Car Insurance Requirements - Minimum Levels Of Car Insurance By State

It is the responsibility of each motorist to ensure that he/she carry sufficient liability insurance coverage in the event of an accident happening. The liability insurance coverage should be sufficient enough to cover the cost of injuries to people and damage to property in the event of a car accident.

Every state has its own laws and minimum insurance requirements for its residents. Meeting your state’s minimum insurance requirements is all you ever need to legally have your car on the road. But as a responsible driver you need to ask if what the state ask as minimum insurance requirement is sufficient to cover you in case of an accident. Time changes and the economy changes but the state’s law on minimum car insurance requirements may not be adjusted accordingly with changing times and economy. Remember any extra charges that your insurance does not cover will have to be paid by you, and this can as well put you in jail if you fail to pay.

The minimum levels of car insurance are usually in a split limit liability coverage policy that splits the coverage into property damage and bodily injury. For example: a state minimum liability limits, X/Y/Z, of  say, $20,000/$40,000/$15,000 means the insurance company will pay $20,000 of one person’s medical bill. If there are other people injured, then the insurance company will not pay more than $40,000 for their medical bills. This means that if three people are injured each requiring $20,000 medical bills, then the insurance company will have to pay a maximum of $40,000 and the deficit of $20,000 will have to be billed to you. In addition, the insurance company will not pay more than $15,000 for any damage you may have caused to other properties. If you had been involved in an accident where you hit another vehicle, then that other vehicle will have to be paid from the $15,000.

In summary, the split limit liability coverage policy, X/Y/Z, is defined as follows:

1. X: Amounts in thousand of dollars that that will cover bodily injury liability maximum for one person injured in an accident.

2. Y: Amounts in thousand of dollars that that will cover bodily injury liability maximum for all injuries in one accident.

3. Z: Amounts in thousand of dollars that that will cover property damage liability maximum for one accident.

From the example above, one can see that what is called a state’s minimum insurance requirements may not always be sufficient to cover bodily injury liability and property damage liability.

The table below shows the listing of the minimum levels of car insurance by state for every state.

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