Uninsured motorist coverage rules in Utah

If the driver who hit you in Utah had no insurance, or carried a policy too small to cover your injuries, the coverage that pays you is usually your own. Utah builds two protections into nearly every auto policy for exactly this situation: uninsured motorist (UM) coverage and underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage. The rules are specific, and a few of them, like when your filing clock even starts, are unusual enough to catch people off guard.

UM and UIM are automatic unless you waived them

Every policy sold to satisfy Utah's owner or operator security requirement has to include liability coverage, UM coverage, and UIM coverage.¹ Both UM and UIM come standard. You only lose them if you sign an affirmative written waiver on a form your insurer provides.²³

By default, your UM and UIM limits track your liability limits: they equal the lesser of your own bodily-injury liability limits or the most the insurer offers. To carry less, you have to sign an acknowledgment form, one the insurer provides and files with the Utah Insurance Department, that waives the higher coverage and discloses the extra premium full limits would cost.²³ If you have never signed anything like that, you almost certainly still have both coverages.

The minimum numbers

Two separate floors apply.

UM coverage cannot be sold below Utah's minimum bodily-injury liability limits.² Those minimums went up recently. For any policy issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2025, the minimum is $30,000 per person and $65,000 per accident for bodily injury, up from $25,000 per person before that date.⁴

UIM has its own, lower statutory floor: at least $10,000 for one person and $20,000 for two or more people in a single accident.³ Most drivers carry more, and matching your UIM to your liability limits is the default the law nudges you toward.

"Uninsured" is broader than having no insurance

Utah's definition of an uninsured motor vehicle covers more than a driver with a blank policy. It also includes a driver who carried less than the state minimum (uninsured "to the extent of the deficiency"), a hit-and-run by an unidentified vehicle that left the scene, a vehicle whose liability insurer disputes coverage for more than 60 days, and a vehicle whose insurer is later declared insolvent.²

The hit-and-run rule has a catch. If an unidentified vehicle ran you off the road but never touched you or your car, you can still bring a UM claim, but you have to prove that phantom vehicle existed by clear and convincing evidence, and the statute says that proof has to be "more than the covered person's testimony."² You need corroboration beyond your own account, such as an independent witness or dashcam video.

Underinsured coverage stacks on top of the at-fault driver

This is the rule people most often get wrong. An underinsured driver is one who had liability insurance, but not enough to fully cover your damages.³

Utah is an add-on (or "excess") UIM state, not an offset state. Your UIM coverage is not reduced by the at-fault driver's liability limits. It is added on top of them.³ So if the driver who hit you carried the $30,000 minimum and you have $100,000 in UIM coverage, you can reach up to $130,000 in total. In an offset state, that same $100,000 UIM would be cut by the $30,000 you already recovered, capping you near $100,000. Utah does not work that way.

One boundary: a car you, your spouse, or your dependent owns or leases can never be the "underinsured" vehicle.³ You cannot point your own policy's UIM at your own car.

You usually can't stack multiple policies

Utah generally prohibits stacking UM or UIM limits from two or more vehicles or policies for a single accident. Three cars on one policy still gives you one set of limits, not three.²³ The statute calls this "interpolicy stacking" and bars it, with two exceptions: a person hit as a pedestrian by an uninsured or underinsured vehicle, and a person injured in a vehicle they don't own, can each reach one additional policy on which they qualify as a covered person.²³

The deadlines are unusual, and the UIM clock starts late

Ordinary first-party insurance claims in Utah carry a three-year deadline.⁵ UM and UIM claims are carved out of that rule and get four years instead, but the two clocks start differently.

A UM claim must be filed within four years after the inception of loss.²

A UIM claim also gets four years, but Utah defines the trigger in a way that's easy to miss: the clock starts on the date of the settlement check for the last liability payment from the at-fault driver's insurer.³ Your UIM deadline does not even begin until after you have settled with the other driver's carrier. Settle with the at-fault driver first, then you still have four years to pursue your own UIM coverage for whatever your damages exceed.

There is a related step worth getting right. Tell your UIM insurer before you finalize the at-fault settlement and get its written consent, so it can't later argue you cut off its rights. Utah does soften this: the UIM insurer has no reimbursement claim against the at-fault driver once that driver's liability limits have been tendered and you have accepted them.³ Even so, keeping your own insurer informed in writing is the safe move.

How a UM or UIM claim actually proceeds

A UM/UIM claim is a claim against your own insurance company, and Utah lays out a specific process. You can elect to resolve it through binding arbitration or through litigation.²

Within 30 days of that election, you have to send the carrier a written demand that states a specific dollar amount and itemizes your past medical bills, lost wages, and other economic damages, with supporting documentation.² The insurer then gets a reasonable time, capped at 60 days, to respond in writing and tender whatever amount it believes it owes.² You can accept that as payment in full or take it as partial payment and keep pursuing the rest.²

If you arbitrate, a single arbitrator decides unless the parties can't agree on one, and the award generally can't exceed your policy limits.² The arbitrator does not decide coverage disputes or bad-faith claims; those stay in court.² If a party believes the award was procured by fraud or corruption, it has 20 days to demand a trial de novo, and cost penalties apply if the new verdict doesn't move far enough.²

Pain and suffering still runs through the tort threshold

Utah is a no-fault state. Personal injury protection is mandatory on nearly every auto policy, with a $3,000 medical minimum and no deductible, though motorcycles are exempt.⁶ Your own PIP pays early medical bills regardless of fault, and the insurer has to pay within 30 days of receiving reasonable proof of loss.⁷

Because a UM/UIM claim lets you recover what you would be legally entitled to recover from the at-fault driver,²³ the same no-fault threshold governs your general damages. To recover for pain and suffering, you have to clear Utah's tort threshold: more than $3,000 in medical expenses, or a death, dismemberment, permanent disability or impairment, permanent disfigurement, or a bone fracture.⁷ Clear one of those and your UM/UIM recovery can include pain and suffering, not just your out-of-pocket losses.

If your vehicle was damaged too

UM and UIM coverage here is about bodily injury. Damage to your car from an uninsured driver runs through separate coverage, and if your vehicle lost market value even after a proper repair, that is its own claim, covered in our Utah diminished value guide. To document any of this you'll want the crash report, issued through the Utah Highway Patrol;⁸ see our Utah crash reports page.

Because UM and UIM claims put you across the table from your own insurer, and the notice and arbitration rules carry real consequences, many people bring in a lawyer once the numbers get serious. You can find one through our legal directory.

This is general information about Utah law, not legal advice for your specific situation.

Sources

1. Utah Code 31A-22-302, Required components of motor vehicle insurance policies. https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title31A/Chapter22/31A-22-S302.html

2. Utah Code 31A-22-305, Uninsured motorist coverage. https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title31A/Chapter22/31A-22-S305.html

3. Utah Code 31A-22-305.3, Underinsured motorist coverage. https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title31A/Chapter22/31A-22-S305.3.html

4. Utah Code 31A-22-304, Motor vehicle liability policy minimum limits. https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title31A/Chapter22/31A-22-S304.html

5. Utah Code 31A-21-313, Limitation of actions. https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title31A/Chapter21/31A-21-S313.html

6. Utah Code 31A-22-307, Personal injury protection coverages. https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title31A/Chapter22/31A-22-S307.html

7. Utah Code 31A-22-309, No-fault benefits, overdue payment, and tort threshold. https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title31A/Chapter22/31A-22-S309.html

8. Utah Highway Patrol, Get a Crash/Police Report. https://uhp.utah.gov/get-crash-police-report/