Minimum Car Insurance Liability Requirements by State

Auto · Liability floors

The state minimum pays other people, and only up to a small limit

Split limits are three numbers: bodily injury per person, bodily injury per crash, and property damage per crash. They pay people you hurt and their property. They do not repair your car. Meeting the floor makes the car legal to drive. It is not a recommendation sized to a hospital bill or a new truck.

Numbers change. What follows is what the state pages said when this was written. Confirm before you buy. A minimum from a blog is not your declarations page.

How the words work: liability versus full coverage and insurance limits.

Texas and Colorado, from the state pages

Texas requires at least $30,000 for injuries per person, up to $60,000 per accident, and $25,000 for property damage. That is 30/60/25. Source: the Texas Department of Insurance auto guide. Your own car still needs collision and comprehensive if you want it repaired. What Texas car insurance covers and Texas car insurance.

Colorado’s division of insurance states a minimum of $25,000 per person for bodily injury, $50,000 per accident, and $15,000 for property damage. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is optional there. Source: Colorado Division of Insurance, auto insurance. Staying legal: Colorado car insurance laws.

Missouri and Tennessee

Missouri’s liability floor has long been described as $25,000 per person and $50,000 per crash for injuries, and $25,000 for property damage, with uninsured-motorist bodily injury at the same 25/50. Verify the current figure before you rely on it. Missouri auto.

Tennessee’s minimum should be read on the state’s own page, not copied from memory. Start at the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance and Tennessee car insurance.

Any other state: use that state’s insurance department or DMV. Do not use a national chart that is a year old. Shopping the same limits across companies: comparing Texas car insurance.

If the only limit on the policy is the state floor, the next serious injury is above it. Ask an agent.