Uninsured motorist coverage in Louisiana is not something you have to buy, but it is something you have to actively turn down. Every auto liability policy issued in the state automatically includes UM coverage at limits matching your bodily injury liability, and that coverage stays in place unless you sign a specific form prescribed by the Commissioner of Insurance rejecting it or reducing it. The rule sits in Louisiana Revised Statutes 22:1295, and courts enforce it strictly: if the paperwork isn’t right, the coverage is there by default.1Justia Law. Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 22 RS 22-1295 – Uninsured Motorist Coverage
What UM Coverage Pays For
UM coverage steps in when the driver who hurt you either has no liability insurance at all or doesn’t carry enough to cover your losses. It pays the nonpunitive damages you would otherwise have collected from that driver: medical and surgical expenses, lost wages, lost earning capacity, and noneconomic harm such as pain, suffering, and mental anguish. If the crash causes a death, the coverage extends to wrongful death damages.1Justia Law. Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 22 RS 22-1295 – Uninsured Motorist Coverage Punitive damages fall outside what UM will pay.
Hit-and-run situations are covered too, even without physical contact between the vehicles. If another driver forces you off the road and keeps going, your UM policy can still respond. The catch is proof: Louisiana requires you to establish through an independent, disinterested witness that the other driver caused the injury.2Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Revised Statutes RS 22-1295 – Uninsured Motorist Coverage A passenger in your own car generally doesn’t count. Get names and phone numbers from bystanders and other motorists at the scene; dashcam footage and nearby surveillance video help too.
Property damage to your vehicle is handled separately. Uninsured motorist property damage coverage is available in Louisiana, but only if your policy doesn’t already include collision. You have to request UMPD in writing. It pays the lesser of your vehicle’s actual cash value or $25,000, carries a mandatory $250 deductible, and does not cover rental car costs or damage already reimbursed by another policy.2Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Revised Statutes RS 22-1295 – Uninsured Motorist Coverage If you carry collision, UMPD isn’t available, because collision already covers your car regardless of fault.
Default Limits and State Minimums
Unless you say otherwise in writing, your UM limits equal your bodily injury liability limits. A policy with $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident in liability carries the same UM amounts. You can request in writing to raise UM up to your liability limits if you originally chose something lower.1Justia Law. Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 22 RS 22-1295 – Uninsured Motorist Coverage
The floor is set by Louisiana’s minimum liability requirements in R.S. 32:900:
- $15,000 for bodily injury or death of one person per accident
- $30,000 for bodily injury or death of two or more people per accident
- $25,000 for property damage per accident
UM limits generally can’t drop below those numbers unless you specifically select economic-only coverage.3Justia Law. Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 32 RS 32-900 – Motor Vehicle Liability Policy Defined
How to Reject or Reduce UM Coverage
Louisiana gives you three ways to move off the default: reject UM entirely, select limits lower than your bodily injury liability limits, or choose economic-only coverage. Each option requires the specific form prescribed by the Commissioner of Insurance. Nothing else works. A phone call, an email, an unsigned document, or a letter of your own drafting will not do it.1Justia Law. Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 22 RS 22-1295 – Uninsured Motorist Coverage
The form has to be signed by the named insured or a legal representative. Once signed properly, it stays valid for the life of the policy, including renewals, reinstatements, or reissues by the same insurer or its affiliates. You don’t sign a fresh one every year. You can, however, submit a new form any time you want to change the selection.
If the form is missing, unsigned, or doesn’t match the commissioner’s prescribed format, the rejection fails. In that situation the policy is treated as though full UM coverage was in place all along, regardless of what the insurer or the policyholder intended at the time.
Economic-Only Coverage
Insurers must offer an economic-only version at a reduced premium. It pays quantifiable financial losses only: medical bills, lost wages, funeral expenses. It excludes noneconomic damages entirely, meaning no compensation for pain, suffering, mental anguish, or inconvenience.1Justia Law. Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 22 RS 22-1295 – Uninsured Motorist Coverage
Noneconomic damages often make up the largest slice of a serious injury claim. On economic-only coverage, a badly injured driver gets hospital bills and lost income reimbursed but collects nothing for the lasting personal impact of the crash. Selecting economic-only uses the same commissioner-prescribed form.
Stacking Is Not Allowed
Louisiana prohibits stacking UM coverage. Insuring multiple vehicles on one policy doesn’t multiply your UM limits, and having UM coverage under more than one policy doesn’t let you add the limits together.2Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Revised Statutes RS 22-1295 – Uninsured Motorist Coverage
There is a priority rule when you’re injured in a vehicle you don’t own. The UM coverage on that vehicle pays first. If it runs out and you carry your own UM policy, yours can pay as excess. The statute caps that at one additional policy; you can’t layer three or four together. In practical terms, the UM limit you pick on your own policy is the ceiling on what you’ll carry into any accident.
Why Rejecting UM Is Risky in Louisiana
Louisiana has one of the highest rates of uninsured drivers in the country, and the state’s “no-pay, no-play” law makes going without insurance especially punishing. Under R.S. 32:866, a driver who is required to carry liability insurance but doesn’t, and who gets hit by someone else, cannot recover the first $100,000 of bodily injury damages or the first $100,000 of property damage — even when the crash is entirely the other driver’s fault.4Justia Law. Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 32 RS 32-866 – Compulsory Motor Vehicle Liability Security
The math is brutal. An uninsured driver with $120,000 in medical bills recovers $20,000. An uninsured driver whose $30,000 car is totaled recovers nothing for property damage. For most accidents, the $100,000 offsets erase the claim entirely.
The statute does list exceptions. The bar does not apply when the at-fault driver:
- Was cited for DWI and later convicted or pleaded no contest
- Intentionally caused the accident
- Fled the scene
- Was committing a felony at the time of the crash
It also doesn’t apply if the other vehicle was parked and not in violation of registration requirements.4Justia Law. Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 32 RS 32-866 – Compulsory Motor Vehicle Liability Security Outside those narrow situations, an uninsured Louisiana driver hit by an uninsured or underinsured motorist has essentially no recovery path. That is the backdrop against which every decision to reject or reduce UM coverage should be read.