Indiana is an at-fault state: how the fault system works after a crash

Indiana runs on the at-fault (tort) system. There's no no-fault option and no personal injury protection (PIP) requirement, so your own insurer doesn't automatically pay your injury bills regardless of who caused the wreck. The driver who caused the crash (through their liability insurance) is the one on the hook for the harm they did.¹ That single choice shapes almost everything about how a claim plays out here, from who pays your ambulance bill to how much you can collect if the crash was partly your fault.

Below is what's actually true in Indiana: the numbers and deadlines that apply here, and the government-claim rule that catches people off guard.

No-fault vs at-fault, and where Indiana lands

In a no-fault state, you turn to your own PIP coverage for medical bills no matter who caused the crash, and you can only sue the other driver if your injuries clear a set threshold. Indiana does none of that. The Indiana Department of Insurance lists the required and optional coverages for a personal auto policy, and PIP isn't among them.¹ You can pursue the at-fault driver directly for medical bills, lost wages, vehicle damage, and pain and suffering, with no injury threshold to clear first.

Because there's no PIP, the order of who pays matters. The at-fault driver's bodily injury liability coverage is the primary source for your injury losses. While your claim is pending, your own health insurance usually covers treatment, and you can add optional medical payments (MedPay) coverage that pays your and your passengers' medical and funeral bills up to the limit regardless of fault.¹ MedPay is optional in Indiana, not something the state makes you buy.

The 51% rule: how your own fault cuts (or kills) your claim

Indiana uses modified comparative fault with a 51% bar. This is the rule that decides how much you actually collect when you share some of the blame.

Under Indiana Code 34-51-2-6, in a case against a private defendant you are "barred from recovery if the claimant's contributory fault is greater than the fault of all persons whose fault proximately contributed to the claimant's damages."² In plain terms: if you're 51% or more at fault, you get nothing. If you're 50% or less at fault, you can still recover, but your award is reduced by your own percentage.

The math is simple. Say your damages total $100,000 and the jury finds you 20% responsible. Your recovery drops to $80,000. Cross the line to 51%, and the same claim is worth zero. That's why the fight in an Indiana crash case is so often about the fault percentage, not just the dollar value of the harm.

Fault gets apportioned by the fact-finder, a jury (or the judge in a bench trial), which assigns a percentage to each party, including you. Insurance adjusters do the same thing informally when they evaluate a claim before any suit is filed.

The government exception most people never hear about

Here's the trap. The 51% comparative fault rule does not apply when your claim is against a government defendant, and the difference is harsh.

Indiana Code 34-51-2-2 says the Comparative Fault Act "does not apply in any manner to tort claims against governmental entities or public employees under IC 34-13-3."³ Because the Act is carved out, the old common-law rule of contributory negligence still governs those cases. Under that rule, any fault on your part, even 1%, completely bars your recovery. The Indiana Supreme Court laid this out in Funston v. School Town of Munster, holding that even a slight degree of a plaintiff's negligence "will operate as a total bar" against a governmental defendant, while against a private defendant that same fault would only reduce the award.⁴

So if your crash involved a city bus, a county snowplow, a state vehicle, or a claim that a public entity's road design or maintenance contributed to the wreck, you're playing by far stricter rules. Being even marginally at fault can end the case.

Government claims also carry a separate, short deadline. Before you can sue, the Indiana Tort Claims Act requires a formal written notice of tort claim: within 180 days after the loss for a claim against a political subdivision, meaning a city, county, town, or similar local body (Indiana Code 34-13-3-8),⁵ and within 270 days for a claim against the State (Indiana Code 34-13-3-6).⁶ Miss that notice window and the claim is barred no matter how strong it is.

Minimum coverage, and why the minimum often isn't enough

Every registered vehicle in Indiana must carry liability insurance at these minimum limits, set by Indiana Code 9-25-4-5: $25,000 for bodily injury or death of one person, $50,000 for bodily injury or death of two or more people per accident, and $25,000 for property damage.⁷ Shorthand: 25/50/25. The $25,000 property-damage minimum has been in place since July 1, 2018 (it was $10,000 before that).⁷

Those are legal floors, and they're often too low. A single serious injury can blow past $25,000 in a day. When the at-fault driver's coverage runs out, or when they have no insurance at all, your own uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage steps in.

