Maryland Car Accident Attorney Blog
Last updated August 21, 2026 · Reviewed by Vadim A. Mzhen
Maryland law requires auto insurers to offer two versions of the coverage that protects a driver when the person who caused a crash carries too little insurance, and the two versions pay very differently. One is reduced by whatever the at-fault driver’s insurer hands over. The other is not. Nothing about the crash itself changes between them, only the paperwork signed when the policy was bought.
Standard uninsured motorist coverage under Md. Code, Ins. § 19-509 is offset by the amount paid out of the at-fault driver’s exhausted liability policy. Enhanced underinsured motorist coverage under § 19-509.1 carries no such offset, so it pays on top of that recovery instead of absorbing it. On identical facts, that one difference can change what a claim is worth by the entire value of the other driver’s policy.
Which of the two an injured driver actually bought is one of the first things worth checking in a Maryland car accident claim, particularly where the available liability limits fell well short of the medical bills. Lebowitz & Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers raises the question early for that reason.
What Enhanced Underinsured Motorist Coverage Pays
Enhanced underinsured motorist coverage is uninsured motorist coverage that pays its full limit without any reduction for money already paid under the at-fault driver’s liability policy.
The arithmetic is easier to see with figures. Suppose the driver who caused the crash carries a $50,000 liability limit, and the injured driver carries $200,000 in coverage of their own. With standard coverage, the injured driver collects $50,000 from the other policy and up to $150,000 from their own, for $200,000 total. With enhanced coverage, the same person collects $50,000 and then the full $200,000, for $250,000.
That gap is not unusual. It is the ordinary result of the offset, and it appears in exactly the cases where the injuries are serious enough that the at-fault driver’s limits ran out early.
The Offset Built Into Standard Uninsured Motorist Coverage
Two features of § 19-509 do most of the work. The first is definitional. Maryland does not sell a separate underinsured motorist product; the statute defines an “uninsured motor vehicle” to include one whose total available liability limits come to less than the uninsured motorist coverage on the injured person’s own policy. A driver with insurance that is merely inadequate is treated as uninsured for this purpose.
The second is the limit of liability. Under § 19-509, the insurer’s obligation is the amount of the coverage less what was paid to the insured out of the liability policies that were exhausted. The coverage is real, and it is worth less than its stated number every time the at-fault driver had any insurance at all. Claims that turn on this are part of what the firm’s uninsured motorist practice deals with, and the analysis usually starts with the declarations page rather than the police report.
The Waiver Form Most Drivers Do Not Remember Signing
Maryland insurers must offer enhanced underinsured motorist coverage when a private passenger policy is purchased. A first named insured who prefers standard uninsured motorist coverage instead has to say so in an affirmative written waiver, on a form the Insurance Commissioner prescribes, printed in at least 14-point boldface type.
The boldface requirement exists because the choice is easy to make without noticing. Most drivers remember choosing liability limits and have no memory of this form at all. If you are not sure which way it went, you can ask your insurer for a copy of the signed waiver, or read your declarations page, where the two coverages are labeled differently.
Coverage questions like this one tend to surface late, after treatment has run longer than anyone expected and the other driver’s insurer has already tendered its limit. We look at the full coverage picture early, including policies in the household that the injured person may not have considered, because the answer shapes what a claim can realistically pay before any demand goes out. Our attorneys have spent years working through these coverage disputes for people across Maryland, and the work is often the difference between a recovery that covers the losses and one that stops short.
Find Out Which Coverage Your Policy Actually Carries
Anyone whose treatment has outrun the at-fault driver’s limits has a coverage question worth answering before agreeing to anything. Lebowitz & Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers works with injured drivers across Maryland, from Baltimore City and Baltimore County out through the Washington suburbs. Call (800) 654-1949 or contact our office for a free case evaluation. The firm takes these claims on contingency, and nothing is owed unless it recovers for you.