WYOMING GUIDE 02

Required Auto Insurance, Minimum Limits & Mandatory Coverage

Wyoming law establishes minimum automobile liability protection and requires uninsured-motorist coverage unless the named insured rejects it. Insurance contracts may provide broader protection, but the statutory floor and the written policy must be analyzed separately.

Current Wyoming Minimum Liability Limits

These limits are commonly described as 25/50/20.

Minimum Insurance Is Not Maximum Damages

The statutory minimum limits describe the minimum financial responsibility required by law.

They do not limit the damages legally caused by a negligent driver.

A seriously injured person may have damages far greater than the available liability insurance. That is why additional liability, umbrella, commercial and UM/UIM coverage must be investigated.

Who Must Be Covered?

Wyoming’s financial-responsibility law provides that an owner’s qualifying liability policy generally protects:

the named insured; and
other persons using the covered vehicle with the named insured’s express or implied permission, subject to lawful exclusions.

Permission and specifically excluded drivers therefore remain critical coverage questions.

Liability, UM and UIM Are Different

Coverage	Wyoming Rule
Liability	Wyoming generally requires owners of registered vehicles to maintain the statutory liability protection or another qualifying financial-responsibility arrangement.
UM	Uninsured-motorist bodily-injury protection must be provided with qualifying Wyoming auto policies unless the named insured rejects the coverage.
UIM	Wyoming does not statutorily require underinsured-motorist coverage. If UIM exists, the contract determines its scope.
MedPay	Examine the policy. MedPay is a separate first-party coverage and should not be assumed merely from the existence of liability insurance.

UM Can Be Rejected

Wyoming requires uninsured-motorist coverage unless the named insured rejects it.

If the named insured previously rejected UM coverage with the same insurer, Wyoming law does not require the insurer to restore it at renewal unless the named insured requests the coverage in writing.

“Full Coverage” Does Not Tell You What Insurance You Have

Wyoming law does not turn the phrase “full coverage” into a particular insurance package.

A policy may contain liability and UM but no UIM. It may contain collision but no MedPay. The only reliable answer is the actual declarations page, endorsements and policy.

The Public-Policy Rule

Wyoming’s compulsory-insurance law protects more than the contracting parties. It establishes a minimum level of protection for the motoring public.

Because that minimum protection is established by law, an insurer generally cannot use an ordinary policy exclusion to eliminate the statutory minimum when doing so would conflict with Wyoming’s compulsory-insurance policy.

The Two-Level Coverage Analysis

Allstate: The Statutory Minimum Cannot Simply Disappear

Wyoming insurers once attempted to use household exclusions to eliminate liability protection for injuries suffered by insured family or household members.

The Wyoming Supreme Court held that the compulsory-insurance scheme establishes an overriding public policy protecting the statutory minimum.

The household exclusions therefore could not eliminate that legally required minimum protection.

Martin & Pribble: Coverage Above the Floor Is Different

Later Wyoming cases addressed policies that preserved the statutory minimum but excluded household claims above that amount.

The Wyoming Supreme Court enforced those clear limitations.

A $100,000 Declarations-Page Limit Does Not End the Coverage Analysis

A declarations page identifies a policy limit.

It does not tell you by itself whether an exclusion, endorsement, insured-status provision or statutory rule changes the amount applicable to a particular person or claim.