California Raised Its Minimum Insurance Limits. Here Is Why That Still Is Not Enough.
If you have not looked at your auto insurance declarations page since 2024, the numbers on it have almost certainly changed. On January 1, 2025, California raised the minimum liability coverage every driver is required to carry, for the first time in nearly sixty years.
That sounds like good news for injured people, and it is. But it is a much smaller improvement than it appears, and if you are counting on the at-fault driver's minimum policy to cover a serious injury, you are going to be disappointed. Here is what actually changed, and what protects you when it is not enough.
Quick answer: Effective January 1, 2025, California's minimum auto liability limits rose from 15/30/5 to 30/60/15, meaning $30,000 for injury to one person, $60,000 per accident, and $15,000 for property damage. The change came from Senate Bill 1107 and was the first increase since 1967. Even at the new levels, a minimum policy will not cover a single surgery, which is why your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is usually the more important number on your policy.
What Changed on January 1, 2025
• Injury, one person. Old minimum (through 2024): $15,000. New minimum (from Jan 1, 2025): $30,000. What it realistically covers: An emergency room visit with imaging, and little else.
• Injury, per accident. Old minimum (through 2024): $30,000. New minimum (from Jan 1, 2025): $60,000. What it realistically covers: Divided among everyone hurt, no matter how many.
• Property damage. Old minimum (through 2024): $5,000. New minimum (from Jan 1, 2025): $15,000. What it realistically covers: Roughly one modest vehicle at current values.
Senate Bill 1107, signed in 2022, took effect at the start of 2025. It amended the financial responsibility requirements in Vehicle Code section 16056, which sets the amount of liability insurance a California driver must carry.
The old limits were 15/30/5. The new limits are 30/60/15. Written out, a minimum policy today must provide:
• $30,000 for bodily injury or death to any one person in a single accident, up from $15,000
• $60,000 for bodily injury or death to more than one person in a single accident, up from $30,000
• $15,000 for property damage in a single accident, up from $5,000
Those figures had not moved since 1967. A dollar in 1967 is worth roughly nine dollars today, which means the old $15,000 minimum had eroded to a fraction of what the Legislature originally intended it to cover.
Why Doubling the Minimum Still Is Not Enough
The increase is real, and for minor injury claims it makes a meaningful difference. For anything serious, it does not.
Consider what $30,000 buys in California medical care. A single ambulance transport and emergency department visit with imaging routinely runs $8,000 to $15,000 before anyone has treated anything. An arthroscopic shoulder or knee repair, including the surgeon, the anesthesiologist, and the facility, commonly exceeds $40,000. A one-level spinal fusion can exceed $150,000. A short inpatient stay for a fracture can consume the entire policy before the patient is discharged.
The result is that in any case involving surgery, a 30/60/15 policy is exhausted at the outset. Every dollar of lost income, every dollar of future care, and every dollar of pain and suffering has nowhere to come from, at least not from the at-fault driver's insurer.
There is a second problem. The $60,000 per accident figure is a ceiling shared among everyone hurt in the same crash. If a driver runs a red light and injures four people, those four people divide $60,000, regardless of how badly any of them was hurt.
One in Five California Drivers Has No Insurance at All
The minimum limits only matter if the other driver bought a policy. Many have not.
The Insurance Research Council, in a 2025 study covering the years 2017 through 2023, found that 20.4 percent of California drivers carried no auto insurance at all in 2023. That is roughly one in five, and it placed California eighth highest in the country. Nationally, the same study found that about one in three drivers was either uninsured or underinsured, a figure that had climbed roughly ten percentage points since 2017.
Put those numbers together and the picture is stark. On any given California road, there is a meaningful chance that the driver next to you carries nothing, and a much larger chance that the driver carries a policy that would not cover a serious injury.
Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Coverage Is the Real Protection
This is the part most drivers do not understand about their own policy.
Uninsured motorist coverage, usually written as UM, pays your injury damages when the at-fault driver has no insurance, cannot be identified in a hit and run, or when their insurer denies coverage. Underinsured motorist coverage, written as UIM, pays when the at-fault driver has insurance but not enough. Both are governed by Insurance Code section 11580.2.
California insurers are required to offer UM and UIM coverage, and you can only decline it in writing. Many people declined it years ago without understanding what they were giving up, or carry it at limits far below their liability coverage.
The practical point is this. Your liability coverage protects other people from you. Your UM and UIM coverage protects you and your family from the roughly one in three drivers who cannot cover what they do to you. For most households, the second number matters more than the first, and it is usually the cheaper of the two to increase.
How Underinsured Motorist Coverage Actually Calculates
California UIM works by offset, not by stacking, and this surprises almost everyone.
