What Happens If You’re Hit by an Uninsured Driver in New Jersey?
In most cases, your own auto insurance policy pays for your injuries after a crash with an uninsured driver in New Jersey. Personal injury protection covers your medical bills no matter who caused the crash, and the uninsured motorist coverage included in every standard New Jersey policy takes the place of the insurance the at-fault driver should have carried. The claim process has strict notice rules and real pitfalls, though. A Freehold car accident attorney at Noonan & McMahon, LLC can help protect your recovery from day one and deal with your insurance company for you.
Why Some New Jersey Drivers Have No Insurance
New Jersey requires every owner of a registered vehicle to carry auto insurance. For standard policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2026, the law sets minimum bodily injury coverage of $35,000 per person and $70,000 per accident. Property damage coverage of at least $25,000 has been required since 2023 and stays the same. The same law requires insurers to raise older policies to the new limits automatically at renewal, so many drivers carry more protection today than they realize.
Even so, some drivers let coverage lapse when money gets tight, and others never buy a policy at all. A third group carries only a basic policy, a low-cost option that includes no bodily injury liability coverage unless the driver adds a small optional amount. When any of these drivers causes a crash, there may be no insurance company standing behind them to pay for what they did. Your own policy then becomes the center of your recovery.
Uninsured Motorist Coverage Steps Into the Missing Driver’s Shoes
Every standard auto policy sold in New Jersey must include uninsured motorist coverage. For policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2026, that protection must equal at least $35,000 per person and $70,000 per accident for bodily injury, and you can purchase limits as high as $250,000 per person and $500,000 per accident, capped at your own liability limits. This coverage applies in more situations than most drivers realize. New Jersey treats each of the following as an uninsured vehicle:
- A vehicle with no bodily injury liability insurance in effect at the time of the accident
- A vehicle whose insurer denies coverage or has become insolvent
- A hit and run vehicle
A related coverage, underinsured motorist coverage, works the same way when the at-fault driver has some insurance but not enough to cover your injuries.
In each of these situations, you file the claim with your own insurance company, which steps into the shoes of the coverage the other driver should have had. Standard policies also cover property damage an uninsured driver causes to your car, subject to a $500 exclusion, although that property protection does not extend to hit and run vehicles.
Uninsured motorist coverage cannot be stacked across multiple vehicles or policies, so the limit written on your policy is what you have. Remember that your insurer’s interests are not the same as yours in this kind of claim. It saves money by paying you less, and disputes are often decided in arbitration under the policy terms rather than in front of a jury. One warning applies across the board: a basic policy includes no uninsured motorist coverage at all.
PIP Pays Your Medical Bills While Fault Gets Sorted Out
Your first source of payment after almost any New Jersey car crash is your own personal injury protection coverage, which pays your medical expenses regardless of who caused the accident. A standard policy provides up to $250,000 per person in PIP medical benefits unless you selected a lower limit when you bought coverage. Even drivers who chose a lower limit keep up to $250,000 in benefits for permanent or significant brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, disfigurement, and emergency treatment at a trauma center or acute care hospital immediately after the crash.
Depending on the options on your policy, PIP can also reimburse a portion of lost wages and pay for help with household tasks you cannot do while you heal. Because PIP pays first, getting prompt medical care and routing your bills through the right coverage protects both your health and your claim.
Suing the Uninsured Driver Directly Is Possible but Rarely Enough
You can still file a personal injury lawsuit against the uninsured driver who hit you. New Jersey law generally gives you two years from the date of the accident to file, and missing that deadline almost always ends the claim. The harder problem is collecting. A driver who could not afford insurance rarely has wages or assets worth pursuing, so even a strong judgment can go unpaid.
Two other New Jersey rules shape what you can recover. Under the state’s comparative negligence law, you can recover damages only if your share of fault is 50 percent or less, and your award is reduced by your percentage of fault. In addition, if you chose the limited right to sue option on your own policy, that election follows you into an uninsured motorist claim and limits when you can recover for pain and suffering.
The lawsuit and the insurance claims are not mutually exclusive, and an experienced attorney can coordinate them so that one path does not undercut the other.
Protect Your Claim in the First Days After the Crash
What you do immediately after a crash with an uninsured driver shapes every claim that follows. These steps preserve your options:
- Call 911 and stay at the scene so police document the crash, which matters even more when the other driver flees or has no insurance
- Get medical care the same day, even if you feel able to walk away
- Notify your own insurance company promptly, since policies impose notice requirements for uninsured motorist and hit and run claims
- Photograph the vehicles, the scene, and your injuries, and collect witness names before they leave
- Speak with a lawyer before giving any recorded statement, including to your own insurer
The deadlines written into your policy can arrive well before the court filing deadline, so waiting is the most expensive mistake you can make.
Talk to Noonan & McMahon About Your Uninsured Driver Claim
You should not have to fight your own insurance company while you recover from someone else’s carelessness. At Noonan & McMahon, the founding partners personally handle every case and prepare each one as if it were going to trial. You pay nothing up front, and we only get paid when we recover for you. Contact us for a free case evaluation.