By yaniv · 2026-06-25 · 7 min read
When the driver who hit you has no insurance or not enough, the claim moves to your own policy. The offset math, the consent rule that quietly destroys coverage, and a two-year deadline that phone calls do not satisfy.
Plenty of California drivers carry nothing, and plenty more carry the state minimum. That minimum changed. Senate Bill 1107 raised it on January 1, 2025 from 15/30/5, where it had sat since 1967, to 30/60/15: $30,000 for injury or death to one person, $60,000 per accident, and $15,000 for property damage. Minimum uninsured and underinsured limits rose alongside it, to $30,000 and $60,000. The increase reaches each policy at its next renewal rather than all at once, so collisions well into 2025 and beyond still involve drivers carrying the old limits. It goes up again in 2035, to 50/100/25.
Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is governed by Insurance Code section 11580.2 and by the language of your policy. Two provisions in particular decide cases.
Uninsured motorist coverage applies when the at-fault driver had no liability insurance at all, or in a qualifying hit-and-run. Underinsured coverage applies when they had insurance, but less of it than you carry.
The math on underinsured coverage is where people get an unpleasant surprise. In California it is not additive. Your underinsured coverage pays the gap between your limits and what you actually collected from the other driver, not your full limits on top of it. Carry $100,000, collect the other driver's $30,000, and what is left available to you is $70,000. Not $100,000. Clients who bought what they understood to be a large policy are often looking at a much smaller number than they expected.
Before you accept anything from the at-fault driver's insurer, you need your own carrier's consent in writing.
The reason is subrogation. When you settle and sign a release, you extinguish your own insurer's right to go after that driver for what it pays you. Carriers know this and they enforce it. Settle first, and the underinsured claim, which is frequently the larger one, can be denied outright.
What makes this so costly is that people lose it while behaving sensibly. The other carrier offers its policy limits, that looks like the best offer available because it is all the coverage there is, and the release gets signed. The bigger claim is gone. A consent letter obtained beforehand costs nothing and preserves it.
Uninsured coverage does reach hit-and-run collisions, but California generally requires actual physical contact between the vehicles. If a car drifts into your lane, you swerve, you hit a pole, and that car keeps going without ever touching you, you will usually find no coverage. It is a harsh rule and it surprises people who did everything right.
Report it to police promptly and to your carrier without delay. Both are conditions, and both get raised.
Disputes over uninsured and underinsured claims go to arbitration rather than a jury. Insurance Code section 11580.2(f). An arbitrator decides fault and damages. Discovery is narrower, the schedule is compressed, and there is no jury to read the room.
That cuts both ways. Cases resolve faster and more cheaply. It also means a weak presentation has less room to recover, because there is no long trial in which to rehabilitate it.
Within two years of the collision you must do one of three things: file suit against the at-fault driver, agree in writing to arbitrate, or formally demand arbitration. Insurance Code section 11580.2(i).
Calling your adjuster does not count. Sending medical records does not count. Months of pleasant correspondence with your own insurance company does not count. Claims are lost every year by people who were in steady contact with their carrier the whole time and reasonably assumed the claim was active.
This is the part clients find hardest. In an uninsured or underinsured claim, the company paying is yours, the one you have paid premiums to for years. It still owes you duties of good faith. Its financial interest in what your case is worth is now directly opposed to yours.
Treat requests for recorded statements, blanket medical authorizations, and medical examinations the way you would treat them coming from any opposing party. Cooperate, because your policy requires it. Do not assume the relationship is what it was.
This article is general information about California law. It is not legal advice and is not a substitute for advice from an attorney who knows the facts of your situation.
Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship with Yasmeh Law Group, and neither does contacting the firm. That relationship begins only after a conflicts check and a signed written engagement agreement. Do not send confidential information before then.
The statutes and deadlines described were accurate as understood on 2026-06-25. California law changes and any rule depends on the particular facts. Case results mentioned do not guarantee a similar outcome. Yasmeh Law Group practices only in California.
Serving Van Nuys, CA, Los Angeles County, and California. This page is informational and does not create an attorney-client relationship.