Austin Uninsured Car Accident Lawyer

A 2023 study by the Insurance Research Council (IRC) found that 14% of motorists were uninsured. Even with the strict laws in our area, the study found that around 13.8% of Texas drivers were uninsured. This statistic doesn’t even account for the underinsured drivers on Texas roads, and that number is higher still.

What Exactly Is an Uninsured Car Accident?

An uninsured car accident is any crash where the at‑fault driver either has no liability insurance at all or flees the scene and cannot be identified (a hit‑and‑run is typically considered an uninsured accident under your own policy if the other vehicle made physical contact with you or your car). Underinsured accidents are also common; where the other driver has some coverage, but with policy limits that are too low to pay for the full cost of your injuries and losses..

Texas is an at-fault state, which means the insurance company of the at-fault driver is typically responsible for covering the costs arising from an accident. If the at-fault driver in your case has no insurance, or insufficient insurance, it can cause significant problems when it comes to recovering compensation.

Texas Motor Insurance Requirements

Texas law requires all drivers to carry liability insurance covering at least:

• $30,000 bodily injury liability per person.
• $60,000 bodily injury liability per accident (total for everyone injured).
• $25,000 property damage liability per accident.

These limits, codified in Texas Transportation Code § 601.072, have been unchanged since 2011. In practice, the cost of medical treatment and vehicle damage in car accident cases now often exceed them, which is why “minimum‑limits” drivers are frequently underinsured in serious crashes.

Driving without the required levels of coverage can lead to fines, license and registration suspensions, and vehicle impoundment, yet drivers still choose to take the chance to save money.

Legal Options After an Accident With an Uninsured Driver

Claims Under Your Uninsured/Underinsured (UM/UIM) Motorist Coverage

Checking coverage here should be your first priority after an Austin uninsured car accident.

Under Texas Insurance Code § 1952.101, insurance carriers are required to automatically provide UM/UIM coverage with every liability policy unless rejected in writing; so, unless you specifically opted out when you bought your policy, you should have the coverage. UM/UIM insurance covers both bodily injury and property damage. Keep in mind that your UM/UIM limit can be no higher than your own liability limit, so if you carry the state minimum, the most this coverage pays for your injuries is $30,000.

Your insurer will need proof that the other driver caused your crash, and evidence of the extent of your damages. Insurance companies are notorious for disputing the facts of cases like this in order to reduce their liability; this is why it’s a good idea to consult with an Austin car accident attorney as soon as you can after your crash.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Do not sign a release or accept money from the uninsured driver without your carrier’s written consent, because the standard Texas policy lets the carrier deny your UM claim if you settle with the driver on your own.

Direct Lawsuit Against the Uninsured Driver

You can also sue the uninsured driver personally, but then many uninsured drivers are uninsured in the first place because of financial difficulties. If someone can’t afford to pay an insurance premium, they’re probably not going to be able to cover tens of thousands of dollars in lawsuit damages.

Texas exempts a driver’s wages and home from collection on a personal injury judgment, so collecting from an uninsured driver usually means going after assets like a second vehicle, rental property, or a bank account. Before we recommend suing the driver personally, we run an asset search to find out whether a judgment would be collectible, and if it would not, we put that effort into your UM claim and any other party who shares responsibility for the crash.

Claims Against Other Liable Parties

You may be able to pursue compensation from a party other than the uninsured driver who hit you, such as:

• The owner of the vehicle if they negligently entrusted their car to an unsafe driver.
• A bar that overserved the driver if they were obviously intoxicated (under dram shop statutes).
• A road contractor that created dangerous conditions.
• A vehicle manufacturer or dealership if vehicular defects contributed to the collision.

Other First‑Party Coverages (PIP, Med‑Pay, Collision)

Your Texas auto policy may also include Personal Injury Protection (PIP), which your insurer had to offer you unless you rejected it in writing, along with optional medical payments and collision coverage, and each of them can pay part of your losses after an uninsured‑driver crash.

PIP pays regardless of who caused the crash, and the $2,500 minimum limit is a combined per‑person amount that covers medical bills, 80% of lost income, and the cost of hiring someone to do household work you can no longer do yourself, though you can buy higher limits. Medical payments coverage also pays regardless of fault but only for medical and funeral expenses, while collision coverage pays to repair or replace your vehicle when the other driver has no insurance or you decide not to pursue them directly.

What Happens If the Uninsured Motorist Was on the Job?

If the uninsured driver who hit you was on the road for work, the business that put them there may be responsible for your losses, and that business usually carries a commercial policy with limits high enough to cover a serious injury. Whether you can reach that policy depends on the driver’s relationship with the company and what they were doing at the time.

Employees Driving Within the Scope of Their Job

Texas law holds an employer responsible for an employee’s negligent driving when the employee was acting within the course and scope of the job, a doctrine known as respondeat superior or vicarious liability. A driver on a delivery route or driving between service calls fits that description, and the employer’s commercial auto policy responds even though the driver personally had no coverage.

