Uninsured Motorist Insurance (UM)
What is Uninsured Motorist (UM) coverage?
What is the difference between UM and UIM coverage?
So UM insurance only applies when the other driver has no insurance?
What are other situations where you run into UM insurance?
How long do I have to make a UM claim?
What is Uninsured Motorist (UM) coverage?
Answer: UM insurance is coverage you buy for yourself and those close to you to compensate you when you are injured by an uninsured driver. Minnesota requires vehicles on the road to be insured, but there are always people that either choose not to buy insurance or make some sort of mistake that leads to a lapse in coverage.
Unfortunately, their decision to break the law affects the other drivers on the road when they drive carelessly because when they hurt you, your source of recovery for your pain and suffering, lost wages in excess of what is covered by no-fault, and other non-economic damages would be an insurance policy that doesn't exist. That is where UM insurance comes in; your contract with your insurance company creates the obligation for it to step in to the uninsured person's shoes and pay for their damage up to a certain policy limit.
What is the difference between UM and UIM coverage?
Answer: UM coverage concerns uninsured motorists, in other words, when there is no insurance available from the at-fault driver. UIM coverage concerns under-insured motorist coverage, i.e. the at-fault person carried a legal amount of insurance, it just isn't enough to fully compensate you. Learn more about UIM insurance. The two terms are often confused, both because of the similar terminology and because they are usually in the same portion of your insurance policy with a single, combined policy limit.
So UM insurance only applies when the other driver has no insurance?
Answer: Most of the time. UM coverage can also be triggered in other situations. For example, until recently, Wisconsin offered insurance policies with lower policy limits than the $30,000/$60,000 required by Minnesota law. If someone with one of these policies comes to Minnesota and hits someone, the law will try to force the Wisconsin policy to meet the Minnesota legal minimum limit. In rare instances where Minnesota does not have this power, i.e. the insurer does no business within our state, the policy limits remain as they are written in the policy. That driver is both "uninsured" and "underinsured" at the same time. For that reason, either (but not both) UM or UIM could be used to recover your damages.
This situation is more common in cases where you drive out of state into a land with lower limits. Your Minnesota auto policy follows you, along with the definition of "uninsured motorist" but the other drivers may have a lower legal minimum insurance policy than they have here. In such instances, the laws of the state of Minnesota have no power to bump up low limit policies.
What are other situations where you run into UM insurance?
Answer: Probably the most common situation where we deal with UM, other than the obvious situation -- the at-fault driver carried no insurance at all, is where a person is injured by someone who either flees the scene or doesn't even know they caused an accident. In such cases, the identity of the negligent person is never known but witnesses might corroborate their negligence. Then the liability of this phantom vehicle is covered by the injured person's UM policy.
How long do I have to make a UM claim?
Answer: The statute of limitations in Minnesota for contract claims is six years. Minnesota law states that a UM action originates at the time of your crash. So like your claim against the at-fault driver, you have six years from the date of the accident to make a UM claim.
Statutes of limitation are very serious because they can completely bar your claim forever if you do not follow the proper procedure to preserve your claim. Go over your case with an experienced attorney to understand the statute of limitations and how it relates to your situation.