Recovering the Balance an Auto Insurer Left Unpaid

Attorney Answer

The unpaid balance is not automatically lost, but who you can collect it from depends on which policy paid and who was at fault. Your message does not say whether your own carrier paid or the other driver's did, so here is how Texas sorts it out.

Texas auto claims run on fault. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.001 sets the outer line: a claimant may not recover damages if his percentage of responsibility is greater than 50 percent. Below that line, § 33.012(a) requires the court to reduce the damages by a percentage equal to the claimant's percentage of responsibility, and § 33.013(a) makes each liable defendant responsible only for its own percentage of the damages rather than the whole loss, unless the exception in § 33.013(b) applies. So if any share of the crash is put on you, the recoverable balance shrinks by that share.

The most common reason the money runs out is that liability limits are small. Tex. Transp. Code § 601.072(a-1) sets Texas minimums at $30,000 for bodily injury to or death of one person in one collision, $60,000 for two or more people, and $25,000 for property damage. A driver carrying only the minimum can be fully insured and still leave a real gap.

Two coverages on your own policy exist for that gap. Tex. Ins. Code § 1952.101(b) bars an insurer from issuing a Texas auto liability policy without providing uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage in or supplemental to it, and § 1952.101(c) removes that requirement only where a named insured rejected the coverage in writing. Tex. Ins. Code § 1952.152 has the same structure for personal injury protection. PIP matters here because § 1952.155(a) makes those benefits payable without regard to the insured's fault in causing the collision and without regard to any collateral source of medical, hospital or wage-continuation benefits, and § 1952.155(b) generally bars the paying insurer from coming after anyone for reimbursement, with a narrow exception in (c) for a driver who had no financial responsibility on the date of loss. If you carry PIP or underinsured motorist coverage and nobody has opened those, that is often where the rest of the money is sitting.

Beyond insurance, the at-fault driver remains personally responsible for what the insurance did not cover. Whether that is worth pursuing turns on facts I cannot see: who was at fault, what the limits were, and what that driver actually has.

What you can do

1. Pull the declarations page of your own auto policy and look for personal injury protection, medical payments, and uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. The dollar amounts are printed there.

2. Ask your insurer in writing for a written breakdown of what it paid, what it declined, and the policy provision behind each line. Keep the reply.

3. Put every bill, receipt, estimate and rental invoice that makes up your out-of-pocket number into one list, with dates and amounts.

4. If the at-fault driver's limits were exhausted, ask your own carrier in writing to open an underinsured motorist claim under your policy.

5. If you believe your own insurer mishandled the claim, you can file a complaint with the Texas Department of Insurance at no cost.

6. Ask a Texas personal injury lawyer whether the remaining balance is worth pursuing against the at-fault driver and what your own coverages add.

Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.

⏱ Time limits apply. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a) generally requires suit for personal injury and for injury to property to be brought not later than two years after the day the cause of action accrues. When your clock started, and whether anything about your situation changes it, depends on your own facts. Have a Texas attorney check the dates against your paperwork rather than assuming.