Independent Contractors

Companies that label their drivers as independent contractors usually require them to carry their own insurance, and when a contractor lets that coverage lapse the company will argue it owes you nothing. Texas law defines employee status by whether the company had the right to control the details of the work, like the route, the schedule, and how each job had to be done. If the company controlled those things, the driver was an employee for purposes of your case, even if the company is calling them a contractor. A company that sent out a driver it knew had no insurance or a bad driving record can also be sued directly for negligent hiring or entrustment, which does not depend on employee status at all.

Rideshare Drivers

If the driver was working for Uber or Lyft, Texas Insurance Code Chapter 1954 requires coverage regardless of the driver’s personal policy: at least $50,000 per person and $100,000 per crash while the driver is logged in and waiting for a request, and at least $1,000,000 from the moment a ride is accepted until the passenger gets out. The coverage amount that applies depends on the driver’s app status at the time of the crash, and we obtain those records from the company along with dispatch logs, contracts, and insurance certificates in any case where the driver was working.

What to Do After an Uninsured Motorist Crash

• Notify the police: Texas car accident laws require you to report any crash in which someone was injured or killed or a vehicle was damaged badly enough that it can no longer be driven safely. Inside Austin city limits you call the police; outside city limits you call the sheriff’s office or the nearest Texas Department of Public Safety office. The crash report becomes part of the proof in your UM/UIM claim, and in a hit-and-run, the sooner officers have a description of the vehicle and the direction it went, the better their chances of identifying the driver.
• Seek medical attention: If there were no paramedics at the scene of your accident and you haven’t already visited a doctor or hospital, do that as soon as you can. Not only is this important for your health, it will also provide you with key medical evidence when you start the process of seeking compensation.
• Confirm your coverage and policy limits: Pull your declarations page and look for UM/UIM, PIP, med‑pay, and collision coverage. If UM/UIM is not listed, ask your insurance company for a copy of your written rejection, and if it cannot produce one signed by you or another named insured on this policy or an earlier policy with the same insurer, the coverage is part of your policy by law whether or not it appears on the page.
• Preserve evidence about fault and damages: Organize photos, video, witness names, medical records, and repair estimates; uninsured and underinsured claims can sometimes hinge on detailed proof that the other driver was at fault and that your injuries are genuinely tied to the crash. Texas is a modified comparative negligence state, so it’s possible to recover a reduced amount of damages after an accident even if you share some of the blame for what happened (as long as you were not primarily at fault).
• Contact Loewy Law Firm: The earlier you contact an attorney, the easier it will be for them to build a winning case. Plus, the Texas statute of limitations imposes a two-year time limit on most personal injury cases; if you don’t file a lawsuit by this deadline, you will most likely lose the right to do so at all. 

Compensation in an Uninsured Car Accident

You can pursue various categories of damages in an Austin uninsured car accident case, including:

• Medical expenses (past and future), including ER care, surgeries, physical therapy, medications, and assistive devices.
• Lost wages and loss of earning capacity, covering time away from work and any long‑term impact on your ability to earn a living.
• Property damage, including repair or replacement of your vehicle and other damaged property like phones, laptops, or child safety seats.
• Noneconomic damages, like pain and suffering, mental anguish, and loss of enjoyment of life.
• Punitive damages, in rare cases that show extreme recklessness (like an intentional hit-and-run or drunk driving). Punitive damages, also referred to as “exemplary damages” exist to punish wrongful conduct and deter similar acts in the future, rather than directly compensate your losses as a plaintiff.

Talk to an Uninsured Car Accident Lawyer at Loewy Law Firm

In an uninsured driver case, the insurance company you have been paying for years becomes the party disputing your claim, and under Texas law it owes nothing until you prove the other driver was at fault and what your injuries cost. We build that proof the same way we would against any opposing carrier, and when your insurer will not pay what the coverage requires, we take the claim to court through a declaratory judgment action, where the judge can order the company to pay your attorney’s fees on top of the coverage it owes.

If you’ve been hit by an uninsured or underinsured driver in Austin, or you’ve been in any type of motor vehicle accident, contact us today at (512) 280-0800. The consultation is free and you’ll pay nothing unless we recover compensation on your behalf.

References and Additional Reading

• Texas Transportation Code § 601.072 (minimum liability limits)
• Texas Transportation Code § 550.026 (duty to report a crash)
• Texas Insurance Code § 1952.101 (UM/UIM coverage required unless rejected in writing)
• Texas Insurance Code § 1952.104 (physical contact requirement for hit‑and‑run claims)
• Texas Insurance Code § 1952.105 (UM/UIM limits)
• Texas Insurance Code § 1952.151 (what PIP covers)
• Texas Insurance Code § 1952.152 (PIP required unless rejected in writing)
• Texas Insurance Code § 1952.153 (PIP $2,500 minimum)
• Texas Insurance Code Chapter 1954 (rideshare insurance requirements)
• Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 63.004 (wages exempt from garnishment)
• Texas Property Code § 41.001 (homestead protection)
• Brainard v. Trinity Universal Insurance Co., 216 S.W.3d 809 (Tex. 2006) (when a UM/UIM carrier’s duty to pay arises)
• Insurance Information Institute, Facts + Statistics: Uninsured Motorists
• Insurance Research Council, Uninsured and Underinsured Motorists: 2017–2023