On January 1, 2026, New Jersey’s minimum auto liability limits rose to 35,000 dollars per person and 70,000 dollars per accident for bodily injury, the second and final step of an increase the Legislature enacted in 2022. For a driver comparing quotes, that is a line item. For someone hit by a driver carrying nothing but the minimum, it is the difference between a claim that covers a hospital stay and one that runs out during the ambulance ride.
The increase is real progress, and it is still not enough for a serious injury. A single night in a New Jersey trauma center, a surgical repair, and a few months of physical therapy will exhaust 35,000 dollars without addressing lost income or permanent impairment. That gap is why the most important decisions on your own policy are the ones nobody upsells: uninsured and underinsured motorist limits, the lawsuit threshold election, and whether health insurance is primary for your medical bills. A New Jersey car accident lawyer will tell you that the coverage decision made years earlier, at the kitchen table, usually determines the outcome of the claim more than anything that happens after the crash.
What Actually Changed
New Jersey historically had among the lowest minimum liability requirements in the country. The 2022 legislation phased in two increases, and the schedule is now complete.
| Coverage | Before 2023 | From January 1, 2023 | From January 1, 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bodily injury, per person | 15,000 dollars | 25,000 dollars | 35,000 dollars |
| Bodily injury, per accident | 30,000 dollars | 50,000 dollars | 70,000 dollars |
| Property damage liability | 5,000 dollars | 25,000 dollars | 25,000 dollars |
Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage moves with those figures, because insurers must offer UM and UIM at limits that track liability coverage. If you have not looked at your declarations page since 2022, your policy may have been adjusted at renewal, or it may still sit at older limits you selected by choice. Pull the declarations page and read the actual numbers rather than assuming the increase happened automatically for you.
Basic and Special policies were not swept up in the change
New Jersey still permits a Basic Policy, and its numbers are strikingly different. A Basic Policy carries no bodily injury liability coverage at all as standard, with only an option to add 10,000 dollars for all persons per accident, plus 5,000 dollars of property damage liability and 15,000 dollars of personal injury protection. There is also a Special Automobile Insurance Policy available to certain Medicaid recipients that covers emergency treatment and a limited death benefit and essentially nothing else.
The consequence for injured people is blunt. A driver on a Basic Policy who causes a catastrophic collision may have no liability coverage available to pay for it, which throws the claim onto the injured person’s own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. Every year, that scenario is the reason a serious claim recovers a fraction of its value.
PIP: Where Your Medical Bills Actually Come From
New Jersey is a choice no-fault state. After most crashes your own personal injury protection coverage pays medical bills first, regardless of who caused it. The standard policy default is 250,000 dollars in PIP, and you may select lower tiers, commonly 150,000, 75,000, 50,000, or 15,000 dollars.
Dropping PIP to save premium is the most consequential cut on the whole policy. Catastrophic injuries, including brain and spinal cord injuries, retain the higher benefit level under the statute regardless of the tier chosen, but the everyday serious injury, meaning the fractured pelvis or the multi-level disc surgery, is exactly the case that burns through a 15,000 dollar tier in weeks.
The health insurance primary option
Standard policies allow you to name your health insurer as primary for accident medical bills in exchange for a lower premium. It can be a rational choice if your health plan is genuinely strong. It becomes a trap when the health plan carries a large deductible, a narrow network, or aggressive prior authorization requirements, because the medical providers treating you after a crash may not be in network, and the deductible lands on you at the worst possible moment. Some plans also exclude auto accident injuries outright. Read the health plan document before selecting this option, not after.
Deductibles and co-payments still apply
PIP carries a deductible, typically 250 dollars, and a co-payment share on a first tranche of expenses above it. Medical providers bill within a fee schedule, and disputes over necessity and coding are common. Keep every explanation of benefits, and file the PIP application promptly; policies generally require notice of the claim within roughly thirty days of the accident, and late filing invites a denial that takes months to unwind.
The Lawsuit Threshold Decision Most Drivers Make Without Reading It
When you bought your policy you elected either the Limitation on Lawsuit option, commonly called the verbal threshold, or the Unlimited Right to Sue. The verbal threshold is cheaper, and it restricts your ability to recover for pain and suffering unless your injury falls within specific statutory categories: death, dismemberment, significant disfigurement or significant scarring, a displaced fracture, loss of a fetus, or a permanent injury established within a reasonable degree of medical probability.
That last category does the heavy lifting, and it is where cases are won and lost. It requires objective, credible medical evidence that a body part has not healed to function normally and will not do so with further treatment, supported by a physician certification served within the deadline the rules impose. Soft tissue injuries that resolve, however genuinely painful, generally do not clear it.
- The threshold does not limit recovery of medical expenses or lost wages; it limits non-economic damages only.
- It applies to the injured person’s own election, so two passengers in the same car can face different thresholds.
- Choosing the Unlimited Right to Sue costs more per year, often a meaningful but not enormous amount, and it removes the single largest legal obstacle to recovering for a permanent injury.
- Gaps in treatment are used aggressively by defense experts to argue the injury was not permanent. Follow the treatment plan and document every visit.
If you carry the verbal threshold, understand what you bought. If you are the person in the household most likely to be driving, consider whether the annual saving is worth the restriction it places on the worst realistic outcome.
Why UM and UIM Coverage Matters More After the Increase, Not Less
The higher minimum makes underinsured motorist coverage more important rather than less, because more drivers now sit at a limit that is high enough to look adequate and low enough to be exhausted by a real injury.
