Connecticut Uninsured Motorist Coverage Requirements

Every auto liability policy sold in Connecticut must include uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, and the Connecticut uninsured motorist coverage requirements set a floor of $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident for bodily injury. Those limits default to match whatever bodily injury liability limits you carry, so a driver with $100,000/$300,000 in liability automatically has the same amount of UM/UIM protection unless they signed a written request for less.¹

The Statutory Minimums and the Automatic Match

Connecticut General Statutes Section 38a-336 is the governing law. It requires every auto liability policy issued in the state to include UM/UIM coverage at or above $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident, mirroring the minimum liability requirements in Section 14-112.¹² The $25,000 property damage figure that forms part of the state’s financial responsibility rules does not come into play here; UM/UIM coverage pays only for bodily injury and death.

Since January 1, 1994, your UM/UIM limits automatically rise to match your bodily injury liability limits. Every insurer is also required to offer you the option to buy UM/UIM at twice your bodily injury limits, so someone with $100,000/$300,000 liability can purchase $200,000/$600,000 of UM/UIM protection.¹

What the Coverage Pays For and Who It Protects

UM/UIM pays for bodily injury and death. It does not repair your car. For vehicle damage from an uninsured driver, you’d need collision coverage or you’d have to pursue the driver yourself.¹ Recoverable damages include past and future medical bills, lost wages, diminished earning capacity, and pain and suffering.

The protection reaches further than the person named on the policy. Connecticut extends coverage to the named insured, relatives living in the same household, and passengers in the insured vehicle at the time of the accident.³ A spouse, child, or parent sharing your home has access to your UM/UIM coverage even if they don’t own a car. If you’re a pedestrian or cyclist struck by an uninsured driver, your own auto policy’s UM coverage can still pay. Courts have read “occupying” the vehicle broadly to include people getting in, riding, exiting, or standing in the immediate vicinity during a roadside emergency.

When the Coverage Kicks In

Three situations trigger UM/UIM benefits: the at-fault driver carried no insurance, the at-fault driver’s liability limits weren’t enough to cover your damages, or a hit-and-run driver fled the scene without being identified. It also applies when the at-fault driver had insurance but the insurer became insolvent before paying.³

Hit-and-run claims proceed under the uninsured motorist side of the policy because the fleeing driver’s insurance status is unknown. File the required accident report within five days; insurers scrutinize these claims closely.

Phantom vehicle claims, where another driver forced you off the road but never made contact, face a steeper evidentiary burden. Insurers want corroboration: an independent witness, dashcam footage, a police report. Many policies and some court interpretations require actual physical contact between the vehicles, so a claim resting only on your own account that an unidentified car ran you off the road may not survive.

How Payouts Are Actually Calculated: The Offset Rule

Connecticut uses an offset approach for underinsured motorist claims. Your total recovery from all sources combined cannot exceed your own UM/UIM policy limits. If you carry $100,000 in UM/UIM and the at-fault driver’s insurer pays $50,000, your own insurer owes up to $50,000 more to bring you to the $100,000 ceiling. When both your UIM limits and the at-fault driver’s limits sit at $25,000, there may be nothing additional to collect from your own policy because the offset wipes it out.¹

For policies issued or renewed after October 1, 2015, your UM/UIM benefits cannot be reduced by amounts the at-fault driver paid for someone else’s bodily injury or for property damage. The offset applies only to payments made toward your own bodily injury claim.⁴

The Conversion Coverage Option

Connecticut requires every auto insurer to offer an optional upgrade called underinsured motorist conversion coverage under Section 38a-336a. For an additional premium, conversion coverage eliminates the offset entirely. You collect the at-fault driver’s full liability payment and your own full UIM limits on top of it.⁵

The difference matters most in serious injury cases. With $100,000 in UIM coverage and a $50,000 payment from the at-fault driver, standard coverage gets you $100,000 total. Conversion coverage gets you $150,000.

No Stacking Across Vehicles

Connecticut prohibits stacking UM/UIM limits across multiple vehicles. If you insure three cars on the same policy, each with $100,000 in UM/UIM, you cannot combine them into $300,000 of available coverage for a single accident. The limit that applies is the single highest UM/UIM limit on one vehicle, regardless of how many vehicles are on the policy or how many premiums you pay.¹

Reducing Your Limits in Writing

You can request UM/UIM limits lower than your liability limits, but never below the $25,000/$50,000 statutory minimum. The reduction requires a signed informed consent form that includes an explanation of UM/UIM coverage approved by the Insurance Commissioner, a list of all coverage options the insurer offers, and the premium cost for each. The form carries a mandatory 12-point warning that choosing lower limits means giving up valuable protection for yourself and your family.¹

Once signed, that written request carries forward to every renewal and replacement policy until you change it in writing. If you signed a reduction years ago, check your current declarations page to confirm what UM/UIM limits you’re actually carrying.

Filing a Claim

Gather the police report, documentation of the other driver’s insurance status, your medical records and itemized bills, and proof of lost income. For an underinsured claim, you also need evidence that the at-fault driver’s policy limits have been exhausted through settlement or judgment before your own insurer must pay.¹ Household members claiming coverage should include proof of residency.

Submit the package to your insurer’s claims department, keeping a paper trail through certified mail or portal upload confirmations. Connecticut’s unfair insurance practices statute, Section 38a-816, requires insurers to affirm or deny coverage within a reasonable time after receiving proof of loss and to pay within set statutory windows, with 15 percent annual interest running on amounts paid late.⁶

If you and your insurer can’t agree on the value of the claim or whether coverage applies, Connecticut law provides for arbitration as an alternative to a lawsuit. Policies with a binding arbitration clause must allow arbitration to resolve coverage disputes, not just the amount owed.¹

Deadlines That Can End Your Claim

For uninsured motorist claims, your insurer cannot set a deadline shorter than three years from the date of the accident to file suit or demand arbitration. For underinsured claims, the same three-year window applies, but you can pause the clock by sending your insurer written notice of a potential UIM claim before the three years expire. Once the at-fault driver’s policy limits are exhausted by settlement or judgment, you then have 180 days to file suit or demand arbitration under your own policy.¹

A special rule applies when a UM claim arises because the at-fault driver’s insurer became insolvent or denied coverage: the insurer cannot set the deadline at less than one year from the date you receive written notice of the insolvency or denial.¹

Connecticut’s general personal injury statute of limitations also applies: two years from the date the injury was discovered or should have been discovered through reasonable care, with an outer boundary of three years from the date of the negligent act.⁷ The 180-day UIM provision is the one that catches people off guard. You can spend years negotiating with the at-fault driver’s insurer and then have only six months to pursue your own.

One related trap: after your insurer pays, it has subrogation rights against the uninsured driver. If you sign a release in a direct settlement with the at-fault driver without coordinating with your own insurer first, you can extinguish those rights and give your insurer grounds to reduce or deny your benefits. Clear any release with your UM/UIM carrier before you sign.

Penalty for Driving Without Insurance

Connecticut treats driving without insurance as a criminal offense under Section 14-213b. A conviction carries a fine between $100 and $1,000 for most drivers. Owners of commercially registered vehicles who knowingly operate without insurance face a class D felony charge.⁸

The Commissioner of Motor Vehicles also suspends your registration and license. A first conviction brings a one-month suspension; a second or later conviction brings six months. Your license stays suspended until you provide evidence of financial responsibility, which typically means filing a certificate of financial responsibility and keeping it active for three years.⁸