Wyoming Casualty Study Guide

Two Wyoming rules run backwards from what every national outline teaches, and both are on this chapter. Uninsured motorist coverage is mandatory in the policy rather than merely offered — and rejecting it requires no writing at all. Then workers’ compensation, which in Wyoming is not a product a producer sells.

The liability floor

25/50/20 — $25,000 for bodily injury to or death of one person, $50,000 for two or more persons, $20,000 for injury to or destruction of the property of others, per accident, applying within the United States and Canada (W.S. 31-9-405(b)(ii)).

Note the third figure. Wyoming’s property damage minimum is $20,000, not the $25,000 several neighbouring states use. And note where the numbers live: the offence section, W.S. 31-4-103, does not state them — it points to 31-9-405(b). Cite the section that carries the figure.

Uninsured motorist — mandatory, and rejectable in silence

W.S. 31-10-101 is one sentence long in substance and it does two things national material gets wrong.

First, UM is not a mandatory offer. It is mandatory coverage. No policy insuring against motor vehicle liability “shall be delivered or issued for delivery in this state… unless coverage is provided therein or supplemental thereto” for UM, at the bodily injury limits in W.S. 31-9-102(a)(xi). That is a mandate on the policy form itself.

Second — and this is the point most likely to be wrong in whatever guide you were using before — the rejection needs no writing. The statute says simply: “The named insured may reject the coverage.” No form is prescribed. No signature is required. No writing is mentioned.

The writing requirement exists, but it runs the other way. Once rejected, the coverage “need not be provided in or supplemental to a renewal policy where the named insured had rejected the coverage in connection with the policy previously issued to him by the same insurer” — unless the named insured requests the coverage in writing.

Underinsured motorist is simply not in the statute

Title 31 chapter 10 has exactly four sections: required coverage and rejection; the scope of the term “uninsured motor vehicle”; insolvency protection; and subrogation.

W.S. 31-10-102 extends “uninsured motor vehicle” to an insured vehicle where the liability insurer “is unable to make payment… because of insolvency” — insolvency only. It does not reach a vehicle whose limits are merely inadequate for the loss, which is the whole idea of underinsurance.

So Wyoming’s code contains no UIM mandate and no UIM offer requirement. UIM here is a matter of contract between insurer and insured. A question that assumes Wyoming requires an offer of UIM is testing another state’s rule.

Driving uninsured, and proving you are not

W.S. 31-4-103 makes it a misdemeanor: imprisonment not more than 6 months, a fine of not less than $500 nor more than $1,500, or both. On a second or subsequent violation the judge must require delivery of the vehicle registration and licence plates to the county treasurer, held until the defendant satisfies all legal obligations.

Once proof of financial responsibility is required, it “shall be maintained for three (3) years from the date it is required” (W.S. 31-9-401). The certificate-of-insurance filing at W.S. 31-9-403 is Wyoming’s SR-22 analogue, and alternatives to a policy exist — surety bonds under 31-9-408 and cash or securities deposited with the director under 31-9-409.

Salvage has two triggers and only one percentage

W.S. 31-2-106 defines a salvage vehicle as one wrecked, destroyed or damaged to the extent that it “has been declared a total loss by the insurance company or, in the event an insurance company is not involved in the settlement of the claim, the total estimated or actual cost of parts and labor to rebuild or reconstruct the motor vehicle… exceeds seventy-five percent (75%) of the actual retail cash value.”

Read the two limbs. Where an insurer is involved, the trigger is the insurer’s declaration and there is no percentage at all. The 75% applies only where no insurance company is involved in the settlement. Writing “Wyoming’s salvage threshold is 75%” without that qualifier states the minority case as the rule.

Workers’ compensation is a state fund, not a product

This is the largest single difference between Wyoming and almost everywhere else, and it starts in the constitution rather than the insurance code. Article 10, section 4(c) obliges the State to maintain a fund for compensation for extrahazardous employments, and restricts what the fund’s money may be spent on. Because the obligation is tied to a State-maintained fund rather than to a market, the fund is monopolistic.

W.S. 27-14-201(a) carries the machinery: the programme “shall be neither more nor less than self-supporting,” employments are divided by the Division into classes whose rates “may be readjusted annually as the division actuarially determines” — permissive, not mandatory, and “for payment of compensation, the worker’s compensation account shall be one and indivisible.” The Division is regulator, rate-maker and carrier at once.

Coverage is compulsory only for extrahazardous employment, and Wyoming defines that by NAICS sector at W.S. 27-14-108(a)(ii) — not by employee count. Employers outside those sectors may elect coverage under (j), and an election “may only elect to cover all his employees”: all-or-nothing, no selecting. Officers, LLC members and partners elect under (k) with an eight-quarter lock-in.

Exclusive remedy under W.S. 27-14-104 is conditioned on the employer “making contributions required by this act” — and it has two carve-outs worth knowing: it does not protect co-employees who intentionally act to cause physical harm, and immunity is lost where the employer failed to qualify for coverage or has not paid required premiums within 30 days of the due date. A proviso rides with the second limb: where the employee’s employment starts in the same month as the injury, delinquency does not apply until after the regular payroll reporting date.