If a hit-and-run driver is found after you file an insurance claim, your claim usually continues, but who pays may change. Your insurer may seek repayment from the driver, and you may gain the right to file a claim against the driver’s own insurance.
Bozeman sits in the Gallatin Valley of southwest Montana, surrounded by the Bridger and Gallatin mountain ranges. It is home to Montana State University and serves as a gateway for travelers heading to Yellowstone National Park. Interstate 90 runs along the city’s north side, bringing steady traffic from visitors, students, and commuters.
With that much traffic, drivers who flee crashes are sometimes identified later through cameras, witnesses, or repair shop reports. When police locate the driver from a hit-and-run accident in Bozeman or any other city, the injured person’s insurance claim does not simply start over.
How Finding the Driver Changes Your Existing Claim
Most hit-and-run claims begin under your own policy because no at-fault driver is known. Once the driver is identified, your claim gains a second possible source of payment.
What happens next depends on two things:
- Whether your insurer has already paid your claim
- Whether the newly identified driver carries liability insurance
When Your Insurer Has Already Paid
An insurer that paid your hit-and-run claim usually has the right to recover that money from the driver who fled. This process is called subrogation.
How Subrogation Works
Your insurer steps into your shoes and pursues the driver or that driver’s insurer. You generally do not need to file a separate lawsuit for the amount your company already paid.
Getting Your Deductible Back
If you paid a collision deductible, your insurer may include it in its demand against the driver. When the insurer collects, many policies require it to return your share of the deductible.
When Your Claim Has Not Been Paid Yet
If the driver is found while your claim is still being reviewed, the path may shift. The driver’s liability insurer could become the main payer for your medical bills, lost income, and vehicle damage.
You can keep both claims open if the driver’s limits are too low to cover all of your losses.
What if the Driver Turns Out to Be Uninsured?
Identifying the driver does not always bring in more money. Some drivers flee the scene because they have no insurance or a suspended license.
No Insurance
If the found driver is uninsured, your uninsured motorist coverage usually stays in place. Your original claim continues much as it did before the driver was identified.
Low Insurance
If the driver’s policy limits are small, you may collect those limits first. Underinsured motorist coverage on your own policy may then help with the remaining losses.
How the Driver’s Criminal Case Affects Your Claim
A found driver may also face criminal charges for leaving the scene. A criminal court can order that driver to pay you restitution for certain out-of-pocket losses.
Restitution and insurance payments do not stack. Money you receive through restitution may reduce what your insurer owes, since you cannot be paid twice for the same loss.
What to Do Once the Driver Is Identified
A newly identified driver raises questions about who pays and when. These actions help keep your existing claim on track while a second party is added.
- Give your adjuster the driver’s name, insurance company, and updated police report number.
- Ask your insurer whether it will pursue subrogation against the driver and when your deductible may be returned.
- Compare the driver’s liability limits with your total losses before moving your claim away from your own policy.
- Wait to sign any release from the driver’s insurer until your own insurer reviews it.
- Report any restitution ordered in the criminal case to your insurer so it is credited correctly.
