.1-40-16, Exclusion of named persons - Restrictive endorsements. https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t26-1c40.pdf

6. North Dakota Century Code § 26.1-40-15.1, Definitions (uninsured and underinsured motor vehicle). https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t26-1c40.pdf

7. North Dakota Century Code § 26.1-40-15.4, Other insurance and priority of payment (anti-stacking). https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t26-1c40.pdf

8. North Dakota Century Code § 26.1-40-15.5, Reimbursement and subrogation. https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t26-1c40.pdf

9. North Dakota Century Code ch. 26.1-41, Auto Accident Reparations Act (no-fault benefits and serious injury threshold). https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t26-1c41.pdf

10. North Dakota Century Code § 28-01-16, Six-year statute of limitations. https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t28c01.pdf