What If the Driver Who Hit Me Has No Insurance in Missouri?

You claim under the uninsured motorist coverage in your own policy. Every Missouri auto liability policy must include it, at no less than $25,000 per person and $50,000 per crash, and it applies even when a hit-and-run driver is never identified (RSMo 379.203). You can also sue the driver, but collecting from someone with no insurance is a separate problem.

When the other driver has no insurance, the company you have paid premiums to for years becomes the company you have to prove your case to.

01Where Does the Money Come From When the Other Driver Has No Insurance?

Almost always from policies you or your household already own, not from the driver.

• Uninsured motorist (UM) coverage. This pays for bodily injury the uninsured driver is legally responsible for: medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. It is required by RSMo 379.203 on every policy issued for a vehicle registered or principally garaged in Missouri.
• Medical payments coverage (MedPay). An optional coverage on many policies that pays medical bills regardless of fault, usually up to a small limit. It does not depend on proving anything about the other driver.
• Collision coverage. If you carry it, your insurer repairs or replaces your car, minus your deductible, and then pursues the uninsured driver for what it paid. Missouri’s required UM coverage is for bodily injury, so without collision coverage your vehicle damage is a claim against the driver alone.
• Health insurance, Medicare or MO HealthNet. These pay your treatment bills in the meantime, and each may claim repayment from what you later recover.
• Workers’ compensation, if you were driving for your job when you were hit.

02What Does Missouri Law Require Your Uninsured Motorist Coverage to Do?

RSMo 379.203.1 requires the coverage to protect people insured under the policy who are “legally entitled to recover damages” from the owner or operator of an uninsured motor vehicle because of bodily injury or death. The limits must be at least the bodily injury limits set in RSMo 303.030, which are the same $25,000 per person and $50,000 per crash in RSMo 303.190. You may have bought more. The declarations page shows what you carry.

A driver whose insurer becomes insolvent is treated as uninsured, as long as the insolvency happens within two years after the crash and your UM coverage was in force when it happened (RSMo 379.203.2 and .3).

The statute also helps you prove the driver had no insurance. An uninsured driver involved in a crash with injury must file a written report with the Director of Revenue within 30 days (RSMo 303.040). In a lawsuit against your insurer, the driver’s failure to file that report, shown by a certificate from the Director, is prima facie evidence that the driver was uninsured, and so is the report itself if the driver files it (RSMo 379.203.5).

03What if the Driver Fled and Was Never Identified?

Your UM coverage still applies. RSMo 379.203.1 says the legal entitlement to recover exists even though the identity of the owner or operator “cannot be established” because the driver and vehicle left the scene before being identified. A driver who leaves a crash involving injury without stopping and giving a name, address, plate number and license number commits the offense of leaving the scene, a class E felony when someone is physically injured and a class D felony when someone dies (RSMo 577.060).

The same subsection says the entitlement exists “whether or not physical contact was made” between the uninsured vehicle and you or your car. That covers the driver on I-270 who forced you into the barrier and kept going without touching you. The Missouri Court of Appeals has held that a policy’s physical-contact requirement violates RSMo 379.203 and is void, even for coverage above the statutory minimum (Dawson v. Denney-Parker, 967 S.W.2d 90, Mo. App. 1998). You still have to prove the other vehicle existed and caused the crash.

Proof matters more here than in any other UM claim, because no other driver will testify. A police report made that day, with a description of the vehicle and any witness names, answers the insurer’s first question: whether the other car existed at all.

In a hit-and-run claim, the police report written that night is often the only witness for the car that is not there.

04How Many Uninsured Motorist Coverages Can You Claim?

Possibly more than one. In Cameron Mutual Insurance Co. v. Madden, 533 S.W.2d 538 (Mo. banc 1976), the insured had one policy covering two cars, each with its own UM coverage. The Missouri Supreme Court accepted the premise that the public policy declared in RSMo 379.203 gives effect to each UM coverage an insured has paid for without reduction by policy provisions, and it allowed the coverages to be stacked.

