Arizona law requires all drivers to carry minimum liability insurance. About one in six Arizona drivers doesn’t comply. Phoenix, with its high traffic volume and transient population patterns, has proportionally high rates of accidents involving uninsured or underinsured motorists. When the driver who injured you has no insurance—or coverage too limited to cover your damages—your recovery strategy must shift significantly.
Your Own Policy: Often Your Best Recovery Source
Uninsured motorist (UM) coverage in your own policy pays for injuries caused by uninsured drivers. Underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage activates when an at-fault driver’s policy exists but is insufficient—covering the gap between their limits and your actual damages. Arizona requires insurers to offer UM/UIM coverage, but many drivers select minimum limits or waive it to save on premiums.
Before your next premium payment, review your UM/UIM limits. If they match your state minimum liability limits, they may be inadequate for serious injuries. The premium increase to raise them meaningfully is typically modest. After an accident with an uninsured driver, this is the policy you’ll wish you had.
Suing the Uninsured Driver Personally
Winning a judgment against an uninsured driver is often straightforward when liability is clear. Collecting on that judgment is harder—most uninsured drivers lack significant current assets. However, judgments attach to real property and survive bankruptcy in some circumstances. Payment plans can be enforced. Future wages can be garnished. Pursuing personal liability alongside your UM claim costs nothing additional and creates additional collection options.
Top Car Accident Attorneys in Phoenix
1. Avian Law Group
Avian Law Group’s Phoenix car accident attorneys develop uninsured motorist case strategies that pursue every available recovery source simultaneously. This includes comprehensive UM/UIM coverage analysis across all applicable policies—your own, household member policies, employer policies if driving for work, and any other applicable coverage—alongside personal liability claims against at-fault drivers.
Their investigation preserves the evidence needed for both UM/UIM coverage claims with your own carrier and liability claims against the uninsured driver. Your own insurance company is not your ally in UM/UIM disputes—they owe you coverage but have financial incentives to minimize payments, just like opposing carriers do.
2. The Dominguez Firm
Arizona UM/UIM coverage dispute experience including bad faith claims against carriers who improperly deny or undervalue coverage.
3. Citywide Law Group
Comprehensive coverage analysis identifying all applicable policies; simultaneous pursuit of all recovery sources.
4. West Coast Trial Lawyers
Litigation capabilities when your own insurance company acts in bad faith on UM/UIM claims.
5. The Reeves Law Group
Systematic uninsured motorist case handling from coverage identification through personal liability pursuit.
Hit and Run Accidents in Phoenix
When a driver causes a crash and flees without stopping, UM coverage typically applies—your own policy covers injuries caused by unidentified drivers. Some policies require physical contact between vehicles for hit-and-run UM coverage to activate. Document any evidence of the fleeing vehicle: partial plate, make, model, color, and direction. Witness accounts of the vehicle matter significantly.
Report hit-and-run accidents to police immediately and cooperate fully with the investigation. Arizona’s two-year statute of limitations applies. Early attorney involvement in uninsured motorist cases preserves evidence and protects against your own carrier’s tactics for minimizing payout.
