Filing a Car Accident Lawsuit in North Dakota

A North Dakota car accident claim runs on rules that look different from most states. It's a no-fault state, so before you can sue the driver who hit you, your injury has to clear a specific legal bar. The deadline to file is longer than average, but there's a shorter one hiding inside it. And the state caps some kinds of damages while leaving others wide open. Here's what actually governs a lawsuit here, section by section.

The deadline: six years, with a shorter one for a death

North Dakota gives you six years from the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit. That comes from N.D.C.C. § 28-01-16(5), which sets a six-year limit for "any other injury to the person or rights of another."¹ The same six years applies to a claim for the damage to your vehicle, under subsection (4) of that statute.¹ Six years is among the longer deadlines in the country, but waiting is still a mistake: evidence disappears and the at-fault driver's insurer starts building its file the day of the crash.

The trap is what happens when someone dies. A wrongful death claim is not on the six-year clock. N.D.C.C. § 28-01-18(4) gives survivors only two years from the date of death to sue.² If a crash kills a family member, the timeline you're working with is a third of the one for an injury, and it can run out before the estate is even settled.

North Dakota is a no-fault state, and that decides whether you can sue at all

Under the Auto Accident Reparations Act, your own insurer pays your early medical bills and lost wages no matter who caused the crash. These are called basic no-fault benefits, North Dakota's version of PIP. Because the system is built to keep smaller claims out of court, the law shields the at-fault driver from a lawsuit for pain and suffering unless your injury is bad enough. N.D.C.C. § 26.1-41-08 says a "secured person" is exempt from liability for your noneconomic loss unless you sustained a "serious injury."³

So the threshold question in every North Dakota claim is whether your injury is "serious" as the statute defines it. Under N.D.C.C. § 26.1-41-01(21), a serious injury is one that results in death, dismemberment, serious and permanent disfigurement, disability beyond 60 days, or medical expenses over $2,500.⁴ Meet any one of those and the door to a pain-and-suffering claim opens. That $2,500 medical-expense figure is the one most people reach first, and it's why keeping every bill and record matters from day one.

What no-fault pays, and how fast

Basic no-fault benefits are capped at $30,000 per person, per accident, for all economic loss combined.⁴ Within that cap, the law limits work-loss and survivors' income replacement to $150 per week and funeral costs to $3,500.⁴ Your insurer has to move quickly: benefits are overdue if they aren't paid within 30 days after the company receives reasonable proof of the loss, under N.D.C.C. § 26.1-41-09(2).⁵ If your losses run past the $30,000 cap, you may have bought optional excess coverage, which North Dakota lets insurers sell up to a total of $80,000 in no-fault benefits.⁶

Money you recover through no-fault doesn't disappear from your lawsuit. You can still pursue the at-fault driver for economic losses above what no-fault paid, and for pain and suffering once you clear the serious-injury bar.

Fault is shared, and reaching 50% ends your case

North Dakota follows modified comparative fault. Under N.D.C.C. § 32-03.2-02, your damages are reduced by your share of the blame, but you recover nothing if your fault "was as great as the combined fault" of everyone else who contributed.⁷ In plain terms, you can be up to 49% at fault and still collect, reduced by your percentage. Hit 50% and you get nothing. Insurers know this, so a common defense tactic is to push your share of fault toward that line. A driver who was 30% responsible for a $100,000 loss recovers $70,000; a driver found 50% responsible recovers zero.

What you can recover, and the limits that exist

For a serious injury, North Dakota lets you recover both economic damages (medical bills, lost earnings, future care) and noneconomic damages (pain, suffering, disfigurement, loss of consortium). There's no hard cap on either in an ordinary injury case. What the state does have is a reasonableness check: under N.D.C.C. § 32-03.2-08, any economic damage award over $250,000 can be reviewed by the court, and reduced if the defense proves it doesn't bear a reasonable relation to the loss actually incurred.⁸ The court can trim an award it finds unreasonable, but the statute sets no dollar ceiling on what a jury may hand down.

