50-State Auto Insurance Minimums Matrix: Coverage and Case Value (2026)

What This Matrix Is (and Isn't)

This is the most complete state-by-state reference on U.S. auto-insurance minimums maintained by a legal-funding company, current as of January 2026. It exists because plaintiffs, attorneys, and underwriters all repeatedly need the same information in the same place: what is the minimum bodily-injury liability coverage in every U.S. state, what is the minimum property-damage liability, is uninsured-motorist coverage required, and are there structural quirks (no-fault, choice tort, contributory negligence) that materially affect case value.

Nothing in this matrix is legal or insurance advice. State insurance regulations change; this matrix reflects statutory minimums, not the coverage limits any particular driver has actually purchased. When a real case is on the line, verify the specific policy's declarations page with the plaintiff's attorney and the carrier.

How to Read This Matrix

• BI per person: Bodily-injury liability coverage per injured person.
• BI per accident: Aggregate bodily-injury liability across all injured people in one accident.
• PD: Property-damage liability per accident.
• UM required: Whether uninsured-motorist coverage is mandatory as part of the policy. Where "No," UM is typically offered and must be rejected in writing.
• PIP / MedPay: Personal-injury protection or medical-payments coverage, and whether it is required or optional.
• Notes: Structural features unique to the state's system.

The 50-State + D.C. Matrix

State	BI / person	BI / accident	PD	UM required	Notes
Alabama	$25,000	$50,000	$25,000	No	At-fault; UM offered, may reject in writing
Alaska	$50,000	$100,000	$25,000	No	At-fault; UM offered
Arizona	$25,000	$50,000	$15,000	No	At-fault; UM/UIM offered
Arkansas	$25,000	$50,000	$25,000	No	PIP $5,000 offered
California	$30,000	$60,000	$15,000	No	Prop 213 bars uninsured plaintiffs from non-economic damages
Colorado	$25,000	$50,000	$15,000	No	At-fault; MedPay $5,000 offered
Connecticut	$25,000	$50,000	$25,000	Yes	UM required
Delaware	$25,000	$50,000	$10,000	No	PIP $15,000/$30,000 required
Florida	$10,000 (PD)	—	$10,000	No	No-fault; PIP $10,000 required; no BI required unless DUI/prior
Georgia	$25,000	$50,000	$25,000	No	At-fault
Hawaii	$20,000	$40,000	$10,000	No	No-fault; PIP $10,000
Idaho	$25,000	$50,000	$15,000	No	At-fault
Illinois	$25,000	$50,000	$20,000	Yes	UM required
Indiana	$25,000	$50,000	$25,000	No	At-fault
Iowa	$20,000	$40,000	$15,000	No	At-fault; UM/UIM offered
Kansas	$25,000	$50,000	$25,000	Yes	No-fault; PIP $4,500 required; UM required
Kentucky	$25,000	$50,000	$25,000	No	Choice no-fault; PIP $10,000 unless rejected
Louisiana	$15,000	$30,000	$25,000	No	At-fault; direct action against insurer
Maine	$50,000	$100,000	$25,000	Yes	UM required; MedPay $2,000 required
Maryland	$30,000	$60,000	$15,000	Yes	UM/UIM required; PIP $2,500 unless waived
Massachusetts	$20,000	$40,000	$5,000	Yes	No-fault; PIP $8,000 required
Michigan	$50,000	$100,000	$10,000	Yes	No-fault; unlimited or capped PIP under 2019 reform
Minnesota	$30,000	$60,000	$10,000	Yes	No-fault; PIP $40,000 ($20K medical / $20K wage)
Mississippi	$25,000	$50,000	$25,000	No	At-fault
Missouri	$25,000	$50,000	$25,000	Yes	UM required
Montana	$25,000	$50,000	$20,000	No	At-fault
Nebraska	$25,000	$50,000	$25,000	Yes	UM required
Nevada	$25,000	$50,000	$20,000	No	At-fault
New Hampshire	—	—	—	No	Optional coverage state; financial responsibility only
New Jersey	$15,000	$30,000	$5,000	Yes	No-fault; PIP $15,000; Basic vs Standard Policy choice
New Mexico	$25,000	$50,000	$10,000	No	At-fault
New York	$25,000	$50,000	$10,000	Yes	No-fault; PIP $50,000; CPLR §5031 collateral-source rules
North Carolina	$30,000	$60,000	$25,000	Yes	Contributory negligence — 1% at fault bars recovery
North Dakota	$25,000	$50,000	$25,000	Yes	No-fault; PIP $30,000
Ohio	$25,000	$50,000	$25,000	No	At-fault
Oklahoma	$25,000	$50,000	$25,000	No	At-fault
Oregon	$25,000	$50,000	$20,000	Yes	PIP $15,000 required; UM/UIM required
Pennsylvania	$15,000	$30,000	$5,000	No	Choice tort: Full vs Limited under MVFRL §1705
Rhode Island	$25,000	$50,000	$25,000	No	At-fault
South Carolina	$25,000	$50,000	$25,000	Yes	UM required
South Dakota	$25,000	$50,000	$25,000	Yes	UM required
Tennessee	$25,000	$50,000	$15,000	No	At-fault
Texas	$30,000	$60,000	$25,000	No	At-fault; UM/UIM and PIP $2,500 offered
Utah	$25,000	$65,000	$15,000	No	No-fault; PIP $3,000
Vermont	$25,000	$50,000	$10,000	Yes	UM/UIM required
Virginia	$30,000	$60,000	$20,000	Yes	Contributory negligence — 1% at fault bars recovery; UM required
Washington	$25,000	$50,000	$10,000	No	At-fault; PIP $10,000 offered
West Virginia	$25,000	$50,000	$25,000	Yes	UM required
Wisconsin	$25,000	$50,000	$10,000	Yes	UM required; MedPay $1,000 offered
Wyoming	$25,000	$50,000	$20,000	No	At-fault
Washington D.C.	$25,000	$50,000	$10,000	Yes	No-fault option; UM required; contributory negligence

