You did everything right. You carried insurance, you drove carefully, and someone hit you anyway. Then came the detail that decides how you get paid: the driver who caused the crash has no insurance, or a policy so small it won’t cover a single night at the hospital.
Insurance claims are the core of our motor vehicle practice, and this exact situation walks through our door every week. The honest news is better than most people expect. New York built three separate backstops for this moment. Almost nobody knows they exist until they need them, and every one of them runs on a clock.
The Three Coverages That Decide What Happens Next
Start with the vocabulary, because the letters get thrown around loosely and they decide where your money comes from.
Liability coverage belongs to the other driver. It’s the part of their policy that pays people they injure. When they have none, or too little, it’s out of the picture and everything below takes over.
Uninsured motorist coverage, often shortened to UM, belongs to you. Every auto policy issued in New York includes it by law. It steps in when the driver who injured you has no coverage, including a hit-and-run driver who was never identified at all.
Supplementary Uninsured/Underinsured Motorists coverage, called SUM, is the optional upgrade to that basic protection. The “underinsured” part, sometimes called UIM, is what makes it valuable: it also pays when the other driver has insurance, just not enough. In New York, underinsured protection lives inside SUM. There’s no separate UIM policy to buy.
One more player sits behind all three: MVAIC, a state fund for injured people who have no policy anywhere to claim under. We’ll get there.
New York’s Minimum Insurance, and Why It’s Not Enough
The minimum liability limits a New York driver must carry, set by Vehicle and Traffic Law Section 311, are:
| Coverage | Minimum limit |
|---|---|
| Bodily injury, one person | $25,000 ($50,000 if the injury causes death) |
| Bodily injury, two or more people in one accident | $50,000 ($100,000 for death) |
| Property damage | $10,000 per accident |
Insurance people call this “25/50/10.” Those numbers haven’t kept pace with what a hospital actually charges. A surgery, a few weeks of missed work, and physical therapy can pass $25,000 before the first follow-up appointment. So even a fully legal, fully insured at-fault driver can be badly underinsured against a real injury.
That’s the quiet problem this guide is about. The loud problem is the driver with no policy at all, and New York’s answer to both starts with your own insurance.
If the Driver Has No Insurance at All: Your UM Claim
Under Insurance Law Section 3420(f)(1), every New York auto policy must include uninsured motorist protection at those same minimum limits: $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident, with the higher death limits.
The mechanics surprise people. You don’t chase the uninsured driver’s nonexistent insurer. You file the claim with your own insurance company, under your own policy. The coverage protects you, family members who live in your household, and the passengers in your car.
It reaches further than most people assume. The statute treats all of these as uninsured motorist accidents:
- A driver with no insurance at all
- A hit-and-run driver who leaves the scene and is never identified
- A registered vehicle whose policy wasn’t in effect on the day of the crash
- A stolen vehicle, or one driven without the owner’s permission
- A vehicle whose insurer disclaims liability or denies coverage after the fact
- An unregistered vehicle
Two limits matter. First, basic UM coverage applies to accidents in New York State and pays for bodily injury only, never for damage to your car. Vehicle damage runs through your own collision coverage if you bought it. Second, UM sits on top of no-fault, not in place of it. New York’s no-fault system pays your first $50,000 of medical bills and lost earnings regardless of fault, and we explain how that works in our guide to no-fault insurance in New York. The UM claim is where compensation for pain and suffering lives, and the law only opens that door when your injury qualifies as a serious injury under Insurance Law Section 5102(d), a defined list that includes fractures, significant disfigurement, and other lasting harm.
If you don’t own a car and don’t have your own policy, you’re not out of options. A policy belonging to a relative in your household can cover you as a pedestrian or passenger. That household check is one of the first steps we run on every uninsured-driver case, because people miss coverage they didn’t know they had.
If the Driver Has Some Insurance, but Not Enough: SUM
Now the more common and more expensive version of the problem. The at-fault driver carries the legal minimum, $25,000, and your injuries are worth several times that. Their insurer pays its limit and walks away. Basic UM coverage does nothing here, because the driver wasn’t uninsured.
This is exactly what SUM coverage exists for. Under Insurance Law Section 3420(f)(2), SUM activates when the at-fault driver’s bodily injury limits are lower than your own. Your policy then pays the difference, up to your SUM limit, and it covers you outside New York too, in any state or Canadian province.
The math runs on an offset. Say you carry $100,000 in SUM coverage and the driver who hit you carries $25,000. Their insurer pays its $25,000 limit, and your SUM coverage makes up to another $75,000 available. Your protection, in other words, becomes the level of coverage you chose for yourself instead of the level a stranger chose.
Three rules shape every SUM claim we handle:
- Exhaustion comes first. The statute makes it a condition of payment that the at-fault driver’s bodily injury limits be exhausted through judgments or settlements before your SUM coverage pays. Sequencing matters, and a signed release in the wrong order can put your SUM claim at risk. Talk to a lawyer before you sign anything from the other driver’s insurer.
