If another driver hit you in the District of Columbia, the first thing to understand is that DC doesn't fit neatly into either the "no-fault" or "at-fault" box you may have read about. It runs a hybrid. The default is an at-fault (tort liability) system, but every driver is offered an optional no-fault layer called personal injury protection, and choosing it changes how and when you can sue.1
Here is what that actually means for your claim.
The default is at-fault
DC starts from a traditional at-fault rule. The driver who caused the crash, and that driver's insurer, is responsible for the injuries and damage that follow. To back that up, the District requires every registered vehicle to carry liability insurance.2
The current minimums are 25/50/10: $25,000 for bodily injury to one person, $50,000 for everyone hurt in one crash, and $10,000 for property damage.2 Those figures have not been raised since 1986, and they are low enough that a serious injury can blow past them fast. If the at-fault driver's policy can't cover your losses, your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is the next place to look (more on that below).
The optional no-fault layer (PIP)
This is where DC gets unusual. Under the District's Compulsory/No-Fault Motor Vehicle Insurance Act, every insurer must offer optional personal injury protection, or PIP.1 PIP is no-fault: it pays your own medical bills and lost wages regardless of who caused the crash. But it is optional, so plenty of DC drivers never buy it.
If you do have PIP available, the minimum benefits are set by statute: at least $50,000 for medical and rehabilitation expenses, at least $12,000 for work loss, and up to $4,000 for funeral costs.3
Two deadlines and one trade-off make PIP tricky, and this is the part people get wrong. First, if you want PIP benefits you have to elect them in writing within 60 days of the crash.4 That window can be extended, but only by mutual written agreement with the insurer, so don't count on it.4 Second, taking PIP limits your right to sue the at-fault driver. Once you accept PIP benefits, you can bring a liability lawsuit only if your injury clears a threshold: substantial permanent scarring or disfigurement, a medically demonstrable permanent impairment that significantly affects your daily or professional activities, an impairment that keeps you from your usual activities for more than 180 continuous days, or medical and work-loss costs that exceed the PIP benefits available to you.4
So the choice is real. PIP pays quickly and without a fault fight, but it can close the courthouse door on a smaller claim. If you never elected PIP, or were never offered it (as a pedestrian, for example), you keep the ordinary right to sue the at-fault driver.
The rule that surprises everyone: contributory negligence
DC follows one of the harshest fault rules in the country for ordinary driver-versus-driver claims: pure contributory negligence. If you are found even 1 percent at fault for the crash, you can be barred from recovering anything from the other driver.5 Most states switched long ago to comparative negligence, which simply reduces your recovery by your share of blame. DC is one of a small handful that did not.
That single rule is why fault fights here get so aggressive. An insurer only needs to pin a sliver of blame on you, that you were speeding slightly or glanced at your phone, to try to defeat the entire claim. It is also why the police crash report and independent evidence carry so much weight in DC.
The exception for pedestrians and cyclists
The District carved out a more forgiving rule for people on foot or on a bike. Under D.C. Code § 50-2204.52, a pedestrian, bicyclist, or other vulnerable user is not shut out by ordinary contributory negligence. Their claim survives unless their own negligence was a proximate cause of the injury and greater than the combined negligence of all the defendants.6 In plain terms, a walker or rider can be partly at fault and still recover, as long as they weren't more to blame than everyone who hit them, put together. Drivers do not get this protection against each other.
Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage
Because the liability minimums are so low and some drivers carry nothing at all, DC makes uninsured motorist (UM) coverage mandatory. Every auto policy must include UM bodily injury matching the liability minimums, $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident, plus $5,000 of UM property damage subject to a $200 deductible.2 This is your safety net when the at-fault driver has no insurance or not enough. If your car itself is worth less after the crash even once it's repaired, that is a separate diminished-value claim you may be able to pursue.
The deadlines you can't miss
The general deadline to file a personal injury lawsuit in DC is 3 years from the crash, under the residual limitations period in D.C. Code § 12-301(8).7 Claims for damage to your vehicle or other personal property also run 3 years, under § 12-301(3).7
One trap sits well inside that window. If the at-fault party is the District government itself, say a DC-owned vehicle or a claim over a dangerous road the District maintains, you must give written notice to the Mayor within 6 months of the injury.8 Miss that notice and the claim can be lost no matter how strong it is.
Change may be coming
The 25/50/10 minimums have been criticized for years as far too low for modern medical costs. In 2026 the DC Council passed the Motor Vehicle Insurance Modernization Act of 2025 (B26-0057), which would raise the bodily-injury minimums to $50,000 per person and $100,000 per crash, tie future minimums to inflation, and expand underinsured-motorist coverage.9 It cleared its final reading on June 2, 2026 and was transmitted to the Mayor on June 16, 2026.9 It still has to clear the Mayor's desk and the mandatory period of Congressional review before it can take effect, so as of mid-2026 the 25/50/10 figures above are still the law. Confirm the current minimum before you rely on any number.
What this means if you were just hit
DC's mix of at-fault liability and an optional no-fault PIP layer, sitting on top of a strict contributory-negligence rule, makes even a straightforward crash more legally loaded than it looks. The 60-day PIP election and the 6-month government-notice deadline can pass before you have even finished treatment. If your injuries are more than minor, or fault is being disputed, it is worth talking to a DC injury attorney early.
This is general information, not legal advice.
Sources
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D.C. Code § 31-2406, Compulsory/No-Fault Motor Vehicle Insurance Act. https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/31-2406
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DC DMV, Vehicle Insurance requirements (minimum liability and uninsured motorist limits). https://dmv.dc.gov/service/vehicle-insurance
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D.C. Code § 31-2404, Personal injury protection benefits. https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/31-2404
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D.C. Code § 31-2405, Election of PIP benefits and threshold to maintain a tort action. https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/31-2405
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Wingfield v. Peoples Drug Store, Inc., 379 A.2d 685 (D.C. 1977). https://law.justia.com/cases/district-of-columbia/court-of-appeals/1977/11243-3.html
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D.C. Code § 50-2204.52, Contributory negligence of vulnerable users. https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/50-2204.52
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D.C. Code § 12-301, Limitation of time for bringing actions (subsection (8) residual 3 years; subsection (3) property 3 years). https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/12-301
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D.C. Code § 12-309, Notice of claim to the District of Columbia (6 months). https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/12-309
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DC Council, B26-0057, Motor Vehicle Insurance Modernization Act of 2025 (bill status). https://legiscan.com/DC/bill/B26-0057/2025