republic-os/legislation/us/states/de/152/sb-139.md

type, title, description, jurisdiction, legislature, session, identifier, citation, classification, subjects, status, primary_sponsors, version_count, action_count, vote_count, first_action, last_action, source, source_identifier, source_url, source_hash, vintage, source_snapshot, retrieved_at, confidence, tags

type	title	description	jurisdiction	legislature	session	identifier	citation	classification	subjects	status	primary_sponsors	version_count	action_count	vote_count	first_action	last_action	source	source_identifier	source_url	source_hash	vintage	source_snapshot	retrieved_at	confidence	tags
Bill	AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 18 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO UNDERINSURANCE MOTORIST COVERAGE.	This Act eliminates the need to file a lawsuit against a person, who has caused injury with the person's vehicle, when that person's liability insurer has offered the limits of liability coverage to the injured person and the injured person’s underinsured motorist insurer either consents to the settlement or fails to timely reply to the request for permission to settle. The goal of this Act is to have fewer lawsuits filed merely to obtain permission to accept liability insurers' offer to settle a claim. This Act is not intended to require any person to seek permission from an underinsured motorist insurer to resolve a bodily injury claim.	us/states/de	Delaware General Assembly	152	SB 139	Delaware SB 139 (152)	bill		enacted	Brian Pettyjohn Bryan Townsend Darius J. Brown John "Jack" Walsh Nicole Poore Spiros Mantzavinos Trey Paradee William Bush	1	7	2	2023-05-19	2023-06-29	openstates	ocd-bill/d0fc050d-5b07-447d-9641-064695b56b6b	https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=140446	284704bff76f72026ab1a68536bcc5684a61deb4de3643f61c0bb86c8d993ae2	2026-07-01	https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump	2026-07-06	reported	legislation bill us-de

Delaware SB 139 (152) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 18 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO UNDERINSURANCE MOTORIST COVERAGE.

This Act eliminates the need to file a lawsuit against a person, who has caused injury with the person's vehicle, when that person's liability insurer has offered the limits of liability coverage to the injured person and the injured person’s underinsured motorist insurer either consents to the settlement or fails to timely reply to the request for permission to settle. The goal of this Act is to have fewer lawsuits filed merely to obtain permission to accept liability insurers' offer to settle a claim. This Act is not intended to require any person to seek permission from an underinsured motorist insurer to resolve a bodily injury claim.

Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. Bill Text (committee substitute) — source

Votes

• SM — 39–0 (pass) · lower
• 2/3 — 21–0 (pass) · upper

Sponsors

• Brian Pettyjohn — primary (person)
• Bryan Townsend — primary (person)
• Darius J. Brown — primary (person)
• John "Jack" Walsh — primary (person)
• Nicole Poore — primary (person)
• Spiros Mantzavinos — primary (person)
• Trey Paradee — primary (person)
• William Bush — primary (person)

Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

• 2023-05-19 Introduced and Assigned to Banking, Business, Insurance & Technology Committee in Senate introduction, referral-committee
• 2023-06-07 Reported Out of Committee (Banking, Business, Insurance & Technology) in Senate with 5 Favorable, 2 On Its Merits committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable
• 2023-06-08 Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES passage
• 2023-06-08 Assigned to Economic Development/Banking/Insurance & Commerce Committee in House introduction, referral-committee
• 2023-06-20 Reported Out of Committee (Economic Development/Banking/Insurance & Commerce) in House with 2 Favorable, 7 On Its Merits committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable
• 2023-06-21 Passed By House. Votes: 39 YES 2 ABSENT passage
• 2023-06-29 Signed by Governor executive-signature

Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot 2026-07-01; origin ocd-bill/d0fc050d-5b07-447d-9641-064695b56b6b. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).