Stacking is only part of the search. Most policies define “insured” to include relatives who live in your household, so a spouse’s policy, a parent’s policy or the policy on a car you do not drive may cover you. If you were a passenger, the UM coverage on the car you were riding in may apply before or alongside your own. Whether each one applies, and in what order, depends on that policy’s definitions and its other-insurance clause.

Underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage, which applies when the driver’s insurance is too small, is different. Because no statute requires it, whether it stacks generally depends on the wording of the policy. Our article on case value at /blog/how-much-is-a-car-accident-case-worth-in-missouri/ explains how the limits that can be reached set the practical ceiling on a claim.

05Why Does Your Own Insurer Become Your Opponent?

Because a UM claim pays only what you are “legally entitled to recover” from the uninsured driver (RSMo 379.203.1). To decide that, your insurer takes the driver’s side of the case. It can argue the crash was your fault or that your injuries came from something else. Every percentage of fault it can assign to you reduces what it owes.

The claim itself is a contract claim against your insurer, not a tort claim against the driver (Edwards v. State Farm Insurance Co., 574 S.W.2d 505, Mo. App. 1978). Your policy sets conditions you have to meet, and they are usually enforced.

• Notice. Most policies require prompt notice of the crash and of any claim, and many require a police report within a short time after a hit-and-run.
• Cooperation. You may be asked for medical authorizations, records, a recorded statement or an examination under oath. Refusing a reasonable request can put the claim at risk, and giving an unprepared statement can hurt it.
• Consent to settle. If you settle with or release the uninsured driver, or anyone else responsible, without your insurer’s consent, the policy may let it refuse to pay. Once it pays you, the insurer is entitled to the proceeds of your rights against the driver to the extent of its payment (RSMo 379.203.4).
• Arbitration. Some policies provide that if you and the insurer cannot agree on fault or the amount, either side may demand arbitration. The policy in Edwards contained that kind of clause.

06How Long Do You Have to Bring an Uninsured Motorist Claim?

Longer than for the injury claim against the driver, in most cases. The five-year period in RSMo 516.120 applies to an action for personal injury “not arising on contract.” In Edwards, the Missouri Court of Appeals held that an action on the UM provision of an auto policy is an action in contract, governed by the ten-year period for an action on a writing for the payment of money in RSMo 516.110(1). The insured’s suit against her insurer, filed five years and 26 days after the crash, was allowed to go forward. The Missouri Supreme Court followed Edwards in Oates v. Safeco Insurance Co. of America, 583 S.W.2d 713 (Mo. banc 1979), and the Court of Appeals applied the ten-year period to an underinsured motorist claim in Messner v. American Union Insurance Co., 119 S.W.3d 642 (Mo. App. 2003). No later Missouri decision has changed that rule.

There are limits. Edwards distinguished Crenshaw v. Great Central Insurance Co., 527 S.W.2d 1 (Mo. App. 1975), in which a UM claim for a death was barred because the wrongful death statute’s own filing period was treated as a condition of the right to sue. A policy term that shortens the time to sue is void under RSMo 431.030, but notice and proof-of-claim deadlines are separate conditions, and they run far shorter than any statute. And if you also want to keep a claim against the driver alive, the five-year period for that claim does not stretch to match. Our article at /blog/how-long-to-file-car-accident-claim-missouri/ covers the injury deadlines.

07What if Your Insurer Refuses to Pay Without a Good Reason?

Missouri’s vexatious refusal statute adds a penalty. When an insurer “has refused to pay such loss without reasonable cause or excuse,” the court or jury may award, on top of the loss and interest, damages of up to 20 percent of the first $1,500 of the loss and 10 percent of the loss above $1,500, plus a reasonable attorney’s fee (RSMo 375.420). The statute excludes automobile liability insurance, the coverage that pays other people for your fault.

It has been applied to UM claims. In Dhyne v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Co., 188 S.W.3d 454 (Mo. banc 2006), a woman hit by an uninsured driver was told by an adjuster that her claim was not covered and that filing could raise her premium. The Missouri Supreme Court affirmed a judgment for her under RSMo 375.420. The penalty is for refusal without reasonable cause. An insurer that genuinely disputes fault or the value of the injuries is in a different position from one that ignores its own coverage.

