Does West Virginia Allow UIM Stacking? What W. Va. Code 33-6-31 Says

By the FigureMyTax Editorial Team · How we calculate

West Virginia's statute neither allows nor bans stacking in terms. It requires uninsured coverage at the minimum, makes higher UM and UIM an option up to your liability limits without set-off, and treats multi-vehicle and single-vehicle policies alike for total coverage.

Required and optional coverage

Section 33-6-31(b) requires uninsured motorist coverage in at least the minimum financial responsibility limits, and requires an option, at adjusted premiums, for UM up to $100,000 per person and $300,000 per accident, and for uninsured or underinsured coverage up to the limits of your liability insurance, without set-off against your policy or any other policy.

Underinsured defined

An underinsured vehicle has liability insurance whose limits are less than the limits you carried for underinsured coverage, or were reduced by payments to others injured in the accident to less than those limits. No sums payable under underinsured coverage may be reduced by payments made under your policy or any other policy.

Equal treatment

Subsection (b) requires that multi-vehicle policies and separate single-vehicle policies be treated alike for determining the total coverage available to you. It says nothing further about adding limits.

Procedure

If you sue the uninsured or underinsured driver, you must serve the summons and complaint on your insurer as though it were a defendant (33-6-31(d)). For an unknown driver, you must report within 24 hours, notify your insurer within 60 days, and show a hit-and-run involving physical contact (subsection (e)). Your insurer is subrogated to what it pays (subsection (f)).

How to use this

Compare the results in the West Virginia UIM stacking calculator, start with the plain-English stacked versus single-limit explainer, and read how West Virginia UM and UIM work.

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