Identify people policies and possible payers

By Jacob Alford

Whose insurance might apply?

Start with the people, vehicles and purpose of the trip. List the driver and owner of every involved vehicle, the people who were injured, any employer or business connection, and the policies you know about. A passenger, pedestrian or person driving a borrowed car should not stop merely because no policy is in that person’s name. Whether a particular policy protects that person depends on its definitions, facts and exclusions. TDI auto insurance guide.

For each possible policy, record:

• The insurer, policyholder, policy number and policy period covering the wreck.
• The relevant person, vehicle and claimed coverage.
• The claim number and person handling it.
• The documents requested, written coverage position and next step.

If a friend or relative was driving, explain that protecting the relationship matters to you. Ask whether a resolution can be limited to available insurance through an authorized, enforceable agreement. Do not assume a policy-limits demand alone protects the person from personal exposure. Texas Supreme Court discussion of insurance-only agreements.

Does full coverage tell me what I actually have?

“Full coverage” does not identify a standard package that pays every loss. “Liability only” on one vehicle does not establish that no benefit exists under any other policy. Read the coverages, limits and deductibles rather than relying on either label.

How do I obtain and read the declarations and policy?

Ask for the declarations, full policy, endorsements and relevant coverage changes. The declarations summarize the policy; they do not contain every definition, exclusion or condition. Obtain the version in effect on the wreck date, not just today’s renewal.

Ask separately for PIP and UM/UIM selection or rejection records and any named-driver exclusion relied upon. TDI treats selection/rejection forms as separate from the policy, so a policy PDF may not contain them. If you are not the named policyholder, explain your role and ask how to obtain the information necessary to evaluate coverage for you. TDI personal-auto review requirements.

What if the insurance card is expired or the insurer denies coverage?

An expired insurance card is a lead to investigate, not a final coverage decision. Ask the listed company whether coverage existed on the actual loss date. If it says there was a lapse, exclusion or other problem, request the written reason, relevant policy provision, effective dates and supporting documents. Keep cancellation and renewal notices and payment records you already possess. Do not recreate or alter a card.

Could a household, employer or umbrella policy matter?

Ask about household coverage, employer or commercial coverage, and umbrella or excess policies when the facts support the inquiry. Explain work use and app activity accurately. A personal policy may treat those uses differently; a platform policy may turn on the activity and trip stage.

Was the person driving permitted, listed, unlisted or specifically excluded?

Identify whether the driver had permission, lived in the policyholder’s household, was listed, was unlisted or was specifically excluded. Those are different facts. Ask which fact the insurer says changes this particular coverage and point it to any contrary record.

Was the vehicle owned, temporarily substituted, borrowed, rented or insured under a nonowner policy?

Record whether the vehicle was owned, borrowed, a temporary substitute, a repair loaner, rented or shared through a platform. Preserve the agreement and the timing of possession. A nonowner policy has its own scope and is not a promise that every car you use is covered.

What if two or more policies may apply in different orders?

If two policies may apply, notify the relevant insurers promptly and ask each to explain its position. Identify “other insurance,” primary, excess, exclusions and applicable limits. The order of payment may require comparison of both contracts and governing law. One adjuster calling another company “primary” does not finish that analysis.

Once the policy list is assembled, use the coverage topics in this chapter to identify the particular payment route. No one entry on the list is a promise of coverage.

Could a named-driver exclusion affect PIP or UM/UIM as well as liability?

A named-driver exclusion can raise questions beyond liability coverage. TDI’s checklist says an exclusion intended to apply to PIP and UM/UIM must also include rejection of those coverages. Obtain the actual accepted exclusion and rejection language; do not assume that being unlisted is the same as being expressly excluded. TDI named-driver exclusion requirements.

How can I find out how much insurance the other driver has?

Ask for the actual insurer, applicable policy and limits, and keep the response. Start with the insurance information exchanged after the wreck and the claim number. Request identification of the liability policy in force on the crash date and any other coverage the facts suggest. An insurance card generally identifies coverage information; it does not show every term or the complete available insurance program.