- You can force the limits into the open. Once you make a written request and disclose your own coverage, the other driver’s insurer must disclose its policy limits within 45 days. Your time to bring the SUM claim is tolled, meaning paused, while it fails to answer.
- The ceiling is set by statute. SUM can be purchased up to your own bodily injury liability limits, capped at $250,000 per person and $500,000 per accident.
Here’s the part worth checking today rather than after a crash. For policies issued since New York’s SUM reform took effect, insurers must include SUM coverage equal to your bodily injury liability limits unless you decline it or select less in a signed waiver. Insurers must also remind you once a year, in writing, that the coverage is available.
Hit-and-Run With No Policy Anywhere: MVAIC
One group falls through every layer above: the injured pedestrian or passenger who has no auto policy and no household relative with one. A hit-and-run driver leaves the scene, there’s no insurer to bill and no UM coverage to claim. New York built a safety net for exactly this person in 1958.
The Motor Vehicle Accident Indemnification Corporation, MVAIC, is a nonprofit created by what is now Insurance Law Article 52 to provide no-fault and bodily injury coverage to qualified injured people. To qualify, you must show that:
- The accident happened in New York
- You were a New York resident when it happened
- No other auto insurance is available to you, including a policy belonging to any relative in your household
- You weren’t the owner of the uninsured vehicle, or the owner’s spouse riding in it
MVAIC runs on the least forgiving deadlines in this entire area of law:
- 24 hours to report the accident to police
- 90 days to file a sworn Notice of Intention with MVAIC when the driver fled or was never identified
- 180 days when the uninsured vehicle was identified
The filing itself requires a notarized Notice of Intention, a notarized Household Affidavit listing everyone who lived with you on the accident date, proof of your residency, and proof that no other insurance exists. MVAIC reviews eligibility before it pays anything, and incomplete paperwork stalls the clock you can’t afford to lose.
The Deadlines That Decide These Cases
Every path above has its own clock, and they all start on the day of the crash.
| Deadline | What it applies to |
|---|---|
| 24 hours | Police report after a hit-and-run, required for MVAIC eligibility |
| 30 days | Written no-fault claim to the responsible insurer, for your medical bills and lost earnings |
| 90 days | MVAIC Notice of Intention, hit-and-run or unidentified vehicle |
| 180 days | MVAIC Notice of Intention, identified uninsured vehicle |
| Per your policy | Notice of a UM or SUM claim to your own insurer, which every policy requires promptly |
Miss the short ones and the coverage can vanish no matter how strong the case behind it was.
When a Lawyer Changes the Outcome
Plenty of insurance questions don’t need us. This corner of car accident law does, more than almost any other, for a simple reason: in a UM or SUM claim, your own insurance company sits on the other side of the table. The insurer you’ve paid for years evaluates your injury the way any opposing insurer would.
On an uninsured or underinsured driver case, we go to work on four fronts at once. We find every policy that might apply, including the household coverage people don’t know about. We force limits disclosure from the at-fault insurer and keep the exhaustion sequence clean so the SUM claim survives. We build the medical proof that a serious injury demands. And we handle the arbitration or lawsuit against the insurer when it undervalues the claim.
The injured people who lose these cases usually lose them in the first month, on a missed notice or a signed release, long before anyone argues about what the case is worth. If a driver without enough insurance hit you or someone in your family, get advice before you sign anything. The consultation costs nothing, and the 24-hour, 30-day, and 90-day clocks above keep running either way.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if the other driver has no insurance in New York?
You turn to your own auto policy. Every New York policy includes uninsured motorist coverage, which pays for bodily injury caused by an uninsured or hit-and-run driver, at minimum limits of $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident. The claim goes to your own insurance company. If you don’t own a car, a household relative’s policy can cover you, and if no policy exists anywhere in your household, MVAIC may pay instead.
What is the difference between uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage?
Uninsured motorist coverage is mandatory and applies when the at-fault driver has no coverage at all, including hit-and-run drivers. SUM coverage is the optional upgrade that also pays when the at-fault driver has insurance but less than your own limits, and it extends coverage to accidents outside New York. SUM can match your own bodily injury limits, up to $250,000 per person and $500,000 per accident.
How much uninsured motorist coverage does New York require?
The state’s minimum bodily injury limits: $25,000 per injured person and $50,000 per accident, rising to $50,000 and $100,000 when the injury causes death. It covers bodily injury only, in New York State accidents, and never damage to your car.
What if the driver who hit me fled the scene?
A hit-and-run is treated as an uninsured motorist accident, so your own UM coverage applies. With no policy in your household to claim under, MVAIC may cover you instead, but only if police get a report within 24 hours and MVAIC receives a Notice of Intention within 90 days.
Does uninsured motorist coverage pay for my car repairs?
No. UM coverage pays for bodily injury only. Vehicle damage runs through your own collision coverage, a separate and optional part of your policy.