In A Car Accident With Underinsured Motorist

Nov 21, 2025 | Read Time: 4 minutes

Got car insurance? Hopefully you do. But believe it or not, some people don’t have any – or they don’t have enough. And if one of those people cause a car accident with you, you better have UIM. That’s attorney lingo for uninsured or underinsured motorist insurance.

UIM is on your insurance policy. And it pays you if you get injured in a car accident with someone with less insurance than you have.

But here’s the catch – it won’t be easy. Uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage cases are some of the most heavily litigated personal injury car accident claims in Maryland.

What? Isn’t your insurance supposed to cover you? Won’t they be there for you if an uninsured motorist hits you?

Sure, maybe. But they won’t do it willingly. They will make you fight for it, and probably harder than an adverse driver’s insurance.

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Here is a real life personal injury case in Maryland that illustrates this problem: It all started when a bad car accident killed a young woman in Maryland. The insurance company for the driver who caused the accident put up their full policy limits. Unfortunately, it was only $25,000. That was the former state minimum policy – which has been raised to $30,000 these days – still not much!

So the young woman’s family did what anyone would do – they turned to her own insurance policy to recover the maximum amount she paid for in underinsured motorist insurance coverage. She had a policy providing for $100,000 coverage. Clearly, the life of a young woman is worth at least that much. They thought this would be a no brainer.

But the young woman’s insurance company never offered near the full amount to settle the case. They took it all the way to trial. They attempted to claim the dead lady – their insured – was partly responsible for the accident. The jury found against them to the tune of $760,000.

To a reasonable person, it sounds outrageous that an insurer could refuse to pay $100,000 when someone died. As a car accident attorney who handles car accident personal injury cases, this doesn’t surprise me at all.

Article Contents

1 Your Insurer Will Fight You Hard

2 What is UIM & How Does it Work?

3 Conclusion & Next Steps

Your Insurer Will Fight You Hard

I tell my clients to expect a long fight if they sue their own insurer. They are always flabbergasted, because it doesn’t feel right.

That is your own insurance company. Why wouldn’t they pay up? Aren’t they on the side of their own customer? Why aren’t they standing by you when you need them?

This particular case is simply a particularly glaring example of the problem. The problem itself is quite common.

The fact is, the insurance company is going to put you through the ringer if you want any money out of them. This is well illustrated in uninsured and underinsured motorist cases like this one.

In these cases, they only pay if the adverse driver would have had to pay under their own insurance policy. And they get to use all the defenses that the adverse driver (the one who hit their own client!) could have used in the case.

They don’t just swoop in and pay because something bad happened and you need coverage. They have to be forced to pay because the other driver is negligent. In this case, Progressive was using the same defenses the adverse driver would have used if they didn’t settle. It just feels wrong since Progressive was her insurance company, and was fighting her for the policy limits.

But it is 100% legal and happens all the time.

What is UIM & How Does it Work?

To find out all the gory details of UIM coverage, read my longer blog post about Uninsured Motorist Claims here. It is a very complex subject, and the laws on it are very old and haven’t been changed recently. But I do my best to make it as simple as possible.

And the one really big change that Maryland has done to UIM coverage is to allow for “Enhanced” Uninsured Motorist Coverage. You have to specifically ask for it when you get car insurance. You can also get it when you renew your coverage. The insurance company will not trumpet this coverage to you. They do not like that they are forced to offer it. But our blog post on it explains what you need to know and the questions you need to ask your car insurance agent.

Conclusion & Next Steps

If you have an uninsured motorist claim or underinsured motorist claim, you need to be prepared for a fight with your own insurance company.

That may drive you nuts, but it is true.

Want to know more? Discover what you need to know about car accident cases in Maryland. Click here to see our Free Legal Consumer Guide to Maryland car accident cases and get answers to your questions today. Know your options. Be informed. Protect yourself.