Hit by an Uninsured or Drunk Driver in Kentucky or Indiana? Here Is What Actually Happens Next
You can still recover, even when the other driver has nothing. In Kentucky, your own PIP coverage pays first medical bills and lost wages regardless of fault. Uninsured motorist coverage on your own policy stands in for the coverage the other driver skipped. And when the driver was drunk, courts in both states can put additional damages on the table. Here is how it works on each side of the river.
Fall is the busy season on Kentuckiana roads: school traffic, football weekends, the first dark commutes of the year. Every year that stretch puts more impaired drivers and more uninsured drivers in front of the rest of us than almost any other. If one of them found you, this guide is for the week you are in right now.
The other driver has no insurance. Am I just out of luck?
No, and this surprises people: the answer usually lives in your own policy. Roughly one in seven drivers on the road carries no insurance at all. The card in their glovebox, if there is one, is decorative.
Both Kentucky and Indiana require insurers to offer uninsured motorist coverage, and in both states it generally applies unless it was rejected in writing. Many people carry it without knowing, because it was bundled quietly into the policy they bought years ago. Before you assume anything about your case, find your declarations page, the one or two page summary at the front of your policy, and look for the letters UM and UIM.
What is the difference between UM and UIM?
Uninsured motorist coverage, UM, applies when the other driver has no insurance at all, and usually in hit-and-run situations where the driver is never found. Underinsured motorist coverage, UIM, applies when the other driver has insurance but not enough, which happens constantly, because minimum-limit policies were not built for real hospital bills. Both are coverage you already paid for. Using them is not a favor from your insurance company; it is the product.
How does Kentucky’s no-fault system change things?
Kentucky is a choice no-fault state. Unless you formally opted out, your own personal injury protection coverage, PIP, pays your initial medical bills and a portion of lost wages after a crash, regardless of who caused it. That is the first money in most Kentucky cases, and it moves faster than any liability claim.
To pursue the at-fault driver for pain and suffering, Kentucky law requires your injuries to cross certain thresholds, which many injuries from serious crashes do. Indiana works differently: it is a traditional at-fault state with no PIP layer, so claims run straight at the responsible driver and whatever coverage exists, including your UM and UIM. If you live in one state and crashed in the other, which side of the river governs your claim is a genuinely consequential question, and it is one of the first things we sort out in a consultation.
The driver who hit me was drunk. Does that change my case?
It can change it substantially. A drunk driving crash is not just negligence; in the right circumstances courts in both Kentucky and Indiana allow punitive damages, money meant to punish the conduct rather than just cover the harm. Indiana handles punitive awards under its own specific framework, which is one more reason drunk driving cases benefit from an attorney who practices on both sides of the river.
Two tracks run at once, and they are separate. The criminal case belongs to the state; it can end in conviction, probation, even court-ordered restitution, and still leave most of your actual losses unpaid. Your civil claim is the track that addresses your medical bills, your lost income, and what the crash took from your life. Do not let anyone tell you the criminal case handles it. It almost never does.
What should I do in the first week?
- Get the police report done and get medical care. Impairment noted in a police report is powerful evidence, and injuries documented early are injuries that count. Our guide on what to do after a crash walks through the first week step by step.
- Notify your own insurance company promptly. UM and UIM claims come with notice requirements, and waiting can jeopardize coverage you already own. Report the crash; you do not have to argue your case on that call.
- Decline recorded statements to the other side. If the other driver had insurance after all, their carrier will call sounding friendly. You are not required to give a recorded statement, and you should not before you understand your injuries.
- Preserve everything. Photos, dashcam footage, the names of witnesses, the receipt trail of where the driver had been. In drunk driving cases, where the last drinks were served can matter.
- Talk to an attorney before accepting anything. First offers in uninsured and drunk driving cases are built on the hope that you do not know what your own policy contains. Now you do. Before you take any number, read how much your claim is worth.
Why this matters more in the fall
Fall traffic concentrates everything: more cars, more drinking, earlier dark, more drivers rolling the dice on no coverage. None of that is your fault, and none of it has to be your financial problem alone. The system for these exact situations already exists. Most people just never had a reason to learn it until the week they needed it.
We have been handling uninsured and impaired driving cases in Kentucky and Indiana since 1991. The consultation is free, and the first thing we will do is read your declarations page with you.
Talk to us, no cost, no pressure. Kentucky: (502) 222-2222. Indiana: (812) 282-8500. Karl Truman Law Office, Louisville, KY and Jeffersonville, IN. No fee unless we win.