HB 97 New Mexico House · 2025 Regular Session

INSURANCE AGAINST UNINSURED MOTORISTS

HB 97 would increase New Mexico's minimum auto insurance requirements for uninsured and underinsured motorists, raising bodily injury coverage from $25,000/$50,000 per accident to $50,000/$100,000 per accident, while keeping property damage coverage at $10,000. The bill mandates that all auto insurance policies sold in New Mexico must include this coverage by default, with drivers able to opt out in writing. It also clarifies that "underinsured" applies when another driver's coverage is less than the insured's uninsured motorist limits. The bill would take effect January 1, 2026, but was postponed indefinitely in June 2025 and remains pending.

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Jan 15, 2025 Last action Jun 3, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

introduced version → TP substitute · 4 edits

MODERATE

This bill amends New Mexico's uninsured and underinsured motorist insurance laws by clarifying definitions, removing outdated provisions, and establishing a new effective date of January 1, 2026. The changes modernize the statute by deleting obsolete language from 1978 and updating how underinsured motorist coverage is defined and applied.

Scope change

The bill maintains the same general scope of requiring minimum insurance coverage but modifies the statutory language to remove outdated provisions and clarify definitions.

DEFINITION

Updated the definition of 'underinsured motorist' to clarify that it refers to situations where the at-fault driver's liability limits are less than the insured's own uninsured motorist coverage limits.

REQUIREMENT

Deleted an obsolete provision requiring underinsured motorist coverage until January 1, 1980, which is no longer relevant.

TIMELINE

Established a new effective date of January 1, 2026 for the provisions of this act.

TECHNICAL

Reorganized and cleaned up statutory language to remove bracketed deletions and formatting inconsistencies from the original 1978 version.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Mar 11, 2025

Lower · Passed

DO NOT PASS, replaced with committee substitute

lower

Jan 23, 2025

Introduced

Sent to House Transportation, Public Works & Capital Improvements Committee & House Commerce & Economic Development Committee

lower

Jan 15, 2025

Introduced

Sent to House Pre-file

lower

3 primary · 0 co-sponsors