Let’s get the easiest part out of the way first. You were just hit, and the other driver has the audacity to stand there and tell you they don’t have insurance. Your first thought is panic, quickly followed by rage. Can you sue that person?
The answer is a booming, unequivocal YES, you absolutely can sue someone without car insurance.
There is no law in any state that protects a negligent driver simply because they chose to break the law and drive uninsured. Insurance is just a financial security blanket; it doesn’t change liability. If that driver was at fault for the crash running a stop sign, texting, rear-ending you they are 100% financially and legally responsible for every single dollar of your damages.
But here is where you have to stop and take a deep breath, because this is where the legal reality clashes violently with the financial reality.
Winning the lawsuit is the easy part. Collecting the money is almost always the impossible part.
When you sue an insured driver, you are actually chasing a massive, solvent, multi-billion dollar corporation (the insurance company) that has the funds to pay you. When you sue an uninsured driver, you are chasing a broke individual who has already proven they don’t care about their legal or financial responsibilities.
You need to know the strategy behind this battle, because chasing a judgment against someone who is “judgment-proof” is the fastest way to waste thousands of your own dollars on lawyer fees.
The Legal Right: Why the Judgment Is Yours
Forget what the driver says or what they can afford. The court doesn’t care about their bank account; the court only cares about negligence.
Liability is Personal, Not Corporate
The legal doctrine of negligence says that if a person fails to exercise reasonable care and that failure hurts someone else, the negligent person must compensate the injured party. That liability sticks to the person, not to the insurance company.
When the judge rules in your Favor, they are issuing a judgment against the uninsured driver, ordering them to pay your total damages, which include:
- Medical Bills: Past, present, and future surgical costs, therapy, medication.
- Lost Income: Wages you couldn’t earn and future earning capacity you lost.
- Pain and Suffering: Compensation for the chronic pain, anxiety, and loss of life enjoyment.
The uninsured status doesn’t protect them from being found liable; it just makes the debt personal. They are now on the hook for everything.
The Complexities of No-Fault States
If you happen to be in a No-Fault state (like Florida, Pennsylvania, or Michigan), the rules shift a little, but the right to sue remains.
In No-Fault states, your own insurance covers your medical bills and lost wages up to a certain point (your PIP coverage). But if your injuries are serious enough to cross the state’s “tort threshold”—meaning permanent impairment, major disfigurement, or death—you absolutely retain the right to sue the at-fault uninsured driver for pain and suffering and any costs your PIP didn’t cover.
So, legally, the door is wide open. But should you walk through it?
The Financial Reality: Chasing a Phantom
This is the part that smart lawyers warn their clients about. You could spend eighteen months and $20,000 in legal fees to win a $100,000 judgment, only to realize you can’t collect a dime.
The person who skips mandatory car insurance is almost always “judgment-proof.” What does that mean? It means they have no significant, sizable assets that are not protected by state law.
The Uncollectible Judgment
When you have a judgment, you have the right to use legal tools to collect:
Wage Garnishment: You can ask the court to order the driver’s employer to withhold a percentage of their pay check and send it to you.
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- The Problem: They might be self-employed, work under the table, or their wages might be so low that state exemption laws protect most of their income. Collecting $100,000 at $50 a week takes forty years.
Asset Liens: You can put a lien on any property they own. If they own a house, the lien guarantees you get paid when they sell it.
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- The Problem: Most states protect a person’s primary home equity up to a certain point (homestead exemption). Furthermore, they often protect retirement accounts (401k, IRAs) and essential work tools. If the driver rents an apartment and has no savings, there’s literally nothing to take.
Essentially, you win the war, but you can’t find the gold. The court judgment becomes a debt that lasts for years—often renewable for decades—but you have to spend your own money to track the person, file the garnishment papers, and monitor their finances. Most people give up.
The Only Smart Strategy: Your Own Policy
The most important takeaway here is that you need to stop focusing on the person who hit you and start focusing on your own insurance policy. This is why Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist (UM/UIM) Coverage is the most crucial policy add-on you can buy.
UM/UIM Is Your Safety Net
UM/UIM coverage is specifically designed to step in and pay your damages when the at-fault driver is financially irresponsible.
- Uninsured Motorist (UM): Pays you when the other driver has zero liability insurance (your current situation).
- Underinsured Motorist (UIM): Pays you when the other driver has the minimum state liability limits (say, $25,000), but your injuries are worth $150,000. It pays the difference.
When you have strong UM/UIM coverage, your entire legal strategy shifts from suing a broke individual to making a claim against your own solvent insurance company.
The Strategic Advantages of Using UM
- Certainty of Payment: You’re dealing with a large company that has the funds to pay the claim instantly. You don’t have to wait years for wage garnishments.
- No Rate Increase: In most states, activating your UM coverage does not count as an at-fault claim and should not raise your premiums. You are simply using the coverage you paid for to protect yourself from a criminal driver.
- Subrogation: Once your insurance company pays you for your injuries, they gain the legal right to sue the uninsured driver themselves to recover their money. This process is called subrogation. Your insurer takes on the cost and headache of chasing the judgment-proof defendant, freeing you from the burden.
If you are seriously hurt by an uninsured driver, the smartest and quickest path to compensation is almost always through your own UM/UIM coverage.
Final Verdict: The Practical Side of the Law
Yes, you can sue someone without car insurance. It is your absolute legal right.
But the real question is, Should you?
If your injuries are minor (a few thousand dollars in medical bills) and you don’t have UM/UIM, a quick small-claims court suit might be worthwhile to get a payment order against them.
If your injuries are serious, however, and you are facing tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages, the expense and futility of suing a judgment-proof individual are staggering.
The most important takeaway is preventative: Never rely on the kindness or responsibility of strangers. You must carry UM/UIM coverage with limits high enough to protect your own life. Your UM limits should be equal to or higher than the liability limits you carry—protecting yourself should be your number one priority when buying auto insurance.