Filing a Car Accident Lawsuit in Nevada

The Nevada-specific rules for a car accident lawsuit: how long you have to sue, how comparative fault cuts your recovery, the insurance you claim against, and the few caps on damages.

ThatCarHitMe.com Editorial
Jun 15, 2026
6 min read

Filing a car accident lawsuit in Nevada

Most Nevada crash claims settle with an insurance company and never see a courtroom. But the right to file a lawsuit is what gives a settlement its weight. If the insurer lowballs you or blames you for the wreck, the statute is what you fall back on, and Nevada sets specific rules for who can sue, by when, and for how much. Here is what changes because the crash happened in Nevada.

The deadline is shorter than people expect

Nevada gives you two years from the date of the crash to file a lawsuit for a personal injury.1 Miss that window and the court will almost certainly dismiss the case, no matter how clearly the other driver was at fault. Damage to the car itself runs on a separate, longer clock: three years to sue for injury to personal property, which includes your vehicle.1

Two exceptions matter. If the injured person was under 18 when the crash happened, the two-year clock is paused until they turn 18, so a minor generally has until around their 20th birthday to sue.2 The same pause applies to someone who was legally incapacitated when the claim arose.2 A wrongful death claim runs two years from the date of death, which is not always the date of the crash.

Do not wait until the deadline is near. Evidence disappears, witnesses move, and a lawyer needs time to investigate before filing anything.

Nevada is an at-fault state, and your own share of blame counts

Nevada is not a no-fault state. The driver who caused the crash pays for the harm through their liability insurer, which means fault has to be proven. Nevada uses modified comparative negligence to sort that out.3

Under NRS 41.141, you can still recover as long as your share of the fault was "not greater than" the other side's.3 Put plainly: if you are found 50 percent or less at fault, you collect, but your award drops by your percentage. At 51 percent or more, you get nothing. A $100,000 verdict where the jury assigns you 30 percent of the blame becomes a $70,000 recovery. This is why insurers work so hard to pin part of the fault on you. Every point they shift lowers what they owe, and past the halfway mark it wipes out the claim.

Suing more than one driver

When two or more defendants share the blame, Nevada does not make each one pay the whole judgment. Each defendant is severally liable, responsible only for the slice of the judgment that matches their own percentage of fault.3 If a court finds one driver 60 percent responsible and another 40 percent, you collect 60 percent from the first and 40 percent from the second. You cannot demand the full amount from whichever driver has the deeper pockets. NRS 41.141 keeps a narrower set of cases under joint liability, including product liability, intentional torts, and injuries from hazardous substances.3 For an ordinary multi-car collision, expect several liability.

The insurance you are actually claiming against

Every Nevada driver has to carry at least 25/50/20 in liability coverage: $25,000 for injury to one person, $50,000 per crash for everyone hurt, and $20,000 for property damage.4 Those are legal floors, not typical limits, and they run out fast after a hospital stay.

That gap is why uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage matters here. Nevada does not force you to buy UM/UIM, but every auto insurer must offer it in an amount equal to your own bodily injury limits, and you can decline it only in writing.5 When the at-fault driver has no insurance or too little, your own UM/UIM policy is often the difference between a paper judgment and money in hand. Insurers also have to offer medical payments coverage of at least $1,000, which pays your medical bills regardless of fault and carries no short filing deadline.5 Nevada does not sell PIP, so this optional med-pay is the only first-party medical coverage the state addresses.5

For the vehicle itself, Nevada lets you pursue the lost resale value of a repaired car on top of the repair bill. Our Nevada diminished value guide covers how that claim works.

What you can recover, and the few caps that exist

In an ordinary Nevada car accident case there is no cap on compensatory damages. You can recover the full medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering that a jury finds you actually suffered. The often-quoted Nevada cap of $590,000 for 2026 applies only to noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases, not to car crashes.6

Punitive damages are the exception. They punish especially reckless conduct, and Nevada generally caps them at three times your compensatory damages when those are $100,000 or more, or at $300,000 when they are less.7

Drunk driving cases are treated differently

When a drunk driver injures you, that punitive cap does not apply at all. NRS 42.010 removes DUI injury cases from the NRS 42.005 limits entirely, so a jury can award punitive damages with no statutory ceiling.87

Do not count on suing the bar, though. Nevada is one of the few states with almost no dram shop liability. Under NRS 41.1305, a business or person that serves alcohol to someone 21 or older is not civilly liable for what that person later does behind the wheel.9 The narrow exception is knowingly furnishing alcohol to someone under 21. In most drunk driving crashes, the driver and their insurer are the defendants, not the casino or bar that served them.

Building the fault case

The police crash report is usually the first document a lawyer pulls, because it fixes the location, the vehicles involved, and the officer's first read on fault. You can request the Nevada report through our Nevada crash report guide.

Some traffic violations do much of the work of proving negligence. Texting and handheld phone use are illegal in Nevada under NRS 484B.165, which bars manually typing or reading data and holding a phone for a call while driving, though hands-free is allowed.10 Police can stop a driver for it on its own, and a citation is strong evidence of fault in your civil case. The civil penalties are $50 for a first offense, $100 for a second, and $250 for a third within seven years.10

Motorcyclists face two extra rules that can shape a claim. Nevada requires every rider and passenger to wear a helmet, whatever their age,1112 and lane splitting, riding between lanes of moving or stopped traffic, is illegal.11 A defense lawyer will raise either one to argue you share the fault, so they are worth knowing before you file.

Getting help

Nevada's deadlines are firm, and the comparative fault rules hand insurers real leverage. Most people with a serious injury do better with a lawyer than on their own. You can find a Nevada attorney through our legal directory.

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

Sources

  1. Nevada Revised Statutes 11.190, limitation of actions (two years for injury to a person under NRS 11.190(4)(e); three years for injury to personal property under NRS 11.190(3)(c)). https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-011.html

  2. Nevada Revised Statutes 11.250, tolling of the limitation period for persons under a legal disability (minors under 18 and incapacitated persons). https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-011.html

  3. Nevada Revised Statutes 41.141, when comparative negligence is not a bar to recovery, and several liability of multiple defendants. https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-041.html

  4. Nevada Revised Statutes 485.185, required minimum motor vehicle liability coverage (25/50/20). https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-485.html

  5. Nevada Revised Statutes 687B.145, required offer of uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage and of medical payments coverage of at least $1,000. https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-687B.html

  6. Nevada Supreme Court, published maximum noneconomic damages under NRS 41A.035 ($590,000 for 2026). https://nvcourts.gov/supreme/court_information/limitations_of_noneconomic_damages_against_health_care_providers_nrs_41a.035

  7. Nevada Revised Statutes 42.005, limitation on exemplary and punitive damages. https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-042.html

  8. Nevada Revised Statutes 42.010, punitive damages against a defendant who was intoxicated; the NRS 42.005 caps do not apply. https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-042.html

  9. Nevada Revised Statutes 41.1305, liability of a person who serves, sells or furnishes alcoholic beverages. https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-041.html

  10. Nevada Revised Statutes 484B.165, prohibition on manual use of a handheld wireless communications device while driving. https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-484B.html

  11. Nevada Revised Statutes 486.231 (helmet required for driver and passenger) and 486.351 (lane usage; driving between lanes prohibited). https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-486.html

  12. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, motorcycle helmet use laws (Nevada requires all riders to wear helmets). https://www.iihs.org/topics/motorcycles/motorcycle-helmet-laws-table

About This Guide

Written by: ThatCarHitMe.com Editorial

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