Car Accidents

Uninsured & Underinsured.

The other driver had no insurance or too little.

When the driver who hit you has no insurance, or nowhere near enough, the case does not disappear. It turns toward your own policy.

A large share of Texas drivers carry only the state minimum, and many carry nothing at all. When one of them causes a serious injury, the at-fault coverage runs out fast and the harm does not. This is what uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, UM and UIM, is for. It is the part of your own auto policy that steps in when the responsible driver cannot pay for what they did. Texas insurers must offer it and can only leave it off a policy if you rejected it in writing, so many people carry more of this coverage than they realize.

Why your own insurer fights you

It feels wrong, and it catches people off guard. When you make a UM or UIM claim, your own insurance company becomes the opposing party. The same carrier you paid for years now has a financial reason to value your injuries as low as possible, because this time the money comes out of its pocket. The friendly relationship ends the moment you ask the policy to do what you bought it to do.

The Brainard problem

Texas adds a wrinkle that traps people who try to handle these claims alone. Under a rule from a case called Brainard, an insurer generally does not owe underinsured motorist benefits until the injured person has established the other driver's fault and the amount of damages, often by taking the claim all the way to a judgment. You cannot simply send your carrier the bills and expect a check. Knowing the order of operations, and building the case to satisfy it, is the difference between a paid claim and a denied one.

From The Night Docket

On duty, blame, and notice:

Dispatch: Something in the Road →

There is a sentence a driver says after striking a person on a bicycle from behind at night and driving on: I thought I hit something in the road. It may be an honest sentence. On a dark road a rider ahead is a narrow shape moving the same way, what closes the gap is only the difference between two speeds, and low beams reach a couple of hundred feet. But when a collision is reasonably likely to have hurt someone, Texas does not let a driver be the judge of what he struck: the statute says to stop, to return, and to determine whether a person is involved. The rider’s lamp, his place in the lane and the driver’s speed bear on how the fault is divided. They do not decide whether the case begins.

Dispatch: Contact →

A piece of a truck works loose on the freeway, crosses a windshield and comes to rest in the back seat, and the truck does not stop. The law answers a shed-part case twice, and the two answers do not open the same door. If the truck is found, federal rules carry the case: for a load, the securement rules, under which the system that holds the cargo must withstand set forces, the driver must inspect the load within the first fifty miles and again as the trip runs on, and the duty reaches the carrier that dispatched it; for a part of the truck itself, the carrier’s duty to keep every part in safe and proper operating condition at all times. If the truck is never found, Texas sends the injured person to their own uninsured motorist coverage, where the statute asks for actual physical contact with the unknown vehicle, and the Texas Supreme Court has held that a part that detached and struck the car is not contact with the vehicle. Which is why the first hour, and the record that names the truck, is the whole case.

Dispatch: The Passenger →

Of everyone in a crash, the passenger is the one who had no hand in it, and Texas law treats them that way: responsibility is divided among the people who caused the harm, and a passenger who did nothing carries no share. Just after midnight on Saturday a speeding SUV hit a utility pole on Quintana Road in San Antonio and both the driver and the person riding along died; neither has been identified. The charge the other side raises most often, the seat belt, and the three places the money comes from: the at-fault driver, the no-fault personal injury protection on a Texas policy, and uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage.

Consent to Settle →

The clause that gives your own carrier a say before you release the at-fault driver, the Texas Supreme Court rule that limits it to an insurer that was actually prejudiced, and the letter that keeps the UIM fight about your injuries.

Permission to Settle, Notice to Settle, or Just Settle →

Before you sign a release with the at-fault driver’s insurer, your own underinsured motorist policy has a consent-to-settle clause. The three roads at that fork, what Texas courts say about each, and why the UIM claim is a second case, not a formality.

Dispatch: The Hood Line →

A low car strikes an adult in the legs and the body wraps onto the hood; a tall front meets a child above the center of balance and throws the child forward and down. Hoods above forty inches were about forty-five percent more likely to kill, and Texas asks a driver for due care to anyone on foot and proper precaution on seeing a child.

Dispatch: The Pole →

A pole slips past the frame rails built to fold, so a crash people picture as minor can be fatal. The claim survives against a dead driver’s estate, fault is divided among everyone involved, and your own uninsured and underinsured coverage stands behind the gap.

Comparative Fault →

How Texas splits the blame, which still matters when the defendant is your own insurer.

Duty →

Where a legal obligation comes from, and what it requires.

Notice →

What a party knew, or should have known, and when.

Common Questions

The driver who hit me had no insurance. Do I have any options?

Often, yes, through your own uninsured motorist coverage. Texas insurers must offer UM and UIM coverage and can only leave it off if you rejected it in writing, so you may carry it even if you do not remember choosing it. It steps in when the at-fault driver cannot pay.

Why is my own insurance company acting like the opponent?

Because in a UM or UIM claim it is. The benefits come out of your carrier's pocket, so it has the same financial incentive as any defendant to value your injuries low. Texas law also generally requires you to establish the other driver's fault and your damages before underinsured benefits are owed.

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