What the other driver is required to carry

Illinois sets minimum liability limits in 625 ILCS 5/7-203. For a policy to satisfy the requirement it must provide not less than:

These are minimums, not typical limits. Plenty of drivers carry far more. But a rider has no way of knowing which kind of driver hit them until the policy is disclosed, and a serious motorcycle injury can exhaust $25,000 before the first surgery is finished.

The coverage you may not know you have

This is the part most riders get wrong, and it is usually good news.

Under 215 ILCS 5/143a-2(1), an Illinois policy must include uninsured motorist coverage in an amount equal to the insured’s bodily injury liability limits, unless the insured has specifically rejected the excess in writing.

Read that again with your own policy in mind. If you carry $250,000 of bodily injury liability, your uninsured motorist coverage is $250,000 as well, unless at some point you signed a written request for less. You do not have to have bought it as a separate product; the statute puts it there by default.

Two details matter:

• Rejection must be written, and under 143a-2(2) it is binding on all persons insured under the policy, not only the person who signed.
• Underinsured coverage follows. Under 143a-2(4), UIM must be included equal to the total UM coverage in the policy where that exceeds the statutory minimum.

Why the cover does not add up

Riders often assume that if the at-fault driver has $25,000 and they hold $100,000 of underinsured cover, the total available is $125,000. It is not.

215 ILCS 5/143a-2(4) provides that the UIM insurer’s limit is the limit of that coverage less those amounts actually recovered under the at-fault policy. So:

• At-fault driver pays $25,000.
• Your UIM limit is $100,000.
• Your UIM insurer pays $75,000, being $100,000 less the $25,000 recovered.
• Total: $100,000, not $125,000.

Your own limit is the ceiling on the whole recovery from insurance, not a sum added on top of theirs.

The trap in carrying the minimum

This follows directly from the definition, and it is the most consequential thing in this article.

Under 143a-2(4), an “underinsured motor vehicle” means one whose applicable bodily injury limits total less than the limits of your own underinsured coverage.

Now apply it. If you carry the statutory minimum of $25,000 in UIM, and the driver who hit you also carries $25,000, their vehicle is not underinsured. Their limits are not less than yours; they are equal to yours. There is no UIM claim to make.

Minimum UIM gives you no protection at all against a minimum-limits driver, which is precisely the driver you most need protection from. UIM only begins to do work once your own limits sit above theirs. Raising your own UM and UIM limits is generally inexpensive, and for a motorcyclist it is the single most useful insurance decision available.

Where else money can come from

• Other defendants. An employer where the driver was working, or a vehicle owner. See multi-vehicle crash claims for how apportionment works.
• A public body, where the roadway contributed. That shortens the deadline to one year under 745 ILCS 10/8-101(a).
• Your own medical payments cover, if the policy includes it.
• Umbrella policies, either the at-fault driver’s or your own.

How a UM or UIM claim is decided

Worth knowing before you need it: under 215 ILCS 5/143a, policies must provide that disputes about coverage and the amount of damages are submitted to arbitration before the American Arbitration Association, subject to its rules, with separate provision for medical opinions. A claim against your own insurer is not simply a lawsuit.

The same section also prevents stacking: limits for one vehicle may not be aggregated with similar coverage on your other vehicles to raise the total available to one person in one crash.

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Talk to an Elmwood Park motorcycle accident lawyer

In most serious motorcycle cases the question is not whether the other driver was at fault. It is how much insurance can actually be reached, and that answer often lies in the rider’s own declarations page rather than the other driver’s policy.

If you were hurt riding in Elmwood Park, Oak Lawn, Skokie, Niles, Orland Park or anywhere in Cook County, Lawyer Furqan will identify every layer of coverage available, including cover on your own policy you may not know you hold.

Call 847-800-8978 or contact us online. The consultation is free, there is nothing upfront, and you owe no attorney’s fee unless we win.

Sources and authorities cited

• 625 ILCS 5/7-203 · minimum limits of $25,000, $50,000 and $20,000
• 215 ILCS 5/143a-2(1), (2) and (4) · UM equal to liability limits, written rejection, the definition of an underinsured vehicle, and the offset
• 215 ILCS 5/143a · uninsured and hit-and-run coverage, AAA arbitration, anti-stacking
• 745 ILCS 10/8-101(a) · one year against a local public entity

This article is general legal information about Illinois law, not legal advice, and creates no attorney-client relationship. What your own policy provides depends on its terms and your elections, and nothing here predicts a result.