Far too few personal injury lawyers are aware that if you (or perhaps more importantly, your children and other family members) are injured by an uninsured or underinsured driver while riding your bicycle or walking (or doing most anything else), then you can probably make a claim against your UM/UIM coverage.

When looking at your own policy (where you are the named insured), the focus is not on what you were doing, but whether you were hit by an uninsured/underinsured motorist. One of the best quotes about this comes from the case of Greene v. Great American Insurance Company, a 1974 opinion from the Beaumont Court of Appeals:

There is no requirement that the insured have any relation, at the time of the accident, with any vehicle he owns and that is insured with the insurer. The uninsured motorists protection covers the insured and the family members while riding in uninsured vehicles, while riding in commercial vehicles, while pedestrians, or while rocking on the front porch.

I want to add two clarifications about this. First, this analysis only applies to your own UM/UIM insurance. If you’re looking to make a recovery on UM/UIM insurance bought by someone else — for example, your employer, someone whose car you’re in, etc. — then this analysis doesn’t apply.

Second, the potential coverage isn’t quite as broad as the case above indicates. Because of exclusions, there might be some very specific situations where coverage doesn’t apply. Because policies are so different, you’ll have to look to your policy.

But those specific exclusions don’t change the general answer that, “Yes, your uninsured/underinsured motorist coverrage will cover injuries to you while you’re biking or walking” or rocking on the front porch.