Uninsured Motorist Claims in Nevada: When Your Own Policy Pays

By Katie Goldberg, founding attorney at Goldberg Injury Law, Las Vegas.

If the driver who hit you had no insurance, or not enough, the claim goes to your own insurer. About one Nevada driver in nine was uninsured in 2023, and a driver who is insured may carry only the $25,000 minimum for one injured person. Nevada law also gives you more time to claim against your own insurer than the injury deadline, protects your premium when you weren’t at fault, and adds your coverage on top of theirs.

The Short Answer

• The Claim Goes To Your Own Insurer: in Nevada, your insurer must offer you uninsured and underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage, which protects you when the at-fault driver has no insurance or too little. This coverage works through your own policy.
• Underinsured Coverage Pays On Top: it covers the damages above the other driver’s limit, up to your own limit.
• A Claim You Didn’t Cause Can’t Raise Your Premium: Nevada bars insurers from raising your renewal premium, canceling or refusing to renew over a claim where you weren’t at fault.
• Your Own Insurer Has A Longer Clock: the lawsuit against the driver has a 2-year deadline, but the Nevada Supreme Court gives a UM or UIM claim six years from the day your insurer denies it.
• A Hit And Run Can Qualify: when the other car touched you or your vehicle and the crash was reported to police right away.

Who Counts As An Uninsured Driver In Nevada

About one Nevada motorist in nine was uninsured in 2023, by the Insurance Research Council’s estimate, published by the Insurance Information Institute. For uninsured motorist coverage, Nevada’s statute (NRS 690B.020) counts more drivers as uninsured than the ones with no policy at all. The other vehicle also counts when:

• its policy is below Nevada’s required minimum, for the amount it falls short;
• its insurer denies coverage or is insolvent;
• it was driven without the owner’s permission and no policy covers the driver;
• the owner’s policy doesn’t cover other drivers and the driver has none of their own;
• it was a hit and run that meets the conditions below.

A vehicle in a crash that injures someone is also presumed uninsured if no proof of insurance for it reaches the Nevada DMV within 60 days of the crash.

What If The Other Driver’s Insurer Denies Coverage?

Then, for your UM coverage, that driver counts as uninsured. Nevada’s statute lists a vehicle whose liability insurer denies coverage as an uninsured motor vehicle. That means a denial of coverage, such as a policy that excludes the driver, not a dispute over who caused the crash. Tell your own insurer as soon as a coverage denial arrives, and keep the letter.

Does A Hit And Run Count As Uninsured?

Yes, if the unknown car touched you or the vehicle you were in, and the crash was reported to police in time, which means right away when no officer is at the scene. A car that ran you off the road without touching you doesn’t fit the statute’s definition, so check whether your policy’s wording is broader.

How Much Underinsured Coverage Pays

Nevada’s rule adds your underinsured motorist coverage on top of the other driver’s policy. Underinsured coverage has to pay the damages you’re legally entitled to recover from that driver to the extent they exceed the driver’s bodily injury limit, up to the limit on your own policy (NRS 687B.145).

Take one crash, with round numbers. Your damages come to $60,000. The other driver carries Nevada’s minimum, so their policy pays $25,000. Your underinsured coverage, with a $50,000 limit, pays the remaining $35,000.

The limits still bind. With the same $50,000 of coverage, a $100,000 injury would bring $25,000 from their policy and $50,000 from yours, and the rest would have to come from the driver personally.

How much you can collect from an uninsured motorist claim depends on the limit you bought. Nevada insurers must offer UM/UIM coverage equal to the bodily injury limits you carry for other people, and uninsured coverage can’t be less than Nevada’s minimum or more than those limits.

Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case depends on its own facts.

How Much Uninsured Motorist Coverage Do I Need?

Nevada law points to a benchmark: your insurer has to offer UM/UIM coverage equal to the bodily injury limits you buy to protect other people. Matching them gives you and your passengers the protection you give a stranger. Your declarations page shows both numbers, and the right amount for your household is a question for your agent.

Can I Stack UM Coverage From Two Policies?

Only sometimes. Stacked uninsured motorist coverage means adding two coverages’ limits together. Nevada lets a policy cap your recovery at the higher of the two limits instead, and split the payment between them, but only if that cap is written in clear language and displayed prominently. The cap is void if you bought separate coverage for the same risk and paid a premium calculated for full reimbursement.

A Claim You Didn’t Cause Can’t Raise Your Rate

If you’re worried the premium will climb after a claim on your own policy, Nevada law answers that directly (NRS 687B.385). An insurer can’t raise your renewal premium, cancel your policy or refuse to renew it because of a claim for which you weren’t at fault. The same statute covers questions, so asking your insurer whether you have UM coverage can’t be used to raise your premium or drop you either.

The protection turns on fault. A crash where you were partly to blame may not be covered by it, which is one more reason the fault question matters.

