Short answer
Possibly, yes. Florida law requires an insurer that sells bodily injury liability coverage to provide uninsured motorist coverage in the same amount unless the named insured rejects it, or chooses lower limits, on a state-approved form. A signed form is conclusively presumed to be an informed, knowing rejection. But if the insurer cannot produce a properly completed form signed by the named insured, the policy carries UM coverage equal to the bodily injury limits by operation of law, whatever the declarations page says. We request the form in every case.
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.
Section 627.727(1) is unusually specific. No policy that provides bodily injury liability coverage may be issued in Florida unless UM coverage is provided in an amount equal to the bodily injury limits, unless the named insured rejects it in writing or selects lower limits. The rejection or selection must be made on a form approved by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. The form must carry a heading in 12-point bold type warning that the insured is electing not to purchase certain valuable coverage and should read it carefully. If the form is signed by a named insured, it is conclusively presumed that there was an informed, knowing rejection on behalf of all insureds.
The flip side is the part that matters to injured people: no valid form, no valid rejection. The insurer, not the insured, carries that burden.
From the Attorney’s Desk
“Insurers have to offer UM coverage, and if the client turned it down there has to be a UM rejection form on file. In my experience it is usually there, but maybe 20 to 25 percent of the time it is missing, it is the wrong form, or it is outdated because the policy changed in a way that required a new rejection. So I always check it, to confirm whether there truly is no coverage and, when there is, to make sure it is included in the claim.”
If the insurer cannot produce a valid rejection, UM coverage exists in the amount of the policy’s bodily injury limits, and stacked unless a separate valid non-stacking election exists. A driver who “declined” UM on a policy with $100,000/$300,000 of bodily injury coverage may have $100,000 per person of stacked UM, multiplied by the number of vehicles. That changes a case in which an adjuster said there was no coverage into a case with a six-figure policy.
Insurers do not volunteer this. The forms are requested in writing, with a deadline, and reviewed against the statute line by line. When the form is defective, we put the carrier on notice of the coverage it owes before the claim is valued.
Related: Florida uninsured motorist lawyer · the driver who hit me has no insurance · insurance claims
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It is a form approved by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, headed in bold 12-point type with a warning that you are electing not to purchase valuable coverage, and signed by the named insured. A checkbox on an application, a verbal rejection, or an unsigned form does not meet the statute.
Generally yes, for renewals of the same policy, as long as the insurer sends the required annual notice with the premium. A change to a new policy or a change in bodily injury limits can require a new election. We review the policy history to find out.
No. The statute puts the burden on the insurer to produce the signed, approved form. Without it, the law treats the policy as carrying UM equal to the bodily injury limits.
