July 12, 2023

3 Types of Uninsured Claims in Utah and how to Resolve Them: Utah car accident lawyer Jake Gunter call/TXT (801) 373-6345

(1). No Insurance. When you are in a Utah car accident and the other person didn’t have insurance, you can make an uninsured claim against your own car insurance company.
Example: You are rear-ended on State Street in Orem, Utah. The at-fault party who rear-ended you didn’t have insurance, but remained at the scene. Since the at-fault party didn’t have liability insurance, your claim is now against your own uninsured carrier.

(2). Hit and Run—Contact. The second variant of uninsured claims in Utah are the hit and run accident where contact between you and the ghost car occurs.
Example: Intersection collision on Provo University Avenue. The at-fault left hand turning car hits you when they failed to yield while making the turn. After the collision the at-fault car drives off never to be found again. Because the other car couldn’t be found, you can make a claim against you own insurance for an uninsured motorist hit and run.

(3). Hit and Run—No Contact. The last variant is where another car causes you to run off the road or otherwise collide your car with someone or something else. But there is no contact between you and the phantom car that ran away.
Example. University Parkway, Orem. You are minding your own business when suddenly a car from the opposing lane of traffic veers into your land head-on. You avoid the collision by swerving into another car. The car that initially caused this accident is nowhere to be found, but no contact occurred. You must prove your claim by clear and convincing evidence beyond what you say happened. The normal evidence standard for most car accidents is the lower standard—Preponderance (more likely than not).

How Do You Resolve Your Utah Uninsured Accident Claims?

Here are the most common ways to resolve your Utah uninsured motorist car accident claims:

(1). Settlement—Pre Lawsuit. You can always try to resolve your uninsured claim directly with the insurance adjuster. Most of the time you will never get fair compensation dealing directly with the adjuster. You will have to file a lawsuit to force what is fair and reasonable for your case. This is especially true negotiating without an attorney.

(2). Statutory Arbitration. Utah has some pretty good injured party provisions in it’s Uninsured Motorist Statute found at Utah Code 31A-22-305(9)(a). There is an undisputed tender provision where you can force the uninsured carrier to produce an up-front tend of money of what they think the case is worth. See 31A-22-305(10)(a). See this deeper article on what an undisputed tender is.
Arbitration Appeal. You can always appeal the arbitration verdict to the district court “De Novo,” or “do it again.” If you are the appealing party you must do better on appeal than you did at arbitration or you can be sanctioned by the court. See 31A-22-305(9)(r).

A single arbiter or 3 arbiters can be mutually selected to decide your uninsured case.

(3). Jury Trial Litigation. You can have the jury decide the value of your uninsured claim. The jury is the greatest weapon for freedom and justice ever devised. The jury keeps us free. Any injury case with significant injuries should always be tried to a jury, not to an arbiter. Arbitration generally gets average results.

(4). Mediation. Often a judge will order your case into mediation before they will give you a jury trial date. Mediation is a great way to settle uninsured motorist claims in Utah.

Where is Utah’s Uninsured Motorist Claims Statute Found? Utah’s uninsured bodily injury motorist statute is found at Utah Code 31A-22-305. For uninsured property damage claims, that statute is found at Utah Code 31A-22-305.5. Underinsured claims are at 31A-22-305.3 and the infamous “personal injury protection” benefits statutes are found at 31A-22-306 to 309.

UTAH CAR ACCIDENT LAWYER JAKE GUNTER has 20 years perspective into trying juries. Having an experience jury trial lawyer on your side matters and can make the difference. Call/TXT Jake at (801) 373-6345 for a free consultation.