California law requires you to maintain bodily injury liability insurance in case you injure someone in a car accident. It pays the other party’s
- medical bills,
- lost wages, and
- other damages from physical injuries,
up to your policy limit.
In California, you must carry a minimum of “15/30” bodily injury liability. This means that for any single accident, your auto insurance will cover up to:
- $15,000 for wrongful death or bodily injury of one person; or
- $30,000 for wrongful death or bodily liability of all people hurt or killed in the accident 1
Bodily injury liability insurance does not cover:
- property damage and car repairs,
- injuries to you or your passengers, or
- damages above and beyond your policy limit.
You are personally liable for damages not covered by your liability insurance. Therefore, we strongly recommend that you purchase policies with higher limits than the state minimum limits if you can afford them.
To help you better understand bodily injury liability insurance, our California personal injury lawyers discuss the following, below:
- 1. What does bodily injury liability insurance cover?
- 2. What is NOT covered?
- 3. Is liability insurance mandatory?
- 4. How much liability insurance do I need?
- 5. How do I make a claim?
- 6. What if I was partially at fault?
- 7. When do I need a lawyer?
- Additional reading
You may also wish to review our article, 15 Steps to Take After a Car Accident in California.
1. What does bodily injury liability insurance cover?
If you are injured in an accident, the at-fault driver’s California bodily injury liability insurance pays your medical bills.
Losses included in bodily injury liability coverage can include (but are not limited to):
- Ambulance costs;
- Emergency room charges;
- Doctor’s bills and other medical expenses;
- Hospital bills and other medical payments;
- Chiropractor bills;
- Physical or occupational therapy;
- X-rays and MRIs;
- Short- or long-term care (such as home health aides);
- Prosthetics;
- Dental expenses resulting from broken teeth; and
- Funeral expenses.
Bodily injury liability insurance also covers your past lost wages and future lost earning capacity if your injuries prevent you from working.2
2. What is NOT covered?
Damages in excess of policy limits
Bodily injury liability insurance will pay damages up to the limits of the policy. If you are at fault for an accident, you are personally liable for any amounts in excess of this limit.3
Car repair bills and other property damage
Bodily injury liability insurance does not cover car repair bills or damages to other property, such as fences or gates. You are required by law to carry property damage liability insurance (“collision coverage”) in addition to bodily liability insurance to cover such losses.
Bodily injury liability insurance and property damage liability coverage are often collectively referred to by three numbers, such as 15/30/5. These numbers mean that your liability coverage for any given accident is:
- $15,000 for bodily injuries to any one person;
- $30,000 collectively for bodily injury to more than one person; and
- $5,000 for property damage.4
Note that “comprehensive coverage” covers car damage resulting from things other than crashes, such as vandalism. It can also reimburse you if your car gets stolen, which is an important consideration since California consistently ranks number one for car thefts according to the Insurance Information Institute.
You are always advised to get additional coverage on your auto insurance policy.
Injuries to you or your passengers
Liability insurance is a form of third-party insurance that covers damages sustained by
- pedestrians or
- people in other vehicles
that you hit. It applies when you are at fault for the accident. It does not cover
- your own injuries or
- property damage.
Several types of insurance may be available to pay for injuries sustained by you or your passengers:
- Your personal health insurance;
- The other driver’s bodily injury liability insurance (if the other driver was wholly or partially at fault);
- Optional California “Med Pay” insurance (which applies to you and your passengers regardless of fault); and
- Optional California uninsured motorist property damage coverage / uninsured motorist bodily injury coverage / underinsured motorist coverage (which pays if the other underinsured or uninsured driver is wholly or partially at fault).
Additionally, if the other driver was wholly or partially at fault, they may be personally liable for damages under California’s “shared fault” law.5
3. Is liability insurance mandatory?
Yes. California law requires you to maintain bodily injury liability insurance with a minimum of 15/30/5 limits.
Such insurance also covers:
- Someone other than you who drives a covered vehicle with your permission; and
- You while driving another vehicle (for instance, a rental vehicle).6
4. How much liability insurance do I need?
If you have few assets and a low income, you may be alright with California’s minimum liability insurance of 15/30/5.