Structural Categories That Matter for Case Value

No-fault states (12 + D.C.)

Florida, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky (choice), Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey (choice), New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania (choice tort), Utah, and D.C. operate on some form of no-fault. In no-fault states, each driver's own PIP coverage pays first-party medical and often wage-loss benefits regardless of fault. A tort claim against the at-fault driver typically requires the injury to cross a threshold — either monetary (a specific dollar figure of medical expense) or verbal (a serious-injury description).

For funding purposes, no-fault states require the underwriter to look at whether the plaintiff has crossed the threshold. A soft-tissue injury with $3,000 in bills has one settlement value in Georgia and a very different (much lower) value in Kentucky.

Choice tort systems (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Kentucky)

Three states let drivers elect at policy inception between a fuller-tort option and a limited-tort option. The election dramatically affects pain-and-suffering recovery. Pennsylvania's system is described in detail in our Pennsylvania funding guide. New Jersey's Basic vs Standard policy operates similarly, as does Kentucky's no-fault election.

Contributory-negligence states (Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, D.C.)

Five jurisdictions still follow pure contributory negligence — if the plaintiff is even 1% at fault, recovery is barred entirely. This is one of the most consequential rules in American tort law for case value. Funders underwrite these cases much more conservatively because a small liability wrinkle can zero out the case.

Modified comparative negligence 50% bar

Most states use a modified comparative negligence rule, either "50% bar" (plaintiff recovers only if less than or equal to 50% at fault) or "51% bar" (plaintiff recovers only if less than 50% at fault). Recovery is reduced by the plaintiff's share of fault. Roughly 33 states follow one of these variants.

Pure comparative negligence

Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and Washington follow pure comparative negligence — the plaintiff can recover even if 99% at fault, though the recovery is reduced accordingly. This is generally the most plaintiff-friendly rule.

UM/UIM: the second most important coverage

When the at-fault driver is uninsured or has minimum-limits coverage insufficient for the injury, the plaintiff's own uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage becomes the primary source of recovery. For a plaintiff with major injuries, UM/UIM coverage is often the difference between a $25,000 policy-limits settlement and a $500,000 recovery. See our companion piece on UM/UIM coverage for the mechanics.