Your UIM coverage does not add to the at-fault driver's policy. It fills the gap up to your own limit. The at-fault driver's payment is subtracted from your UIM limit, and you receive the difference.
An example. You carry $100,000 in UIM coverage. The driver who hit you carries the new state minimum of $30,000, and their insurer pays it in full. Your UIM claim is worth up to $70,000, not $130,000. Your total available recovery is $100,000, which is your own limit.
This has a consequence worth acting on: if your UIM limit is equal to or lower than the at-fault driver's liability limit, your UIM coverage pays nothing at all. A driver carrying 30/60/15 in UIM who is hit by another driver carrying 30/60/15 has no underinsured claim available, because there is no gap to fill.
The Consent Requirement That Quietly Destroys UIM Claims
Under Insurance Code section 11580.2, you generally must obtain your own insurer's written consent before you settle with the at-fault driver's insurance company.
The reason is that when your insurer pays a UIM claim, it acquires the right to pursue the at-fault driver for reimbursement. If you sign a release with that driver first, you have extinguished the right your insurer would have inherited, and your insurer can deny the UIM claim on that basis.
People lose valid claims this way regularly. An adjuster offers the policy limits early, the check looks like a resolution, the release gets signed, and the far larger UIM claim is gone. If you have any UM or UIM coverage, notify your own carrier in writing early and get consent before accepting anything.
If You Were Uninsured Yourself, Proposition 213 Applies
One more piece has to be mentioned, because it interacts directly with everything above.
If you were driving your own uninsured vehicle when you were hurt, Civil Code section 3333.4, enacted by Proposition 213, bars you from recovering non-economic damages, meaning pain and suffering, even when the crash was entirely the other driver's fault. You can still recover economic damages such as medical bills and lost income. The rule is narrower than insurers suggest and it has real exceptions, but it is why carrying insurance protects your own claim and not just your liability to others.
What to Check on Your Own Policy This Week
Pull your declarations page and look for four things:
• Your liability limits. If they still read 15/30/5, your policy predates the change and should be reviewed.
• Whether you carry UM and UIM at all. If the line is missing or marked rejected, you declined it in writing at some point.
• Your UM and UIM limits compared to your liability limits. If UIM is lower than a typical at-fault policy, it may never pay.
• Your medical payments coverage. MedPay pays your treatment regardless of fault and is usually inexpensive to add.
Raising UM and UIM limits is generally one of the least expensive changes available on an auto policy, because the insurer is pricing the risk of other people's failures rather than your own driving.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are California's minimum auto insurance limits in 2026?
They are 30/60/15: $30,000 for injury to one person, $60,000 for injury to more than one person in the same accident, and $15,000 for property damage. These took effect January 1, 2025 under Senate Bill 1107.
Do the new limits apply to a crash that happened before 2025?
No. The limits that apply are the ones in force when the policy was issued or renewed. A collision from 2023 or 2024 is generally governed by the old 15/30/5 minimums.
What happens if my damages exceed the at-fault driver's policy?
You look first to your own underinsured motorist coverage, then to any other applicable policy, such as a commercial policy if the driver was working, or an umbrella policy. Pursuing the driver personally is possible but frequently uncollectible.
Does using my own uninsured motorist coverage raise my rates?
Insurers are not permitted to surcharge you for a not-at-fault claim. Making a UM or UIM claim after a crash you did not cause should not increase your premium on that basis.
Can I stack my underinsured motorist coverage in California?
Generally no. California applies an offset approach, so your UIM limit is reduced by what the at-fault driver's insurer pays, rather than added on top of it.
How long do I have to bring an uninsured motorist claim?
UM and UIM claims are contractual and are governed by your policy terms, which frequently require written notice quickly and arbitration demanded within a set period. These deadlines can be shorter than the two year statute of limitations under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1, which is why early notice matters.
Hurt by a Driver Who Did Not Carry Enough Insurance? Geller Legal Can Help.
The at-fault driver's policy limit is a starting point, not a verdict on what your case is worth. Identifying every available layer of coverage, protecting your underinsured motorist claim before it is waived, and proving damages that exceed a minimum policy in a California car accident claim is work that has to begin early, while the evidence and the deadlines are still in your favor.
Geller Legal | Personal Injury Attorneys handles these cases with the detail they demand. We locate every applicable policy, notify your own carrier properly so your underinsured claim survives, and build the medical and economic record needed to recover beyond a minimum limit.
We serve injured clients throughout California, with offices in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. If you were hit by a driver with little or no insurance, do not assume the policy limit is the end of your recovery until you have spoken with us.
Contact Geller Legal for a free, confidential consultation with Attorney Michael Geller.