Short answer
Yes. Under your uninsured motorist coverage, a hit-and-run driver who is never identified is treated as an uninsured driver, and your own insurer pays the damages that driver owes. Florida does not allow the insurer to require physical contact between the vehicles: the Florida Supreme Court held in Brown v. Progressive Mutual (1971) that a person who proves the accident happened is entitled to recover whether or not the cars touched. The claim rises or falls on proof, so the police report, witnesses, 911 call, and video need to be secured immediately.
Answered by Kweku Darfoor, Esq., founder of The Injury Advocates, a Plantation-based personal injury law firm serving Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, and South Florida. General information, not legal advice about your situation.
Some states require that a hit-and-run vehicle actually strike your car before UM coverage applies, to prevent invented “phantom driver” claims. Florida took the other path. In Brown v. Progressive Mutual Insurance Co., 249 So. 2d 429 (Fla. 1971), the Florida Supreme Court held that a policy cannot take away what the UM statute gives, and that an injured person who can carry the burden of proving that an accident occurred should recover “regardless of the actuality of physical contact.”
That means a driver who swerved into your lane and forced you into a guardrail, a truck that dropped a load that you struck, or a car that ran a red light and caused you to collide with someone else can all support a UM claim, even if that vehicle was never touched and never found.
Because the other driver is not in the courtroom, your carrier will test every part of the story. You must show, by the greater weight of the evidence, that another vehicle existed, that its driver was negligent, and that the negligence caused your injuries. The evidence that carries that burden is almost always gathered in the first days:
The claim is presented to your own UM carrier under section 627.727. PIP pays first; UM pays the rest, up to your limits, with stacked coverage multiplying those limits if you did not sign a non-stacking election. Your carrier may request a recorded statement, an examination under oath, and an independent medical examination; we prepare you for each. Non-economic damages require proof that the injury is permanent, exactly as in any other Florida crash claim. If the driver is later identified and insured, the claim becomes an ordinary liability claim with your UM coverage as backup.
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Report it immediately. Many Florida UM policies require that a hit-and-run be reported to the police within 24 hours and to the insurer within a short period, and late notice is one of the first defenses a carrier raises. Reporting the claim does not commit you to anything.
That is the typical hit-and-run claim. Your UM coverage treats the unidentified driver as uninsured, and the claim proceeds against your own carrier on proof that the crash happened and the other driver caused it.
In some cases. Victims of a hit-and-run that qualifies as a crime may be eligible for limited assistance through the Florida Attorney General’s crime victim compensation program for expenses not covered by insurance. It supplements a UM claim; it does not replace it.
