Uninsured motorist coverage rules in Wyoming

Getting hit by a driver who has no insurance is more than a hassle in Wyoming. If that driver has nothing, your own uninsured motorist (UM) coverage may be the only pocket left to pay for a broken wrist or the weeks you can't work. Wyoming's rules on that coverage have a few sharp edges, and the biggest one is this: UM coverage here does not do what a lot of drivers assume it does.

What follows is Wyoming law specifically. The general mechanics of UM and underinsured coverage live on the national hub this page sits under.

UM comes standard, but you can decline it

Wyoming makes uninsured motorist coverage the default. Every auto policy sold in the state that insures against bodily injury or death has to include UM coverage unless the named insured rejects it.¹ The floor is the state's minimum bodily-injury limits, $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident, the same figures that apply to basic liability insurance.¹² (Wyoming's full minimum is written 25/50/20, the last number being $20,000 of property-damage liability.²)

You can say no. The statute lets the named insured reject UM outright.¹ It does not, on its face, require that rejection to be in writing, though insurers almost always paper it with a signed selection form. One wrinkle matters: if you rejected UM on a previous policy, your insurer does not have to add it back at renewal unless you ask for it in writing.¹ A rejection tends to stick, quietly, until you act.

UM is not underinsured coverage in Wyoming

Here is the part that surprises people. Uninsured and underinsured coverage are two different things, and Wyoming only requires one of them.

UM pays when the at-fault driver has no insurance at all. Underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage pays when the at-fault driver has insurance that just is not enough to cover your injuries. Wyoming law does not require UIM, and insurers do not even have to offer it. The Wyoming Supreme Court said so in Broderick v. Dairyland Insurance Co., holding that the state's uninsured motorist statutes "unambiguously do not require insurers to provide underinsured motorist liability coverage."³ The driver in that case asked his agent for full coverage, got a policy with no UIM, was hurt by an underinsured driver, and lost; the court would not rewrite the policy for him.³

The practical takeaway is uncomfortable. A bare Wyoming policy carrying only the required UM can leave you exposed to the most common real crash, the one where the other driver has the 25/50 minimum but causes far more than $25,000 in harm. If you want protection against that gap, you have to buy UIM as a separate option, and you may have to request it by name.

Hit-and-run and phantom-vehicle claims

If the driver who hit you fled, UM is usually how you recover, because there is no one to sue. Wyoming has a consumer-friendly rule here that several other states lack. Under the Wyoming Department of Insurance regulations, a UM endorsement covering hit-and-run injuries "shall not restrict such coverage to injuries which result from actual physical contact with the hit-and-run vehicle."⁴ So a "phantom" driver who forces you off the road and never touches your car can still trigger UM coverage in Wyoming, and a policy clause demanding physical contact will not hold up.

The same regulation guards you on timing. If your policy tells you to report a hit-and-run to police within a fixed period, the rule requires it to also allow reporting "or as soon thereafter as is practicable under the circumstances."⁴ Make the police report as promptly as you reasonably can, but a rigid clock cannot be used against you.

What counts as an uninsured vehicle

Wyoming's UM coverage reaches beyond the driver who never bought a policy. It also applies when the at-fault driver's insurer goes broke. The subrogation statute addresses what happens when your insurer pays because of an insurer "insolvency," and it lets your carrier pursue the failed company or its receiver directly instead of coming after you.⁵ If the other driver was technically insured but their company collapsed before paying, your UM coverage can step in.

When your insurer does pay a UM claim, it takes over your right to collect from whoever caused the crash.⁵ That is why your carrier may go after the uninsured driver after paying you; the recovery belongs to the insurer up to what it laid out.

Stacking more than one policy

If you or your household carry more than one auto policy, Wyoming law may let you "stack" the UM limits, adding them together for a single crash. In Aaron v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., the Wyoming Supreme Court allowed stacking where the insured had paid separate premiums on separate policies, and it put the burden on the insurer to prevent it.⁶ A company that wants to block stacking has to say so in terms "a lay-insured of ordinary intelligence could easily comprehend"; vague or buried anti-stacking language gets read against the insurer.⁶ Check your declarations pages, because two $25,000 UM limits may be worth $50,000 to you.