Though if you have a home, stocks, jewelry, art, equipment or even a steady paycheck, you will often need more. Injuries from an accident can cost tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.7
CarInsurance.com recommends the following policy limits as a guide:
- 50/100/50: Best if you have few assets, do not drive much, and are on a tight budget — for instance college students and retirees.
- 100/300/100: Appropriate if you are a middle-income earner with a typical level of savings.
- 250/500/100: Best if you own a home or have significant assets or savings.
You may also wish to purchase a California personal umbrella insurance policy to extend your protection by $1 million or more. An umbrella policy is relatively inexpensive and provides extra insurance for all policies of insurance (not just auto liability) which you maintain at the maximum available limit.
Costs of bodily injury insurance
Insurance can run from the low hundreds to more than a thousand per policy period. The price of your policy depends on many things, such as:
- your age
- your driving history
- your vehicle
- the age of your vehicle
- whether you had lapsed insurance in the past (which will raise your premium)
Insurers may not take your credit score into account when deciding your premium.
5. How do I make a claim?
California Vehicle Code 16000 requires you to report an accident on a California DMV Form SR1 within 10 days of an accident if:
- Anyone was killed or injured (even if the injury was minor), or
- There was property damage of more than $1,000.8
Most policies of insurance also contain the obligation to notify them promptly if you are involved in an accident. Once the insurance company receives notice, it will assign a claims adjuster.
The claims adjuster will investigate the accident to determine who was at fault. During the investigation the adjuster may:
- Take your statement;
- Speak to the other driver (or more likely the other driver’s insurance adjuster or lawyer);
- Review police reports (if any);
- Speak to witnesses;
- Inspect the damaged vehicles and accident scene or photos; and/or
- Review medical records of anyone claiming injuries.
6. What if I was partially at fault?
Under California’s “shared fault” / “comparative negligence” law, blame for an accident can be apportioned to more than one party.9 Even if you share part of the blame, you still could be entitled to recover some of your own damages, such as your
- medical bills or
- lost wages or
- the cost of repairing your car.
Having an experienced California injury lawyer can help ensure that you are assigned the least blame possible.
7. When do I need a lawyer?
Insurance adjusters work for the automobile insurance company. In many cases, their interests will align with yours – at least initially. They, too, would prefer that another insurance company be liable for damages.
However, they are not interested in getting you the largest settlement, especially if they are the ones paying — either because
- the accident was the other party’s fault or
- you are making a claim under your uninsured / underinsured motorist policy.
The adjuster’s only job is to keep the insurance company’s costs down. This can mean denying or delaying your claim in the hope that you will simply go away. Often they will not even take the time to
- properly investigate the claim and
- learn what really happened.
Or the adjuster will pressure you to accept less than your claim is worth.
Hiring your own lawyer is the best way to ensure that YOUR interests are protected. An experienced California accident lawyer will
- independently investigate the accident and
- fight for your interests.
If you need medical care, your lawyer will help you find it. Your lawyer will also make sure that your settlement agreement is not just boilerplate that protects the insurance company’s interests at the expense of your own.
Suppose you need to take your case to a California jury trial. In that case, your California car accident lawyer will make sure the jury hears your side of the story in the most sympathetic way possible.
Additional reading
For more in-depth information, refer to these scholarly articles:
- When Bodily Injury Limits are Stacked Jurisprudential Consistency Topples – Illinois University Law Journal.
- Determining the Scope of Bodily Injury or Property Damage under the Comprehensive General Liability Policy – Idaho Law Review.
- Costly State Falsification or Verification? Theory and Evidence from Bodily Injury Liability Claims – Automobile Insurance: Road Safety, New Drivers, Risks, Insurance Fraud and Regulation.
- Litigation Patterns in Automobile Bodily Injury Claims 1977–1997: Effects of Time and Tort Reforms – Journal of Risk and Insurance.
- Periodic Payments of Bodily Injury Awards – American Bar Association Journal.
Legal references:
- California Insurance Code §11580.1b. Auto Insurance Requirements, California DMV.
- What does Car Insurance Cover? Nerdwallet.com.
- See also 21st Century Ins. Co. v. Superior Court (. , 2015)
- See note 1.
- See, for example, Li v. Yellow Cab Co. (1975) 13 Cal.3rd 804.
- See note 1.
- See note 1.
- California Vehicle Code 16000 VC.
- See note 5.