Why State Minimums Matter for Pre-Settlement Funding

Funders underwrite against the available money, not the theoretical value of the claim. That means the following, in order of importance:

1. What is the at-fault driver's policy limit? If it is the state minimum, the case value is capped at that number — no matter how catastrophic the injuries.
2. Does the plaintiff have UM/UIM coverage? If yes, and the injuries exceed the at-fault driver's coverage, UM/UIM stacks on top.
3. Are there other defendants? A commercial vehicle, a bar with dram-shop liability, a road defect against a municipality, or a product-defect against a manufacturer can dramatically expand the recovery pool.
4. Is the plaintiff's own coverage sufficient for medical and wage benefits? Robust PIP or MedPay reduces the plaintiff's out-of-pocket exposure during the case and thus reduces the urgency of funding.

A responsible funder builds its offer around the expected net recovery to the plaintiff, which is a function of all four questions above. For a deeper dive into the underwriting arithmetic, see our companion piece on the 12 underwriting factors funders use. For the process of getting funding once a case is filed, see how pre-settlement funding actually works.

Practical Tips for Plaintiffs

• Get the declarations page early. Your attorney can typically obtain the at-fault driver's policy declarations within 30–60 days of retention. Do not wait — the coverage number is the ceiling.
• Check your own policy for UM/UIM. This is often the single most valuable coverage on your policy and the one most drivers do not think about until it matters.
• If the state is contributory-negligence, be especially careful with fault admissions. Off-hand statements to the responding officer or the other driver's insurer can end a case.
• Do not let your own coverage lapse mid-case. In California under Proposition 213, an uninsured driver is barred from recovering non-economic damages even against a clearly at-fault other driver.

Interstate Accidents and Cross-Border Coverage

Auto policies sold in the U.S. contain a "broadening" or "state-of-loss" clause that typically raises the policy's liability limits to meet the minimums of the state where the accident occurs. A driver from Pennsylvania (state minimum $15,000/$30,000) who has an accident in Alaska is, for that accident, treated as if they carried Alaska's $50,000/$100,000 minimum. The mechanics vary by carrier and policy form, but the practical effect is that the state where the accident happened typically controls the minimum floor of coverage available.

This matters for two reasons. First, the venue and choice-of-law analysis for the underlying tort claim usually points to the state of accident as well, so the substantive rules that govern the case (fault system, comparative-negligence rule, damages caps) also come from the accident-state. Second, plaintiffs whose home state is a low-minimum jurisdiction can occasionally recover more if the accident happened in a high-minimum state — an issue worth surfacing early with the attorney.

Recent Reform Waves to Watch

Three reform waves have reshaped the state-minimums landscape in the last decade and continue to move:

• Michigan's 2019 no-fault reform. Michigan replaced its historically unlimited PIP benefit with a tiered choice: unlimited, $500,000, $250,000, $250,000-with-Medicare-coordination, or $50,000 for Medicaid enrollees. The reform has had complex downstream effects on medical-provider billing and on the value of long-tail catastrophic-injury cases, and litigation over the reform's application continues.
• Florida's HB 837 (2023) tort reform. Florida sharply reduced its statute of limitations for negligence from four years to two, tightened the standard for bad-faith insurance claims, and restructured comparative-negligence rules. The reform materially changed the value profile of Florida cases and continues to affect settlement expectations. See our forthcoming Florida HB 837 guide for the specifics.
• Ongoing minimum-limits pressure. A handful of states (California among them) are considering raising their statutory minimums to reflect inflation in medical costs. Until they do, the $15,000/$30,000 and $25,000/$50,000 floors leave a substantial gap between statutory coverage and real-world medical bills.

Final Word

Auto-insurance state minimums are the floor of the U.S. tort-recovery system. In practice, they are also the ceiling in a majority of cases — because most drivers carry the minimum. For a plaintiff facing a serious injury, the honest financial planning starts with three questions: what is the at-fault driver's coverage, what is my own UM/UIM, and are there other pockets? Answer those and the funding conversation becomes concrete rather than speculative.

If your case is filed and you would like a funding analysis that starts with those three questions, apply for a pre-settlement advance or ask your attorney to route it through our attorney portal. We work in all fifty states and D.C., and our underwriting reflects the specific rules of the state your case sits in.