How Does Uninsured Motorist Coverage and Stacking Work in Georgia?
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Georgia uninsured motorist (UM) coverage pays your damages when the at-fault driver has no insurance or not enough. By default it is “add-on” coverage: under O.C.G.A. § 33-7-11(b)(1)(D)(ii)(I), your UM coverage applies to your losses “in addition to the amounts payable under any available bodily injury liability and property damage liability insurance coverages”. “Stacking” is a different idea: combining the UM limits of more than one policy, which depends on whether you are an “insured” under each policy.
Add-on versus reduced-by
| Add-on (the statutory default) | Reduced-by (by written election) | |
|---|---|---|
| How the at-fault vehicle is treated | As uninsured to the full extent of your UM limits, on top of the at-fault driver's liability coverage | As uninsured only for the difference between the at-fault driver's available liability coverage and your UM limits |
| Ceiling | Your combined recovery from UM and the at-fault driver's coverage cannot exceed your total economic and noneconomic losses | Your UM limits, less the at-fault driver's available coverage |
| How it is chosen | Applies unless you choose otherwise | You must reject add-on coverage and select reduced-by coverage in writing |
For example, imagine damages of $150,000, an at-fault driver with a $25,000 liability policy, and your own $50,000 UM limit. With add-on coverage, you can recover the $25,000 liability limit plus up to $50,000 in UM, $75,000 in all. With reduced-by coverage, the UM pays only the difference between $50,000 and $25,000, so $50,000 in all.
You can also reject UM coverage entirely, but only “in writing” (§ 33-7-11(a)(3)).
Stacking: more than one policy
Stacking means adding the UM limits of several policies. In Beard v. Nunes (2004), the Court of Appeals repeated its earlier holding in Crafter v. State Farm (2001) that “uninsured motorist benefits are calculated by stacking the limits of all of the available uninsured motorist coverage and setting off the limits of the available liability coverage”. Whether a policy is available to you depends on the statute’s two classes of insured (§ 33-7-11(b)(1)(B)):
- Named insureds and household members. The first class is “the named insured and, while resident of the same household, the spouse of any such named insured and relatives of either, while in a motor vehicle or otherwise”. These people can draw on the policy whether or not the insured vehicle was involved.
- Permissive users and guests. The second class is a person who uses, with the named insured’s consent, “the motor vehicle to which the policy applies”, or a guest in that vehicle. These people are covered only when that vehicle is involved.
In Beard, a minor was hurt riding in a truck her mother was driving with the permission of its owner, the mother’s brother-in-law. He insured five vehicles with UM coverage, and the family tried to stack all five policies. Because neither mother nor daughter was a named insured or lived in his home, the daughter fell in the second class. She was not a beneficiary of the other four policies, so she could not stack them.
Stacking against an uninsured driver predates these cases. In State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Hancock (1982), the Court of Appeals held that a 1980 amendment extended it to an at-fault driver who was only “minimally insured”, so an insured could stack multiple UM policies in that situation too.
When a vehicle counts as uninsured
Section 33-7-11(b)(1)(D) lists five situations: the at-fault vehicle has no liability insurance; it has liability insurance and you have UM coverage (the add-on or reduced-by rules above then set how much is treated as uninsured); its insurer “has legally denied coverage”; its insurer is insolvent, to the extent it does not pay; or there is no bond or deposit in place of insurance. Under (b)(2), a vehicle is also uninsured when its owner or operator “is unknown”. The definition excludes a vehicle owned by or furnished for the regular use of the named insured, the named insured’s spouse, or a relative of either who lives in the same household, so UM coverage on your policy does not treat your own household’s car as the uninsured vehicle. Hit-and-run claims carry their own conditions; see uninsured motorist coverage for a hit-and-run.
Before making a UM claim
- Gather every policy in your household, with declarations pages showing UM limits and whether add-on or reduced-by applies.
- Look for any written rejection or reduced-by election you signed.
- If you sue a known at-fault driver and reasonably believe the vehicle is uninsured under the statute, § 33-7-11(d) requires a copy of the action and all pleadings to be served on your UM insurer as though it were a named defendant.
- Do not sign a release with the at-fault driver’s insurer without checking the effect on your UM claim; see the tender requirement in a UM/UIM case.
Georgia’s minimum UM and liability limits are explained in Georgia’s minimum car insurance requirements.
Sources
- O.C.G.A. § 33-7-11 (text as published March 2024).
- State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Hancock, 164 Ga. App. 32 (1982)
- Beard v. Nunes, 269 Ga. App. 214 (2004)
General information about Georgia law as of October 2026. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.