Utah's minimum auto liability limit is $25,000 per person and $65,000 per accident.
An ambulance, an emergency room visit, imaging and a few weeks of follow-up care can pass $25,000 before anyone has talked about lost wages, future treatment or pain. A surgery passes it on the first bill.
When the at-fault driver carries the minimum, their insurer will often offer the full $25,000 quickly. That is not generosity. It is the ceiling.
What happens next depends on a policy most people have never read: their own.
UM and UIM are different coverages
- Uninsured motorist (UM) coverage pays when the at-fault driver has no liability insurance, or cannot be identified. Utah Code § 31A-22-305.
- Underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage pays when the at-fault driver has liability insurance but not enough to cover your damages. Utah Code § 31A-22-305.3.
If your damages are $80,000 and the at-fault driver tenders their $25,000 limit, UIM is what can cover the gap above that — up to your own UIM limit.
You may have it without knowing
Utah carriers are required to offer both coverages. They can be declined, but the rejection must be in writing and signed by the named insured.
That written-rejection requirement is why so many Utah drivers carry UM and UIM coverage they do not remember buying. If nobody in the household signed a rejection, the coverage may well be there.
It is also worth checking every policy in the household, not only the one on the car you were driving. Coverage can come from more places than people assume.
This is a claim against your own insurer
That changes the relationship, and it matters.
A UIM claim is made against your own carrier. That makes it a first-party claim, and a first-party insurer owes its policyholder a duty of good faith and fair dealing. Under Beck v. Farmers Insurance Exchange, an insurer must act as a reasonable party to its own contract, and unreasonable delay, denial or lowballing is actionable separately from the contract claim itself.
The at-fault driver's insurer owes you no such duty. Your own does.
It also means your own insurer, which you pay every month, becomes the party arguing your injuries are worth less. I said it plainly in Crash Class: the insurance companies are not your friend. They are in business to pay out as little as possible. Even your own company. Expect that, keep a crash diary, and get everything in writing.
The mistake that destroys a UIM claim
The at-fault driver's insurer offers its policy limits and sends a release. Signing it feels like the obvious, sensible step. The money is real and the bills are due.
Do not sign that release before notifying your own carrier.
Utah's UIM framework includes a consent-to-settle notice process that protects the UIM claim when you accept the liability limits. Skip it, and your own carrier may argue that the release extinguished rights it would otherwise have had against the at-fault driver — and that you prejudiced its position by settling without telling it.
The order is the whole point: notice to your UIM carrier first, settlement with the at-fault carrier second.
What the numbers usually look like
The real ceiling in most serious injury cases is not the severity of the injury. It is the total amount of coverage available to pay for it.
- The at-fault driver's liability limit — often $25,000.
- Your own UIM limit, which may be $50,000, $100,000 or more.
- Any other applicable policies in the household.
- In some cases, other liable parties with their own coverage — an employer if the driver was working, or a commercial carrier.
Finding every one of those before accepting anything is most of the work.
PIP comes first
Utah is a no-fault state for the first $3,000 of medical expenses per person, under § 31A-22-307. Your own personal injury protection pays those regardless of fault. UIM is a separate coverage for what the at-fault driver's policy cannot reach.
The deadlines
- Personal injury — four years. Utah Code § 78B-2-307.
- Wrongful death — two years. § 78B-2-304.
- Vehicle property damage — three years. § 78B-2-305, covering diminished value, total loss and repair.
Your UIM policy may also impose its own notice and proof-of-claim requirements, and those can be much shorter than any statute. Read the policy, or have someone read it, early.
If a limits offer is on the table right now
Before signing anything: find your declarations page, confirm whether you have UIM coverage and at what limit, check the other policies in the household, and put your own carrier on written notice.
A $25,000 check is easy to accept. Undoing what it cost you is not. Call (801) 685-1000 before you sign, not after.