Uninsured motorist coverage rules in Texas

If the driver who hit you had no insurance, carried too little, or drove off, uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage (UM/UIM) is the part of your own policy that steps in. Texas has its own rules about when that coverage exists, what it pays, and how you actually collect. Several of them catch people off guard, so here is what is specific to Texas.

You probably have it, unless you signed it away

Every auto liability policy sold in Texas has to include UM/UIM coverage. The insurer must offer it, and the only way it stays off your policy is if you rejected it in writing.¹ The Texas Department of Insurance puts it plainly: companies must offer the coverage, and if you do not want it you have to tell them in writing.² That rejection goes on a form prescribed by the department, and once you reject it, the insurer does not have to keep offering it at every renewal unless you ask for it back in writing.¹

So the first move after a crash with an uninsured or underinsured driver is to pull your own declarations page. If you never signed a rejection, the coverage is there, even if you do not remember buying it.

How much you have, and the floor Texas sets

UM/UIM in Texas is usually written as a single coverage that handles both situations. Your limits can rise as high as the bodily injury liability limits on your own policy, and they cannot be written for less than the state's financial responsibility minimums.³ Those minimums are 30/60/25: $30,000 for injury to one person, $60,000 per crash for everyone hurt, and $25,000 for property damage.⁴ That is the same 30/60/25 Texas requires for basic liability.²

Two drivers with identical cars can carry very different UM/UIM limits, because the ceiling tracks whatever bodily injury liability limit each of them picked.

What counts as an uninsured or underinsured vehicle

Uninsured means what it sounds like: the at-fault driver had no liability coverage. Texas also treats a vehicle as uninsured when the other driver's insurer has gone insolvent and cannot pay.⁵ Underinsured is the more common problem, where the other driver had insurance but not enough to cover what your injuries and damage are actually worth.

UM/UIM only pays when the other driver was legally at fault. That makes it different from PIP, the no-fault coverage that pays your own medical bills either way.²

Hit-and-run is where Texas gets strict. The coverage does reach a crash caused by a driver who cannot be identified, but only if there was actual physical contact between that unknown vehicle and you or your property.⁶ A "phantom" driver who runs you off the road without touching your car will not, by itself, support a UM claim under the statute. That contact requirement is why reporting a hit-and-run to police right away, and documenting any point of impact, matters so much here.

The $250 property damage rule

Texas fixes the deductible on the property damage side of UM/UIM. When property damage coverage is offered, it comes with a $250 deductible, and it can be written up to your policy's property damage liability limit.⁷

The statute also spells out a choice. If you carry both collision coverage and UM/UIM property damage coverage, you decide which one to use for a given crash, and you name one as primary and pay that deductible.⁷ Before you file, it is worth comparing the deductibles and how each option affects your premium.

If your vehicle was repaired but is worth less now because it carries a wreck on its record, that is a diminished value claim, and it runs through the property damage side. Texas handles those separately from injury claims; the Texas diminished value guide covers how that works.

Underinsured claims do not pay the way people expect

This is the Texas rule that surprises the most people. UIM is "gap" coverage. It pays the difference between what the at-fault driver's liability insurance covers and what your damages actually are, up to your UIM limit, and your insurer gets a credit for whatever you already collected from the other driver. Say the driver who hit you carried the state minimum of $30,000 and your injuries and losses come to $80,000. Their insurer pays its $30,000, and your UIM covers the $50,000 gap, up to your UIM limit.

Here is the catch. Under Brainard v. Trinity Universal Insurance Co., your own insurer has no legal duty to pay UIM benefits until you obtain a judgment establishing both that the other driver was liable and that they were underinsured.⁸ A demand letter and a settlement offer are not enough on their own. Until that judgment exists, the insurer has not breached anything, which also means UIM benefits do not start earning prejudgment interest and you cannot yet claim attorney's fees.⁸ In practice, many UIM disputes have to be litigated to a judgment even when nobody seriously contests that you were hurt.

The Irwin fix, and getting your fees

For years Brainard left drivers stuck: you had to sue to get a judgment, but you could not recover the cost of doing it. The Texas Supreme Court changed that in 2021. In Allstate Insurance Co. v. Irwin, the court held that you can bring a declaratory judgment action to establish the other driver's liability and your damages, and that attorney's fees are available in that kind of suit.⁹ Those fees come through the Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act, which lets a court award fees that are reasonable, necessary, equitable, and just.¹⁰

A declaratory judgment to satisfy Brainard, paired with fees under the Act, is now the standard path for a contested UIM claim in Texas. If your claim has reached that point, it is time to have a lawyer; the legal directory lists attorneys who handle these cases.

Deadlines that actually bind you

Texas gives you two years from the date of the crash to sue over a personal injury.¹¹ A UM/UIM claim is technically a claim against your own insurer, but you still have to prove the other driver's negligence to win, and that underlying proof is gone once the two-year window closes. Treat two years from the crash as a hard line, and keep in mind that getting to a Brainard judgment takes time, so slow claim handling by your insurer can eat into it.

Your policy adds its own duties: prompt notice of the claim, cooperation with the investigation, and, for a hit-and-run, prompt reporting to law enforcement. Get the official crash report early, because it documents contact, the other driver's information, and fault. Texas peace officers file it through TxDOT's Crash Records Information System.¹² The Texas crash reports guide is a starting point.

Where this leaves you

If an uninsured or underinsured driver hit you in Texas, check your declarations page first, confirm you never rejected the coverage, and act quickly. The coverage is broader than many drivers realize, reaching insolvent insurers and, with physical contact, hit-and-run drivers. Collecting on a UIM claim, though, can mean proving your case all the way to a judgment. The two-year clock and the physical-contact rule are the two spots where people lose claims they should have won.

This is general information about Texas law, not legal advice. For guidance on your specific situation, talk with a licensed Texas attorney.

Sources

1. Tex. Ins. Code Section 1952.101 (uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage required; written rejection). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/IN/htm/IN.1952.htm

2. Texas Department of Insurance, Auto Insurance Guide (Consumer Bulletin CB-020). https://www.tdi.texas.gov/pubs/consumer/cb020.html

3. Tex. Ins. Code Section 1952.105 (limits offered up to the policy's bodily injury liability limits, not less than the Chapter 601 minimums). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/IN/htm/IN.1952.htm

4. Tex. Transp. Code Section 601.072 (minimum financial responsibility amounts: 30/60/25). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/TN/htm/TN.601.htm

5. Tex. Ins. Code Section 1952.102 (uninsured motor vehicle includes an insurer unable to pay because of insolvency). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/IN/htm/IN.1952.htm

6. Tex. Ins. Code Section 1952.104 (required provisions; actual physical contact required for an unknown owner or operator). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/IN/htm/IN.1952.htm

7. Tex. Ins. Code Section 1952.107 ($250 property damage deductible; choice between collision and UM/UIM property damage coverage). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/IN/htm/IN.1952.htm

8. Brainard v. Trinity Universal Insurance Co., 216 S.W.3d 809 (Tex. 2006). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2336779/brainard-v-trinity-universal-ins-co/

9. Allstate Insurance Co. v. Irwin, 627 S.W.3d 263 (Tex. 2021). https://www.txcourts.gov/media/1452226/190885.pdf

10. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Section 37.009 (Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act; attorney's fees). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CP/htm/CP.37.htm

11. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Section 16.003(a) (two-year limitations period for personal injury). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CP/htm/CP.16.htm

12. TxDOT Crash Records Information System (CRIS). https://cris.dot.state.tx.us/public/Purchase/