Your Own Insurer Is Now The Other Side

For as long as you’ve had the policy, that company has been the one you pay. The day you make an uninsured motorist claim, the money comes from them, and an adjuster evaluates it the way any injury claim gets evaluated.

Nobody is being underhanded; the coverage is built that way. It’s natural to speak freely with your own insurer because it feels like your own side, but a recorded statement is still a recorded statement.

Should I Give My Own Insurer A Recorded Statement?

Your policy probably requires your cooperation, so refusing outright is usually the wrong move. Asking when, and going in prepared rather than on the first call while you’re still in pain, is a reasonable request. If the claim has already been denied, our piece on what to do when an insurance company denies your injury claim covers the next steps.

Will My Insurer Go After The Uninsured Driver?

It can. When your insurer pays under uninsured coverage, Nevada law gives it the right to the proceeds of any settlement or recovery from the person responsible, up to what it paid; the insurance word for that is subrogation. Underinsured coverage is different: after paying it, your insurer can’t pursue the underinsured driver for the damages above that driver’s policy.

The Arguments An Insurer Makes On A UM Claim

Fault comes first. UM coverage only pays when the other driver was responsible, so the insurer has an interest in the crash being partly your doing. Nevada uses modified comparative negligence. You can still recover as long as you’re not found more than 50% at fault, and your share reduces the award. We explain the rule in how Nevada’s comparative negligence system works.

Causation is next, usually as a question about a gap in treatment or an old injury to the same body part. Medical records and timing answer it, which is why the first week matters.

Then value. Once fault and injury are settled, the disagreement is the number, and that negotiation looks like any other injury claim. Our piece on how long a Nevada settlement takes explains what sets the pace.

Does UM Coverage Pay If The Crash Was My Fault?

No. This coverage stands in for a driver who was responsible for your injuries and couldn’t pay for them. If you were at fault, collision coverage or medical payments coverage is where that conversation starts. We wrote about the medical side in Nevada MedPay and health insurance.

Does UM Coverage Pay For My Car?

Not under Nevada’s UM statute, which covers bodily injury, sickness, disease and death. Damage to your car goes through your collision coverage if you carry it, deductible included. Getting the deductible back means recovering from the driver who hit you, which is hard when that driver has no insurance.

Two Deadlines, And The Second Is Longer

The lawsuit against the driver who hit you is a personal injury claim. In Nevada, you generally have 2 years from the date of injury to file a personal injury lawsuit. Miss that deadline and you can lose the right to recover, so it’s important to act early. We cover the exceptions in the legal deadlines for filing an injury claim in Nevada.

The claim against your own insurer runs on a different clock. The Nevada Supreme Court treats a UM or UIM claim as a claim under a written contract, which puts it under the six-year statute of limitations for contracts, and the six years start when your insurer formally denies the claim, not on the date of the crash. It said so in Grayson v. State Farm (1998) and again in State Farm v. Fitts (2004), where it threw out a policy clause that required any UM suit within two years of the accident.

The court left one question open: whether a policy can shorten the time after a denial. So read the time limits in your policy anyway, and give your insurer notice early, since a policy’s notice terms can run from the crash itself.

What To Do In The First Week

Report the crash to the police right away, especially if the other driver left, because a hit and run only counts for UM coverage when it was reported in time. Tell your own insurer too, even if you’re sure the other driver was at fault. Find your declarations page and look for the uninsured and underinsured motorist lines. Ask the other driver’s insurer to confirm their coverage in writing, since a coverage denial or a missing policy is what turns them into an uninsured driver for your claim. Keep every bill and discharge instruction, and if you’re asked for a recorded statement before you’ve seen a doctor, it’s reasonable to say you’d rather wait until you know what you’re dealing with.

Ask Where Your Case Stands, In Plain Language

If the driver who hit you had no insurance or not enough, the useful next step is someone reading your actual policy and telling you what’s available to you. That’s a free conversation here, and it doesn’t commit you to anything. Call 702-529-2661, text Katie at 702-702-9585, or reach our Las Vegas car accident team and start with a message.

Reviewed by Katie Goldberg, founding attorney at Goldberg Injury Law.

This information is general and not legal advice. Every case is different. Talk to a licensed Nevada attorney about your situation. Contacting this firm or reading this page does not create an attorney-client relationship. Insurance coverage and claim outcomes depend on your policy and your insurer’s decision. We do not control your claim result. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case depends on its own facts.

Nevada Uninsured Motorist Resources

• NRS 690B.020: who counts as uninsured, the hit and run conditions, and the 60-day rule.
• NRS 687B.145: the coverage offer, how underinsured coverage adds on top, and when two policies combine.
• NRS 687B.385: why a claim you didn’t cause can’t raise your premium.
• State Farm v. Fitts (Nev. 2004): the Nevada Supreme Court on the deadline for a UM or UIM claim.
• Insurance Information Institute, uninsured motorists: the state estimates of uninsured drivers, Nevada included.

Goldberg Injury Law

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Las Vegas, NV 89118

Phone: 702-382-9797

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