Accident claim laws by state, province and UK nation

For each place it shows the general deadline to sue for an injury and for property damage, whether car insurance is fault-based or no-fault, the rule that cuts or bars your claim if you were partly to blame, and the minimum liability insurance a driver must carry. It covers car and general negligence claims, not medical malpractice, government claims or work injuries.

We only show a value after reading it in the official statute, or on an official government page such as a state insurance department or regulator. 68 of the 340 cells are still being checked, usually because the official code is only published in a format we could not read reliably. We will not guess, so those cells stay marked until they are confirmed.

Of the states we have verified so far, these have a no-fault (personal injury protection) law: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Other states are still being checked, so this list is not complete.

Not always. In our verified data the two differ in California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Montana and Nevada and others. Check both if your car was damaged and you were hurt.

Use it as a starting point. The table shows the general period from the statute. Exceptions for children, government defendants, late discovery and death claims can change it, and the way days are counted can matter. A lawyer licensed where the accident happened can confirm the exact date.