A request before a lawsuit and formal discovery after a lawsuit are different processes. In Texas civil litigation, applicable insurance and indemnity agreements can be discoverable under Rule 192.3(f); disclosure duties and timing depend on the court and governing rules. Discoverability does not itself make the agreement admissible at trial. Do not assume an informal request gives you an automatic pre-suit disclosure deadline. Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, Rules 192.3(f) and 194.2.

If the insurer will not supply the information, record what you asked and what it said. Bring the available documents to a consultation, especially before signing a release or accepting a claim that the minimum is all that exists. A car’s appearance, the driver’s job or an insurer’s familiar name is not reliable proof of its limits. Commercial carrier filings require additional care; use the commercial-filings answer rather than treating a public entry as a complete policy.

What if the same insurance company insures both drivers?

Keep the two policies, claims and insurer roles separate. The company may be handling your own collision, PIP or UM/UIM benefits while also evaluating a liability claim against its other insured. Ask which policy and coverage each conversation concerns, who is handling it and what claim number to use. Save a clear record rather than assuming information sent for one coverage resolved the other.

Your own policy can impose notice and cooperation duties. A request made while the company is evaluating the other driver’s liability raises different questions. Before a recorded statement, medical authorization or release, identify the role and purpose. The recorded-statement FAQ explains the statement issue. A familiar company logo does not make every request harmless, and the shared insurer does not by itself prove a conflict or misconduct.

If a lawyer has been assigned, ask whom that lawyer represents and what work the engagement covers. A lawyer defending you against a claim does not automatically undertake your injury claim. Texas ethics guidance addresses a same-insurer situation by examining the actual interests and representation, not by treating the shared insurer alone as disqualifying. Texas Professional Ethics Opinion 659; TDI coverage guide.

Could an MCS-90 matter even if the trucking insurer denies ordinary policy coverage?

Yes, it can be a separate route to investigate after an ordinary coverage denial. An MCS-90 is a federal public-protection endorsement attached to a motor carrier’s liability policy. Its payment obligation can apply despite a policy restriction that would defeat ordinary coverage. It is not an automatic additional policy limit.

Obtain the signed endorsement and policy for the crash date. Check the named motor carrier, effective dates, stated amount, primary or excess selection, and the operation involved. The form addresses qualifying final judgments against the insured motor carrier arising from negligent operation, maintenance or use of vehicles subject to the federal financial-responsibility requirements. Employee injuries in the course of employment and the insured’s transported cargo are excluded. The insured may owe reimbursement for a payment required only by the endorsement. Official MCS-90 endorsement.

The actual trip matters. In Canal Insurance v. Coleman, the Fifth Circuit applied a trip-specific inquiry and relied on a stipulation that the truck was not transporting property. It expressly declined to say a tractor without a trailer could never be transporting property. A Texas-only leg, empty trailer or return trip needs factual analysis, not a blanket rejection. Canal Insurance v. Coleman.

The endorsement is not immediate medical-payments coverage and does not itself promise a defense. A denial, deductible or retained layer should prompt review of both the policy and any applicable federal obligation. Keep work-related injury benefits, commercial trip records and the ordinary policy claim moving while that review occurs.

How do self-insurance, a self-insured retention and a deductible affect who handles my claim?

Ask what the company means when it says it is “self-insured.” Three different arrangements may be involved:

• Approved self-insurance is a regulator’s authorization to demonstrate financial responsibility through the carrier’s financial resources and approved arrangements rather than a conventional policy alone. Ask for the actual authorization, its dates, conditions and supporting security. Federal approval can involve reserves, trust funds, guarantees or excess coverage. 49 C.F.R. §387.309.
• A self-insured retention, or SIR, is an amount the insured retains under a particular contract before specified insurer obligations attach. The wording determines what satisfies it and when defense or payment duties begin.
• A deductible allocates an amount of loss to the insured under the policy. Do not assume it gives the company the same claims-handling duties or delays insurer obligations in the same way as an SIR.

An SIR dispute turns on the actual contract and proof of qualifying expenditures. A federal Texas decision applying one policy required a breakdown of defense expenses to establish exhaustion; it does not supply the terms of every commercial policy. Energy Resources v. Petroleum Solutions, SIR discussion at pages 25–27.

