Hawaii runs a no-fault car insurance system, and that single fact shapes almost everything about a crash claim here. It catches people off guard. Most drivers assume the person who caused the wreck simply pays for the damage they did. In Hawaii, your own insurance covers your injuries first, no matter who was at fault, and your ability to sue the other driver for pain and suffering is limited unless your injuries clear a specific legal threshold.1
Here is how the system actually works, with the numbers and deadlines that matter.
What no-fault pays, and who pays it
Every auto policy sold in Hawaii has to include personal injury protection, or PIP. The minimum is $10,000 per person, and it pays your medical and rehabilitation costs after a crash regardless of fault.2 You collect from your own insurer, not the other driver's, and you do not have to prove anyone was to blame. The state also requires you to keep proof of that coverage in the vehicle.2
The law puts a clock on PIP. After you give your insurer reasonable proof of the loss and demand payment, it has 30 days to pay or deny the claim.3 If it blows past 30 days, the overdue amount earns interest at 1.5% per month until it is paid.3 That is a real deadline with a real penalty, and it is worth holding your insurer to it.
When you can step outside no-fault and sue
No-fault does not mean you can never sue the at-fault driver. It means you have to qualify. Hawaii Revised Statutes section 431:10C-306 lets you bring a normal injury lawsuit, the kind that includes pain and suffering, only when one of these is true:1
- the personal injury protection benefits you incur reach or exceed $5,000;
- the crash causes death;
- you suffer a significant permanent loss of use of a part or function of your body; or
- you are left with a permanent and serious disfigurement that causes mental or emotional suffering.1
The $5,000 figure is the dollar threshold, sometimes called the tort threshold. The other three are the "verbal" thresholds, and they turn on how serious the injury is rather than how much it cost. Clear any one of them and the no-fault limits fall away, so you can pursue the full range of tort damages against the driver who hit you.1 Fall short of all four and your recovery is generally capped at your PIP benefits.
This is why documenting treatment matters so much in a Hawaii claim. A soft-tissue injury that feels minor can still cross the $5,000 line once imaging, physical therapy, and follow-up visits add up, and crossing it changes what your claim is worth.
Once you are in tort, fault gets divided
When a case does move into the tort system, Hawaii decides who pays using modified comparative negligence. Under section 663-31, your own carelessness does not automatically bar you from recovering, but any damages you win are cut by your share of the fault.4 If you are found 20% responsible for the crash, a $100,000 award becomes $80,000.
There is a ceiling on that. You can recover only if your negligence "was not greater than" the negligence of the party you are suing.4 In plain terms, you can be up to 50% at fault and still collect a reduced amount, but the moment your share tips to 51% or more you recover nothing. When more than one defendant is involved, the comparison is against their combined fault, not each one separately.4
The coverage that pays when you sue
If your claim clears the threshold, you are usually collecting from the at-fault driver's liability insurance, and those minimums just went up. As of January 1, 2026, every Hawaii policy has to carry at least $40,000 in bodily injury coverage per person, $80,000 per accident, and $20,000 for property damage, written as 40/80/20.56 That is double the old 20/40/10 floor, and the increase came from Act 138 of 2024.5 The new limits apply to any policy that is new or renewed on or after that date.6
Minimums are still just minimums, and serious crashes routinely cost more than $40,000. Hawaii insurers have to offer you uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage up to your bodily injury limits, which fills the gap when the other driver has no insurance or not enough.5 You can turn it down, but only in writing with your signature; without a signed rejection the coverage stays on the policy.5 For most drivers, keeping it is the cheapest protection against the fact that plenty of people on the road carry the bare minimum.
Deadlines, damages, and paperwork
Hawaii gives you two years to file a lawsuit over a crash, counted from the date of the accident, and the same two-year window covers both injury and property-damage claims.7 Miss it and the court will almost certainly throw the case out no matter how strong it is.
There is good news on the value side. Hawaii's $375,000 cap on pain-and-suffering damages does not apply to ordinary car accident cases. The cap statute specifically excludes motor vehicle torts, so there is no state-law ceiling on what a jury can award for pain and suffering in a crash case.8
If you need the official crash report, it comes from the county police department where the wreck happened, because Hawaii has no statewide highway patrol.9 You can read how to pull yours on our Hawaii crash report page. And because PIP never touches your car itself, vehicle damage and any diminished value in Hawaii are handled through the property-damage side of a claim, separate from your injury benefits.
Bottom line
Hawaii is a no-fault state, so your medical bills get paid quickly through your own PIP no matter who caused the crash. The door to a pain-and-suffering lawsuit only opens once you cross the $5,000 threshold or suffer a permanent, serious, or fatal injury. If you get there, comparative fault and the two-year deadline both shape what you can recover, and so does the amount of coverage the at-fault driver carries. When the stakes justify it, an attorney who handles Hawaii crash claims can tell you whether your case clears the threshold and what it is worth; you can start with our legal directory.
This is general information about Hawaii law, not legal advice about your specific situation.
Sources
-
Haw. Rev. Stat. § 431:10C-306 (tort threshold; abolition of tort liability below it). https://data.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol09_Ch0431-0435H/HRS0431/HRS_0431-0010C-0306.htm
-
Haw. Rev. Stat. § 431:10C-103.5 ($10,000 minimum PIP benefit per person). https://data.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol09_Ch0431-0435H/HRS0431/HRS_0431-0010C-0103_0005.htm
-
Haw. Rev. Stat. § 431:10C-304 (30-day PIP payment rule; 1.5% monthly interest on overdue benefits). https://data.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol09_Ch0431-0435H/HRS0431/HRS_0431-0010C-0304.htm
-
Haw. Rev. Stat. § 663-31 (modified comparative negligence). https://data.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol13_Ch0601-0676/HRS0663/HRS_0663-0031.htm
-
Haw. Rev. Stat. § 431:10C-301 (minimum liability limits; UM/UIM offer and written rejection; amended by 2024 Act 138). https://data.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol09_Ch0431-0435H/HRS0431/HRS_0431-0010C-0301.htm
-
Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Insurance Division, "FAQ: Auto Insurance Minimum Limits (Effective January 1, 2026)." https://cca.hawaii.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Auto-Minimum-Limits-FAQs.pdf
-
Haw. Rev. Stat. § 657-7 (two-year statute of limitations for injury and property damage). https://data.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol13_Ch0601-0676/HRS0657/HRS_0657-0007.htm
-
Haw. Rev. Stat. §§ 663-8.7, 663-10.9(2) ($375,000 pain-and-suffering cap and its exclusion of motor vehicle torts). https://data.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol13_Ch0601-0676/HRS0663/HRS_0663-0008_0007.htm
-
Honolulu Police Department, "Police Reports." https://www.honolulupd.org/police-reports/