Indiana law makes that coverage a default. Under Indiana Code 27-7-5-2, every newly written auto liability policy must include uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage unless you reject it in writing.⁸ The Indiana Department of Insurance sets the minimums at $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident for uninsured motorist bodily injury, and $50,000 for underinsured motorist coverage.¹ If you never signed a written rejection, you very likely have this coverage even if you forgot you bought it, and after a crash with an uninsured or underinsured driver it can be the difference between a paid claim and an empty judgment.

Your deadline to sue is two years

Indiana gives you two years from the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit, under Indiana Code 34-11-2-4.⁹ The same two-year clock applies to vehicle damage and other personal-property claims.⁹ The period usually starts on the date of the crash, though it can start later if the injury wasn't reasonably discoverable right away.

Two years feels like a long time until it isn't. Evidence disappears and witnesses move. And if a public entity might be involved, the 180-day notice clock, not the two-year clock, is the one that will bite first.

When the other side did more than just drive badly

Fault can extend past the driver. If a bar, restaurant, or even a private social host served alcohol to someone they knew was visibly intoxicated (or served a minor at all) and that person then caused your crash, Indiana's dram shop law can make the provider civilly liable too, under Indiana Code 7.1-5-10-15.5.¹⁰

Egregious conduct like drunk driving can also support punitive damages on top of your compensatory award. Indiana caps punitive damages at the greater of three times the compensatory damages or $50,000 (Indiana Code 34-51-3-4), and 75% of any punitive award goes to the state's Violent Crime Victims Compensation Fund rather than to you (Indiana Code 34-51-3-6).¹¹¹² There's no cap on ordinary compensatory damages in a standard car-crash case.

What this means for your claim

The practical takeaways in Indiana are concrete. Your recovery hinges on the fault percentage, so document everything that shows the other driver caused the crash: the police crash report, photos, and witness names. You can order the official report through the Indiana State Police, the statewide crash-report repository;¹³ see our Indiana crash reports page for how to get yours. If your car lost market value even after a solid repair, that's a separate claim worth pursuing, covered in our Indiana diminished value guide. And because the fault fight decides the whole case, and government claims run on a much shorter fuse, it's worth talking to a lawyer early. You can find one through our Indiana legal directory.

This is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

1. Indiana Department of Insurance, Auto Insurance. https://www.in.gov/idoi/consumer-services/types-of-insurance/auto-insurance/

2. Indiana Code 34-51-2-6 (Indiana General Assembly). https://iga.in.gov/laws/2026/ic/titles/34#34-51-2-6

3. Indiana Code 34-51-2-2 (Indiana General Assembly). https://iga.in.gov/laws/2026/ic/titles/34#34-51-2-2

4. Funston v. School Town of Munster, 849 N.E.2d 595 (Ind. 2006) (CourtListener). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/852651/funston-v-school-town-of-munster/

5. Indiana Code 34-13-3-8 (Indiana General Assembly). https://iga.in.gov/laws/2026/ic/titles/34#34-13-3-8

6. Indiana Code 34-13-3-6 (Indiana General Assembly). https://iga.in.gov/laws/2026/ic/titles/34#34-13-3-6

7. Indiana Code 9-25-4-5 (Indiana General Assembly). https://iga.in.gov/laws/2026/ic/titles/9#9-25-4-5

8. Indiana Code 27-7-5-2 (Indiana General Assembly). https://iga.in.gov/laws/2026/ic/titles/27#27-7-5-2

9. Indiana Code 34-11-2-4 (Indiana General Assembly). https://iga.in.gov/laws/2026/ic/titles/34#34-11-2-4

10. Indiana Code 7.1-5-10-15.5 (Indiana General Assembly). https://iga.in.gov/laws/2026/ic/titles/7.1#7.1-5-10-15.5

11. Indiana Code 34-51-3-4 (Indiana General Assembly). https://iga.in.gov/laws/2026/ic/titles/34#34-51-3-4

12. Indiana Code 34-51-3-6 (Indiana General Assembly). https://iga.in.gov/laws/2026/ic/titles/34#34-51-3-6

13. Indiana State Police, Crash Reports. https://www.in.gov/isp/crash-reports/