Uninsured vs. Underinsured Motorist Coverage in Connecticut

By the FigureMyTax Editorial Team · How we calculate

Connecticut policies provide UM and UIM together. A driver is underinsured when liability limits are below your own UM limit, UIM pays up to your limit after the other driver's limits are exhausted, and optional conversion coverage works differently.

One coverage

General Statutes 38a-336(a) requires each automobile liability policy to provide uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, with limits not less than the minimum bodily injury limits, for people legally entitled to recover damages for bodily injury from owners or operators of uninsured or underinsured vehicles, or of insured vehicles whose insurer becomes insolvent. The minimum bodily injury limits are $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident, as the legislature's Office of Legislative Research reports (OLR report), and 38a-335 refers to those limits.

How much you must be offered

Policies must provide UM/UIM limits equal to your bodily injury liability limits unless a named insured requests a lesser amount in writing, but not less than the minimum, and only after signing an informed consent form that explains the coverage and lists the options and their premiums. Insurers must offer limits twice your bodily injury limits.

The underinsured test

Under subsection (e), an underinsured motor vehicle is one where the sum of the limits of all bodily injury liability bonds and policies applicable at the time of the accident is less than the uninsured motorist limit of the policy you claim against. That compares limits, not damages. UIM then pays up to your limit after the other limits are exhausted by judgments or settlements, and the total from all policies, UIM included, may not exceed your limit.

Conversion coverage

Under 38a-336a, insurers must offer, for an additional premium, underinsured motorist conversion coverage that replaces ordinary UIM. A vehicle is underinsured if the payments you received from the at-fault side are less than your fair, just and reasonable damages, and the coverage is not reduced on account of any payment by or for the at-fault driver or any third party. It is useful when your damages are far above the other driver's limits.

Claims rules

Your insurer has no right of subrogation against the underinsured driver (38a-336b). When you make a claim you must make reasonable efforts to establish what liability coverage exists, but the insurer cannot require affidavits from the other driver on that point for accidents on or after October 1, 2006 (38a-336c). Arbitration is before one arbitrator if the demand is $40,000 or less and a panel of three above that, if your policy has binding arbitration.

Deadlines

The policy cannot limit the time to sue or demand arbitration to less than three years from the accident. For an underinsured claim you may toll the period by written notice to the insurer and then sue or demand arbitration within 180 days after the other limits are exhausted (38a-336(g)). Stacking is a separate question; see our statute post and the explainer, then use the Connecticut UM/UIM stacking calculator.

This is general information, not legal advice, and the state comparisons above are illustrative, not an exhaustive survey. Confirm how Connecticut's rules apply to your specific case with a licensed Connecticut attorney.