Utah is a no-fault car accident state: what that actually means

If another driver hit you in Utah, your own insurance pays your first round of medical bills, not theirs. Utah is one of the minority of states that run a no-fault system for car crashes, and that single fact shapes how a claim works here. It decides who pays first, how fast, and whether you can take the at-fault driver to court at all.

Here is how the system works, with the specific Utah numbers and deadlines that apply in 2026.

Personal injury protection pays first, regardless of fault

Every standard Utah auto policy has to include personal injury protection, or PIP.¹ PIP is your own coverage, and it pays out no matter who caused the wreck. Under Utah Code 31A-22-307, the required minimum is $3,000 per person for the reasonable cost of necessary medical, surgical, dental, hospital, ambulance, nursing, and rehabilitation care.² There is no deductible; the statute flatly bars them on this coverage.²

PIP covers more than medical bills. The same section pays wage loss at the lesser of $250 per week or 85% of your lost gross income, for up to 52 weeks, plus up to $20 a day for household tasks you can no longer do, funeral or burial costs up to $1,500, and a $3,000 death benefit paid to a deceased person's heirs.²

Motorcycles are the big exception. Utah lets insurers exclude PIP from motorcycle policies, so many riders carry none at all.¹ If you ride, check your declarations page before you assume you're covered.

Your insurer cannot sit on a PIP claim. Once it receives reasonable proof of your expenses, benefits are overdue if not paid within 30 days, and overdue amounts collect interest at 1.5% per month.³ If the company forces you to sue to get paid, it also owes your attorney fees.³

When you can step outside no-fault and sue the driver

Three thousand dollars of medical coverage does not go far. No-fault was built to keep small claims out of court, so Utah puts a gate, the tort threshold, between you and a lawsuit for pain and suffering.

Under Utah Code 31A-22-309, you cannot bring a claim for general damages such as pain and suffering unless your injury clears one of these bars: medical expenses over $3,000, or death, dismemberment, permanent disability or permanent impairment based on objective findings, permanent disfigurement, or a bone fracture.³ Meet any one of them and the no-fault limitation falls away. You can then pursue the at-fault driver for the full range of damages, including everything PIP never paid.

A broken bone qualifies on its own, even a small one, no matter what your bill adds up to. So does any injury a doctor documents as permanent. Most seriously hurt people clear this threshold without trouble, but a soft-tissue case with modest bills may not.

What the at-fault driver is required to carry

When you pursue the other driver, you are usually reaching their liability insurance. Utah raised its minimum limits recently. For any policy issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2025, the floor is 30/65/25: $30,000 for injury to one person, $65,000 total per accident, and $25,000 for property damage.⁴ Before that date the minimum was 25/65/15, and older policies renewed up to the new numbers.⁴

These are floors, not typical coverage, and $30,000 vanishes fast against a hospital stay. That gap is why the next coverage matters so much.

Coverage for the uninsured and underinsured driver

Utah law assumes you want protection against drivers who carry too little or nothing at all. Every auto policy has to include uninsured motorist (UM) and underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage by default, matched to your liability limits, unless you affirmatively waive it.¹ You can reject it or buy lower limits, but only by signing a written waiver that your insurer files with the state.⁵ If you never signed one, you probably have this coverage even if you'd forgotten you bought it.

UM covers you when the at-fault driver has no insurance or flees the scene. UIM fills the gap when their limits run out before your damages do. After a serious crash with a barely insured driver, your own UIM policy is often the largest source of real money.

Utah's comparative fault rule

Utah uses modified comparative negligence. Under Utah Code 78B-5-818, you can recover only from a defendant whose share of fault is greater than your own, and your award is reduced by your own percentage of fault.⁶ Put simply, if you are 50% or less at fault you still recover, minus your share; go above 50% and you recover nothing. A driver who is 20% responsible for a crash still collects 80% of their damages.

The deadline to file

Utah gives you four years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit under the state's four-year limitations statute.⁷ The same four-year window covers a claim for damage to your vehicle or other property from the crash.⁷ Four years sounds generous until evidence disappears and witnesses move; the deadline is firm, and missing it usually ends the case. If you need the official police report to build your claim, you can order the Utah crash report here. For the resale value your car loses even after a proper repair, see diminished value in Utah.

Drunk drivers change the math

Two Utah rules help when a drunk or drugged driver caused the crash. Punitive damages are normally hard to win: Utah Code 78B-8-201 requires clear and convincing evidence of willful, malicious, or reckless conduct. That heightened standard does not apply to injuries caused by a driver who was voluntarily intoxicated, which puts punitive damages within much easier reach in a DUI crash.⁸

Utah's dram shop law adds a second target. An injured person can sue a bar, restaurant, or other provider that served alcohol to someone under 21, or to a person it knew or should have known was already impaired.⁹ Punitive damages are not available against the dram shop itself, but its coverage can be a separate source of recovery.⁹

No damage cap on ordinary crash claims

Utah does not cap compensatory damages in a standard car accident case. The state's one well-known injury cap, $450,000 on noneconomic damages, applies to medical malpractice, not to auto negligence.¹⁰ What you can recover for a crash is set by your actual losses and the insurance available to pay them, not by a statutory ceiling.

If your injury clears the tort threshold and you're weighing whether to handle the claim yourself or get help, you can compare options in the legal directory.

This article is general information about Utah law, not legal advice.

Sources

1. Utah Code 31A-22-302, Required components of motor vehicle insurance policies. https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title31A/Chapter22/31A-22-S302.html

2. Utah Code 31A-22-307, Personal injury protection coverages and benefits. https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title31A/Chapter22/31A-22-S307.html

3. Utah Code 31A-22-309, Limitations, exclusions, and conditions to personal injury protection. https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title31A/Chapter22/31A-22-S309.html

4. Utah Code 31A-22-304, Motor vehicle liability policy minimum limits. https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title31A/Chapter22/31A-22-S304.html

5. Utah Code 31A-22-305, Uninsured motorist coverage. https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title31A/Chapter22/31A-22-S305.html

6. Utah Code 78B-5-818, Comparative negligence. https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title78B/Chapter5/78B-5-S818.html

7. Utah Code 78B-2-307, Actions within four years. https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title78B/Chapter2/78B-2-S307.html

8. Utah Code 78B-8-201, Basis for punitive damages awards. https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title78B/Chapter8/78B-8-S201.html

9. Utah Code 32B-15-201, Liability for injuries resulting from distribution of alcoholic products. https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title32B/Chapter15/32B-15-S201.html

10. Utah Code 78B-3-410, Limitation of noneconomic damages in malpractice actions. https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title78B/Chapter3/78B-3-S410.html