The comparison that decides whether UIM applies at all
New Jersey UIM works on a comparison of limits, not on a comparison of what you actually recovered. Your underinsured motorist coverage is triggered only when your UIM limit is greater than the at-fault driver’s liability limit. If the other driver carries 35,000 dollars and you also carry 35,000 dollars in UIM, your UIM does not respond at all, no matter how badly you were hurt. Carrying UM and UIM at meaningfully higher limits than the state minimum, commonly 100,000 dollars per person or more, is what makes the coverage functional.
Do not release the at-fault driver without notifying your own carrier
Before settling with the at-fault driver’s insurer for its policy limits, New Jersey practice requires notifying your own UIM carrier and giving it the opportunity to protect its subrogation rights, typically by matching the offer. Signing a release first can extinguish the UIM claim entirely. This is a procedural trap that has cost unrepresented claimants enormous sums, and it is one of the strongest practical arguments for involving counsel before accepting any limits offer.
When Damages Exceed the Available Coverage
If the losses run past the at-fault driver’s limits, the remaining sources are, in rough order of likelihood: your own underinsured motorist coverage, an umbrella policy if either household carries one, other potentially liable parties such as an employer whose employee was driving in the course of work, a commercial vehicle owner, a bar or social host under dram shop principles, a municipality or contractor for a dangerous road condition, or a vehicle or component manufacturer in a defect case.
Personal assets of the at-fault driver are theoretically available and practically rare. Most minimum-limits drivers have little to collect, and personal bankruptcy discharges ordinary negligence judgments. Meanwhile New Jersey applies modified comparative negligence: a plaintiff more than fifty percent at fault recovers nothing, and any recovery is reduced by the plaintiff’s own percentage of fault. Investigating fault thoroughly, early, is therefore worth real money.
One more mechanism deserves mention. When an insurer with modest limits refuses a reasonable settlement demand within those limits and a verdict later exceeds them, the insurer can face exposure beyond its policy limits for failing to settle in good faith. Properly framed time-limited demands are a specialized task, and a personal injury attorney in New Jersey will structure them carefully because a sloppy demand forfeits the leverage entirely.
Deadlines After a New Jersey Crash
- Report the accident to police, and obtain the report number at the scene if you can
- Notify your own insurer promptly, and file the PIP application within the window your policy requires, generally around thirty days
- If a public entity may be responsible, such as a municipal vehicle or a dangerous road condition, serve a tort claims notice within ninety days of the accrual of the claim, which is a hard prerequisite to suing a public entity
- Preserve evidence: photographs, dashcam footage, the vehicle itself before repair, and the names of witnesses
- File any personal injury lawsuit within two years of the accident, which is also the deadline for a wrongful death action; property damage claims have a longer period
- Serve the physician certification required by the lawsuit threshold within the time the court rules allow, if the verbal threshold applies
The ninety-day tort claims notice is the deadline that most often destroys otherwise strong cases, because injured people spend the first three months focused on treatment and never learn that a public entity was involved until it is too late.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are New Jersey’s minimum auto insurance limits in 2026?
For a standard policy, 35,000 dollars per person and 70,000 dollars per accident for bodily injury liability, plus 25,000 dollars for property damage. Those figures took effect January 1, 2026, completing the phased increase enacted in 2022. Personal injury protection also applies, with a standard policy default of 250,000 dollars unless a lower tier was selected.
Do I have to raise my coverage to the new limits?
Any policy issued or renewed under New Jersey law must meet the current minimums, so your carrier should have adjusted a minimum-limits policy at renewal. Confirm it on your declarations page rather than assuming. If you carry limits above the minimum, nothing forces a change, but this is a good moment to review whether your uninsured and underinsured motorist limits are still appropriate.
Is the higher minimum enough for a serious injury?
Usually not. A serious collision routinely generates medical bills, lost income, and non-economic damages well beyond 35,000 dollars per person. The higher minimum meaningfully helps moderate claims and does little for catastrophic ones. The practical protection for a severe injury is your own underinsured motorist coverage carried at limits well above the state minimum, ideally supplemented by an umbrella policy.
What is a Basic Policy and should I buy one?
A Basic Policy is New Jersey’s stripped-down option: no bodily injury liability coverage as standard, with an optional 10,000 dollars, plus 5,000 dollars of property damage liability and 15,000 dollars of personal injury protection. It is inexpensive and leaves both you and anyone you injure severely exposed. It makes sense only for drivers with essentially no assets and no realistic alternative, and even then the PIP limit is a serious risk.
How long do I have to file a claim after a New Jersey car accident?
Two years from the date of the accident for a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit. If a public entity may be liable, a tort claims notice must be served within ninety days of accrual, which is a separate and much shorter deadline. Your PIP application must be filed far sooner, typically within about thirty days under the terms of the policy itself.
Does the verbal threshold stop me from recovering my medical bills?
No. The Limitation on Lawsuit option restricts recovery for pain and suffering, not for medical expenses or lost wages. To recover non-economic damages under it, the injury must fall into a statutory category such as death, dismemberment, significant scarring, a displaced fracture, loss of a fetus, or a permanent injury proven by objective medical evidence and supported by a timely physician certification.
What to Do Next
Pull your declarations page today and look at three numbers: your uninsured and underinsured motorist limits, your PIP tier, and whether the policy says Limitation on Lawsuit or Unlimited Right to Sue. Raising UM and UIM well above the new state minimum is generally the least expensive meaningful protection available on an auto policy, and it is the coverage that responds when the driver who hits you carries only what the law requires. If you have already been injured, calendar the two-year suit deadline and the ninety-day public entity notice immediately, before anything else.
This article is general information about New Jersey insurance and injury law and is not legal advice; consult a licensed New Jersey attorney about your own claim.
