Short answer
Uninsured motorist (UM) coverage is bodily injury insurance you buy for yourself. When a driver with no insurance, too little insurance, or no identity (a hit-and-run) injures you, your own insurer pays the damages that driver legally owes, up to your UM limits: medical bills beyond PIP, lost income, future care, and pain and suffering if the injury is permanent. It covers the named insured and resident relatives almost anywhere, and other passengers while in the insured car. The claim is made to your insurer, but your insurer defends it as if it were the at-fault driver.
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.
Florida law (section 627.727) requires every insurer that sells bodily injury liability coverage to offer uninsured motorist coverage in the same amount, unless you reject it or select lower limits on a state-approved form. UM is first-party coverage: it is on your policy, you pay the premium, and the claim is presented to your own carrier. But it pays third-party damages, the compensation a negligent driver would owe you in a lawsuit.
It is not PIP. PIP is no-fault coverage that pays a limited amount of your own medical bills and lost wages regardless of fault. It is not collision or property damage coverage; UM pays for injuries, not for the car. And it is not health insurance: UM pays the full measure of damages, including pain and suffering when the injury meets Florida’s permanency threshold.
Florida courts divide people covered by a UM policy into two classes. Class I insureds are the named insured and relatives who live in the household. They are covered wherever they are injured by an uninsured driver: driving the insured car, riding in a friend’s car, in a rideshare, on a bicycle, or on foot. Class II insureds are other people, such as passengers who are not relatives; they are covered only while occupying the insured vehicle.
The practical consequence is that a family often has more coverage than it realizes. A college student living at home is covered by a parent’s UM policy. A spouse injured as a passenger in a coworker’s car can claim under the household policy. We ask about every policy in the home before accepting that a client is uninsured. Can I use a family member’s UM coverage? →
From the Attorney’s Desk
“If it is your own insurance company, you have a contract with them and very likely a duty to cooperate with their investigation, so you generally do have to give the recorded statement. The at-fault driver’s insurer is different. You do not have to give them a recorded statement at all. When they ask, it is because they want to hear your version and pin you into a corner, and anything you say can be used against you later. My advice is always the same: do not give a recorded statement to the adverse adjuster.”
Economic damages, meaning medical expenses beyond PIP, lost wages, lost earning capacity, and the cost of future treatment, are recoverable without any threshold. Non-economic damages, meaning pain, suffering, mental anguish, and loss of enjoyment of life, are recoverable from a UM carrier only if the injury meets the permanency threshold in section 627.737(2): a significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function, a permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability, significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement, or death. The treating physician’s permanency opinion is therefore one of the most important documents in the case.
Related: Florida uninsured motorist lawyer · stacked vs. non-stacked · insurance claims
Call 833-DARFOOR or (754) 812-8444, or text (754) 289-3211. Phones are answered 24/7, the consultation is free, and there is no fee unless we win.
Frequently. In a UM claim the carrier stands in the shoes of the at-fault driver and may dispute fault, causation, the permanency of your injury, and the value of your damages. It can require a recorded statement, an examination under oath, and an independent medical examination. Treat it as the opposing party, politely.
Your UM limits, which you chose when you bought the policy, and which may be stacked across vehicles. The carrier also receives a credit for any amount the at-fault driver’s liability insurer paid, and UM does not duplicate PIP benefits.
Florida’s insurance code prohibits an insurer from cancelling, refusing to renew, or raising the premium solely because of an accident unless it determines in good faith that you were substantially at fault.
