No-fault laws are statutes (laws) enacted by state legislatures (elected representatives) that limit a motor vehicle driver’s ability to seek recovery from a negligent driver for personal injuries and property damage.
No-fault laws are based on the idea that all drivers are required to have insurance coverage for their own personal injuries and property damage sustained in motor vehicle accidents. These laws are designed to reduce the number of lawsuits for personal injuries and property damage sustained in motor vehicle accidents.
No-fault laws vary from state to state in the states that have some form of these laws. No-fault laws usually require a driver who sustains personal injuries and property damage in a motor vehicle accident to recover the losses from the driver’s own insurance company (insurer) through Personal Injury Protection (PIP) coverage. Noneconomic damages such as pain and suffering are usually not recoverable in no-fault states.
In some states a driver or passenger who has sustained personal injuries and property damage may file a mini-tort claim with the negligent driver’s no-fault insurance carrier and receive a limited amount of proceeds (money) to cover the losses. And in some state's the injured driver's insurance company (insurer) may require the injured driver to file a mini-tort claim with the negligent driver's no-fault insurer.
But if a driver or passenger in a motor vehicle accident suffers severe and permanent personal injuries (known as the tort liability threshold) they may be able to file a lawsuit against the negligent driver that caused the accident. The tort liability threshold may be defined in descriptive terms such as “death or significant disfigurement” (known as the verbal threshold) or in monetary terms (a dollar amount of medical bills known as the monetary threshold).
And if a claim exceeds the tort liability threshold in a no-fault state the injured driver or passenger may be able to recover noneconomic damages (pain and suffering, etc.) as well.
Laws are subject to change at any time and may vary from state to state, but jurisdictions (states and the District of Columbia) with some form of no-fault laws include:
• District of Columbia
• Florida
• Hawaii
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• New Jersey
• New York
• North Dakota
• Pennsylvania
• Utah
Texas does not have no-fault car insurance laws. Instead, Texas operates under a fault-based or 'tort liability' system. This means that the driver who is found to be responsible for causing a car accident is also responsible for paying the damages resulting from the accident. Drivers in Texas are required to carry liability insurance to cover potential damages they may cause to others in an accident, including both personal injuries and property damage. The minimum liability coverage amounts in Texas are $30,000 for each injured person, up to a total of $60,000 per accident, and $25,000 for property damage per accident. This system allows for the possibility of suing the at-fault driver for additional compensation, including noneconomic damages like pain and suffering, if the injuries are severe enough to exceed certain thresholds. However, since Texas is not a no-fault state, there is no requirement for drivers to carry Personal Injury Protection (PIP) insurance, and there are no restrictions on lawsuits based on a no-fault system's tort liability threshold.