08Is It Worth Suing the Uninsured Driver Personally?

Sometimes, but a judgment is a right to collect, not a payment. Missouri gives a judgment creditor several tools.

• A judgment of a circuit court is a lien on the driver’s real estate in the county where it is entered (RSMo 511.350).
• Wages can be garnished, but no more than 25 percent of weekly earnings after required withholding, less for low earners, and no more than 10 percent for a Missouri resident who is the head of a family (RSMo 525.030).
• If a crash judgment goes unpaid for 60 days, the court clerk sends it to the Director of Revenue (RSMo 303.090), who must suspend the driver’s license and registrations (RSMo 303.100). The suspension continues until the judgment is satisfied or stayed, and a bankruptcy discharge does not lift it (RSMo 303.110). For this purpose only, a bodily injury judgment counts as satisfied once $25,000 has been paid toward it for one person (RSMo 303.120), and a court can allow installment payments that keep the license (RSMo 303.130).
• A judgment is presumed paid ten years after it is entered unless it is revived or a payment is recorded (RSMo 516.350).

The driver faces penalties too. A first conviction for driving uninsured is a class D misdemeanor, and the court must suspend the license, assess four points or order supervision (RSMo 303.025.3; RSMo 302.302). The Director of Revenue can separately suspend the license and registration (RSMo 303.041; RSMo 303.042). None of that pays your bills, but it gives the driver a reason to agree to a payment order. Whether a suit is worth its cost depends on what the driver owns and earns.

09What if You Were the One Without Insurance?

Then RSMo 303.390 limits you. An uninsured motorist waives the ability to collect for noneconomic loss, such as pain and suffering, against a driver who complied with the financial responsibility law and is alleged to be at fault. If the claim goes to trial, the jury is not told, and the court reduces any award by the noneconomic portion (RSMo 303.390.3).

The statute has exceptions. The waiver does not apply if the crash was caused in whole or in part by a driver under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or by a driver convicted of certain involuntary manslaughter or second-degree assault offenses (RSMo 303.390.1). The criminal sections that exception points to have since been renumbered or rewritten, so which convictions qualify today is unsettled. It does not apply if your last policy was cancelled or not renewed for nonpayment unless the insurer gave notice at least six months before the crash (RSMo 303.390.2). Passengers in the uninsured vehicle are not affected, and economic losses such as medical bills and wages can still be recovered (RSMo 303.390.4 and .5).

The statute’s validity is contested. A federal trial court in Missouri held that it violates the right to a jury trial under the Missouri Constitution and denied the defendants’ request to bar the plaintiff’s noneconomic damages (Jiles v. Schuster Co., 357 F. Supp. 3d 908, W.D. Mo. 2018). In 2023 the Missouri Supreme Court declined to decide the question because the plaintiff in that case had waived a jury (Bridegan v. Turntine, 689 S.W.3d 481, Mo. banc 2023). No Missouri appellate court has ruled on it.

If you were insured and the other driver was not, this section takes nothing from you. It limits only the uninsured driver’s claim against an insured one.

10What Should You Do First?

• Get the police report. It documents the other driver’s identity and insurance status, or the absence of either. In St. Louis City, St. Louis County and St. Charles County, ask the responding department how to request it.
• Report the crash to your own insurer promptly and in writing, and say that you are making an uninsured motorist claim. Late notice is one of the easiest defenses for an insurer to raise.
• Do not give a recorded statement to your insurer, the other driver’s insurer if one turns up, or anyone else before you have talked with a lawyer. Your own adjuster is weighing the uninsured driver’s defenses.
• Gather every auto policy in the household, including those of a spouse and relatives who live with you, and the policy on any car you were riding in.
• Do not sign a release with the driver or anyone else until you know how it affects your UM claim.

Our car accident page at /car-accidents/ covers the rest of a Missouri crash claim, from medical treatment to dealing with adjusters.

Call The Injury Counsel at (314) 727-7220 for a free, confidential consultation. We will read every policy in your household, identify each coverage that can apply and tell you what your insurer will need from you before you give it anything.