Uninsured & Underinsured Motorist Claims

Most people have no idea they are insured against the driver who hit them.

If a driver injures you and carries too little insurance to cover what you lost (or carries none at all), your own auto policy may owe you the difference. That coverage is called uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. It is the most valuable provision in a standard auto policy and the least understood.

It is also the coverage insurers fight hardest, because the moment you claim it you are no longer the customer. You are the claimant, and your own insurance company is now the opposing party.

The signature that ends most underinsured claims

Here is how it happens. The at-fault driver's insurer offers its policy limits, which sounds like good news. You accept and sign the release. And in doing so you can extinguish your own underinsured motorist claim, because your insurer's right to pursue the at-fault driver died with that release.

Maryland and Virginia each have a statutory procedure for accepting the at-fault driver's limits without destroying the underinsured claim; in the District of Columbia, the policy's own terms govern, so they must be read first. In Maryland it is a statutory notice-and-consent process: written notice to your own carrier, which then has a limited window to consent or to pay you the amount of the tender itself and preserve its subrogation rights (Md. Code, Ins. § 19-511). Miss the notice, or sign the release before the window runs, and the claim can be gone. There is no fixing it afterward.

What we do

• Find every policy. Coverage may exist under your policy, a household member's policy, a policy on the vehicle you were riding in, an employer's policy, or an umbrella policy sitting above any of them. Clients routinely have two or three layers they do not know about.
• Protect the claim before accepting anything. We give the statutory notice and get consent in writing before any release is signed.
• Read the policy, not the adjuster's summary. Anti-stacking language, household exclusions, residency requirements, and offset provisions are where these claims are won and lost. We have litigated all of them.
• Sue your own insurer when it will not pay. An underinsured claim the carrier refuses is a breach of contract action, and we file it.

Two of our results

$500,000. Our client was struck on an interstate highway. The at-fault driver carried $100,000 in liability coverage, which was tendered in full. Our client's own policy carried $250,000 in underinsured coverage plus a $1 million umbrella layer. We followed the statutory notice-and-consent procedure to accept the tender without forfeiting the underinsured claim, and when our client's own insurer would not pay what it owed, we sued it.

$515,000. A driver who injured our client on a bicycle carried only $25,000. We pursued the claim through our client's own underinsured coverage, litigated the insurer's coverage defenses, and recovered more than twenty times the at-fault driver's limits.

These case results are examples of matters handled by Posey Lebowitz PLLC. The outcome of any case depends on the specific facts and legal circumstances of that case. These results do not guarantee or predict a similar result in any future matter. Amounts shown are gross recoveries before attorney's fees, case expenses, and medical liens.

How UM and UIM coverage differs in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia

All three jurisdictions require uninsured motorist coverage, but they differ sharply on underinsured coverage, on whether your coverage is reduced by the at-fault driver's payment, and on how you settle with the at-fault driver.

• D.C. Uninsured motorist coverage is mandatory, at a minimum of $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident, with optional higher limits up to $100,000 and $300,000 (D.C. Code § 31-2406(f)(2), (f)(4)). Underinsured coverage is optional: insurers must offer it, but once rejected it need not be offered again, it is subject to the same set-off provisions as uninsured coverage, and policies may bar stacking (§ 31-2406(c-1)). For many D.C. drivers, the policy's fine print decides the case.
• Maryland. Standard uninsured motorist coverage, which also covers underinsured drivers, must equal your liability limits unless you waived that in writing, but it is reduced by the amount the at-fault driver's insurer pays (Md. Code, Ins. § 19-509(e)(2), (g)). “Enhanced” underinsured coverage pays without that reduction, and for new private passenger policies issued on or after July 1, 2024, insurers must provide it unless the first named insured waives it in writing (§ 19-509.1(b), (c), (h)). To accept a limits offer, you send a copy of it by certified mail to your own insurer, which has 60 days to consent or refuse, and if it refuses, 30 days to pay you the offer amount itself (§ 19-511(b) to (d)). More on our Maryland UM and UIM page.
• Virginia. Underinsured coverage is paid without any credit for the at-fault driver's liability coverage, unless a named insured signed an election to reduce it (Va. Code § 38.2-2206(A)). You may settle with the liability insurer for its available limits and sign a release under the statute without prejudice to your underinsured claim (§ 38.2-2206(K)). When several policies apply, the statute sets the order in which they pay, starting with the policy on the vehicle you occupied (§ 38.2-2206(B)(2)). More on our Virginia UM and UIM page.

In both Maryland and Virginia, a policy cannot force you into binding arbitration of your uninsured or underinsured claim (Md. Code, Ins. §§ 19-509(j), 19-509.1(k); Va. Code § 38.2-2206(H)). If your insurer will not pay, you can take it to court.

If you take one thing from this page

Do not sign a release from the at-fault driver's insurer until someone has checked your own coverage. Call us first. There is no charge for the call, and it is the single decision most likely to determine what your case is worth.

Related reading

• What is uninsured motorist coverage?
• Maryland's enhanced UIM coverage and the offset trap
• Maryland's household exclusion after Murphy v. GEICO
• Virginia's UM/UIM law: an FAQ on policies and renewals
• The personal injury justice gap and the insurance that fixes it
• Insurance coverage litigation
• DMV Injury Guide: using your own insurance
• DMV Injury Guide: dealing with insurance adjusters

Responsible attorneys: Ryan C. Posey and Jacob M. Lebowitz. Posey Lebowitz PLLC, 3221 M Street NW, Washington, DC 20007.