For your claim, identify:

• Whether the contact works for an insurer, the business or a third-party administrator, and who can authorize settlement.
• Whether the retention applies per claim or per occurrence, what counts toward it, who may satisfy it, and what has been paid.
• Whether defense expenses count toward the retention, with the exact provision and supporting ledger.
• Which excess insurers have received notice and what each says about attachment.

A company saying “we handle the first part” proves neither that no insurance exists nor that a regulator approved self-insurance. Request the documents and a written explanation. Use insurance layers and remaining limits to map the available sources rather than adding the retained amount to a quoted limit automatically.

What do public carrier insurance filings establish, and what is still missing?

Public filings can identify an insurer or approved financial-responsibility arrangement, but they usually do not show the entire insurance program. Begin with the exact legal carrier name, USDOT number and any MC or TxDMV number. Match the tractor, trailer and operating carrier to the trip rather than searching only a brand name.

Use the official FMCSA registration and insurance resources and TxDMV motor-carrier information. Save the record and search date. Ask for historical information covering the wreck date, including insurer names, effective dates, cancellation notices and replacement filings. Today’s active listing does not settle what existed when the crash occurred. Repeated or replacement rows are not amounts to add together.

A BMC-91 or BMC-91X is evidence filed with FMCSA. An MCS-90 is an endorsement attached to the policy. They serve different functions, and neither should be mistaken for the complete policy, all endorsements or every excess layer. 49 C.F.R. §387.311, forms and filing distinctions.

For carriers subject to §387.7, proof of the required minimum financial responsibility must be produced for public review on reasonable request. That rule identifies particular proof, including an MCS-90, surety bond or self-insurance authorization. It does not create unrestricted pre-suit access to every policy document. 49 C.F.R. §387.7(d)–(e).

Continue with this guide’s instructions for obtaining the declarations and full policy. Request the applicable contracts, named-insured schedules, exclusions, retained amounts, excess policies and written coverage positions. A public filing is a useful lead, not the final coverage decision.

Does a freight broker’s $75,000 bond pay my crash injuries?

Do not treat the broker’s bond as a $75,000 injury-insurance fund. The federal property-broker bond or trust is financial security for qualifying freight-payment obligations. FMCSA lists BMC-84 surety bonds and BMC-85 trust agreements separately from motor-carrier bodily-injury and property-damage insurance. FMCSA insurance filing requirements; 49 C.F.R. §387.307.

Identify the broker’s actual role, whether there is a legally supported claim against it, and any liability policy that could cover that claim. Ask for the insurer, policy period, insured entities, exclusions and limits rather than assuming a registration entry proves coverage or fault.

Having a bond does not itself establish negligent selection, and the bond’s amount does not set the value of an injury claim.

Is this policy for public liability, cargo, the truck itself or an injured employee?

Match each document to the loss it is meant to address. “Truck insurance” can describe several different products:

• Bodily-injury and property-damage liability, often called BIPD or public liability, addresses the insured’s covered liability to others. The federal public-liability definition also includes environmental restoration. The MCS-90 excludes the insured’s cargo and employee injuries in the course of employment. 49 C.F.R. §387.5; MCS-90 terms.
• Cargo insurance concerns freight carried by the business. The federal household-goods filing minimum is $5,000 for loss involving one motor vehicle and $10,000 for the specified one-time-and-place aggregate. Those figures are cargo protection, not limits for an injured motorist. 49 C.F.R. §387.303T(c).
• Physical-damage coverage concerns the truck or trailer itself. A repair payment under that coverage does not identify the liability protection available to another road user.
• Workers compensation or occupational-accident coverage concerns an injured worker. Obtain the actual plan; the two are not interchangeable.
• Bobtail or non-trucking-use coverage requires the actual endorsement and trip facts. An empty truck is not necessarily on personal business.
• Excess or umbrella coverage may add a higher layer subject to its own attachment terms, definitions and exclusions. See how insurance layers work.

Record the policy purpose beside each insurer and claim number. If someone sends a cargo certificate in response to an injury-coverage inquiry, ask specifically for the public-liability policy and applicable higher layers.

Attorney reviewed by Jacob Alford · November 11, 2026