Your own share of fault still counts

UM does not switch off Wyoming's fault rules. The state uses modified comparative negligence with a 51% bar: you recover only if you are no more than 50% at fault, and your damages shrink by your own percentage of blame.⁷ That math runs through a UM claim too, because your insurer stands in the shoes of the uninsured driver. Found 20% responsible on a $100,000 claim, you collect $80,000. Found 51% responsible, you collect nothing.⁷

Deadlines you cannot miss

The underlying injury claim carries a four-year statute of limitations in Wyoming, counted from the crash date, and vehicle-damage claims get the same four years.⁸ A UM claim is different: it is a claim on your own insurance contract, and Wyoming's limit for written contracts is ten years.⁸ Do not rely on that longer number. Your policy sets its own, much shorter deadlines for giving notice and for filing suit or demanding arbitration, and those contract terms are what usually kill a late UM claim. Tell your own carrier about the crash promptly and in writing, even if you assume the other driver was insured, because you may not find out otherwise until later.

If you need the official report for your file, you can request it through the Wyoming crash report page. For the resale-value loss your car takes after a documented wreck, see the Wyoming diminished value guide.

What UM can pay, and what it cannot

UM pays up to the limit you carry, and Wyoming puts no statutory cap on injury damages. The state constitution bars the legislature from limiting recovery for injury or death, with a narrow medical-malpractice carve-out that does not reach car crashes.⁹ The ceiling on your UM claim is your own policy limit, not a legislative number. That is one more reason the 25/50 minimum is thin: it is a hard cap on what you can collect from your own coverage.

Wyoming runs no no-fault or PIP system. It does require insurers to offer optional Medical Payments coverage (MedPay), which pays medical and funeral costs regardless of fault and can sit alongside a UM claim.¹⁰ If you carry MedPay, it does not wait on a fault fight.

If an uninsured driver hurt you and you are trying to work out what your own policy actually owes, a Wyoming attorney who handles these claims can read the declarations and the fine print with you. You can find one through the thatcarhitme.com legal directory.

This article is general information about Wyoming law, not legal advice for your situation.

Sources

1. Wyo. Stat. § 31-10-101 (Required Coverage; Rejection). https://law.justia.com/codes/wyoming/title-31/chapter-10/section-31-10-101/

2. Wyo. Stat. § 31-9-405(b)(ii) (minimum motor vehicle liability limits, 25/50/20). https://law.justia.com/codes/wyoming/title-31/chapter-9/article-4/section-31-9-405/

3. Broderick v. Dairyland Ins. Co., 2012 WY 22, 270 P.3d 684 (Wyo. 2012). https://documents.courts.state.wy.us/Opinions/2012WY22.pdf

4. 044-23 Wyo. Code R. § 23-4 (Hit-and-Run Coverage), Wyoming Department of Insurance. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/wyoming/044-23-Wyo-Code-R-SS-23-4

5. Wyo. Stat. § 31-10-104 (Subrogation). https://law.justia.com/codes/wyoming/title-31/chapter-10/section-31-10-104/

6. Aaron v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 2001 WY 112, 34 P.3d 929 (Wyo. 2001). https://law.justia.com/cases/wyoming/supreme-court/2001/276044.html

7. Wyo. Stat. § 1-1-109 (comparative fault; 51% bar). https://law.justia.com/codes/wyoming/title-1/chapter-1/section-1-1-109/

8. Wyo. Stat. § 1-3-105 (four-year limits for injury (a)(iv)(C) and property (a)(iv)(B); ten-year limit for written contracts (a)(i)). https://law.justia.com/codes/wyoming/title-1/chapter-3/section-1-3-105/

9. Wyo. Const. art. 10, § 4 (legislature may not cap damages for injury or death). https://sos.wyo.gov/Forms/Publications/WYConstitution.pdf

10. Wyoming Department of Insurance, auto insurance consumer information. https://doi.wyo.gov/consumers/insurance-topics