Many of us buy automobile liability because we have to — state law requires that we carry minimum coverage of $30,000 for each injured person, up to a total of $60,000 per accident, and $25,000 for property damage per accident. But what about our own losses? Will that other driver’s $30,000.00 minimum policy be enough to protect us? Probably not. Because of this, we urge our clients to purchase uninsured/underinsured coverage to protect them.

Uninsured/underinsured coverage allows you to file a claim for your injuries if you’re in a wreck where the other driver doesn’t have any insurance or doesn’t have enough insurance to compensate you for your injuries. Today, an estimated 20% of Texas drivers don’t carry liability insurance at all. Those who do carry it often have only the minimum policy limits of $30,000.00.

Unfortunately, with the high cost of health care, just one surgery could cost you in excess of that minimum $30,000.00 coverage policy. For example, a simple emergency room visit may result in charges that exceed $10,000.00. And any kind of surgery will far exceed the limits. For example, one of the more common injuries in a rear-end collision car wreck is a herniated disc. A recent client's charge for the surgical repair of his herniated disk was over $160,000.00.

If you have these types of injuries then the other driver's $30,000.00 policy, even if they have it, isn't protecting you; it's protecting the hospital or your health insurance company.

So what does it mean? Almost weekly we have to advise potential clients that we can't help them because the other driver didn't have insurance or didn't have enough insurance. Don't get caught in that situation. Call your insurance agent today to make sure that you're adequately protecting yourself.

Initiating your uninsured/underinsured motorist claim is not difficult. First, you will need to set up the claim. The easiest way to do this is to call the claims number your insurance company provides. This should be on your insurance card or you can find it on the Internet.

The insurance company will then begin investigating your claim. They will send you release forms in an effort to get information. These will likely include a release that will allow them to get your medical records and your payroll records.

You must be careful in filling out these forms. Most of the insurance company forms allow insurance companies to obtain more information than they need and than they should be allowed to obtain. Properly navigating this process is one of the more important reasons to hire an attorney in your claim.

After you complete treatment and the insurance company obtains all of your records, then you will begin negotiating your claim. Remember, while this is your own insurance company, they are still your adversaries in this process. Do not trust what they tell you, and do not think you can rely on the, for advice on how to proceed or go forward in your claim.

The short answer is “yes.” However, there are special rules governing hit and run claims.

The first question is whether it’s a true hit and run. Just because the other driver fails to stop doesn’t make the case a “hit and run” case for uninsured/underinsured coverage purposes. If you are able to track down the other driver down (for example, through a license plate or witnesses), then it’s not a “hit and run” driver, and the special rules don’t apply.

If you can’t track the other driver down, then your uninsured/underinsured coverage does apply, but it is subject to the contact rule: before the coverage kicks in, there must be contact between your car and the driver that takes off. If a driver runs you off the road, but there is no contact between the vehicles, then the coverage doesn’t kick in.

Applying the contact rule can be a little tricky. First, courts have found that indirect contact (for example, the hit and run driver hits car “A” which causes car “A” to hit you) is sufficient to trigger the coverage.

Courts have also been clear that you have to contact the vehicle itself. Courts have held that hitting a load that falls off a vehicle isn’t enough to trigger coverage. In another ridiculous decision, the Supreme Court even held that your uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage isn’t triggered when an axle (or other part of a vehicle) falls off and hits your car.

So the short answer is “yes,” uninsured/underinsured insurance will cover hit and run accidents if the contact rule is met.

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.

This is a pretty common situation. You’re a passenger in a car driven by a friend, and you’re hit by an underinsured motorist. Or, you’re driving a friend’s car or a company car, and you’re hit by an uninsured motorist.

What happens? Where do you look for coverage?

In these situations, there are two primary places you can look for coverage.

First, look to the insurance company that covers the vehicle you are in or using. Any uninsured/underinsured policy provides coverage to the driver and all passengers occupying the vehicle when it is in an accident with an uninsured/underinsured motorist.

The key to these claims is that you have to be occupying the vehicle. There are a number of cases where people have just exited the vehicles, been walking away from the vehicles, etc. before being hit by an uninsured driver, and courts have held that those victims were not “occupying” the vehicles, and thus, there was no coverage.

Second, look to your own automobile insurance. If you have purchased uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, it will cover you (with a couple of minor exceptions) whenever you’re hit by an uninsured motorist regardless of where you are. You can be hit in your own car, hit while in another car, hit while walking down the street, or hit on a bicycle, and you will be covered by your own policy.

If you’re in a wreck, and both of these are available to you, you can make claims on both policies. We have represented a number of people who have been passengers in vehicles that were hit by uninsured or underinsured drivers and have made claims on the policy covering the car they were in and also their own policy covering their own cars.