Punitive damages work differently. North Dakota calls them exemplary damages, and N.D.C.C. § 32-03.2-11 caps them at two times your compensatory damages or $250,000, whichever is greater.⁹ You can't even ask for them in your original complaint. You have to move the court to amend after showing, by clear and convincing evidence, oppression, fraud, or malice.⁹

Drunk drivers, bars, and social hosts

The exemplary-damages bar drops when a drunk driver is involved. N.D.C.C. § 32-03.2-11(9) says that in a motor vehicle case, it's enough for the jury to consider punitive damages if the driver was operating with a blood alcohol concentration of at least .08%, was impaired by drugs, or refused a chemical test.⁹

North Dakota also lets you reach the source of the alcohol. Under the dram shop statute, N.D.C.C. § 5-01-06.1, a person injured by an obviously intoxicated individual can sue anyone who "knowingly disposes, sells, barters, or gives away" alcohol to someone under 21 or to an obviously intoxicated person.¹⁰ That covers bars and restaurants, and because the statute includes giving alcohol away, it reaches social hosts too. There are limits. The drunk driver can't use it to sue over their own intoxication, and an adult passenger who rode with them can't either.¹⁰ These claims carry a two-year deadline, not six.²

Insurance minimums and the coverage that follows you

Every North Dakota driver has to carry at least $25,000 for injury to one person, $50,000 per accident, and $25,000 for property damage, the 25/50/25 minimum in N.D.C.C. § 39-16.1-11.¹¹ Those numbers are low, and a serious crash can blow through them fast, which is where your own policy matters.

North Dakota doesn't let insurers sell a policy without uninsured motorist coverage, and it has to be provided at the same 25/50 minimum.¹² Underinsured motorist coverage is also required, at limits equal to your uninsured motorist coverage.¹² You can't sign this protection away with a general waiver. The only way it comes off a policy is a written endorsement excluding one specific named driver.¹³ If the person who hit you had no insurance or too little, this coverage on your own policy is often what actually pays.

Before you file: the report and the record

A North Dakota crash is legally reportable when it causes injury, death, or at least $4,000 in property damage, and the state sells the official report for $7 through the Department of Transportation.¹⁴ Get a copy early; it fixes the basic facts while they're fresh. You can find the full process on our North Dakota crash report page. If your car lost market value even after a solid repair, that's a separate claim covered on our North Dakota diminished value page.

The rules above decide how much a claim is worth and whether it survives at all, and most of the fights are over the serious-injury threshold and the percentage of fault. If your injury is anywhere near the line, it's worth talking to someone who handles these cases. You can find a North Dakota attorney here.

This article is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

North Dakota Century Code § 28-01-16 (Actions having six-year limitations). https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t28c01.pdf
North Dakota Century Code § 28-01-18 (Actions having two-year limitations; wrongful death and dram shop claims). https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t28c01.pdf
North Dakota Century Code § 26.1-41-08 (Secured person exemption). https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t26-1c41.pdf
North Dakota Century Code § 26.1-41-01 (Auto Accident Reparations Act, definitions). https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t26-1c41.pdf
North Dakota Century Code § 26.1-41-09 (Payment of basic and optional excess no-fault benefits). https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t26-1c41.pdf
North Dakota Century Code § 26.1-41-04 (Optional excess no-fault benefits). https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t26-1c41.pdf
North Dakota Century Code § 32-03.2-02 (Modified comparative fault). https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t32c03-2.pdf
North Dakota Century Code § 32-03.2-08 (Review of reasonableness of economic damages). https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t32c03-2.pdf
North Dakota Century Code § 32-03.2-11 (When court or jury may give exemplary damages). https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t32c03-2.pdf
North Dakota Century Code § 5-01-06.1 (Claim for relief for fault resulting from intoxication). https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t05c01.pdf
North Dakota Century Code § 39-16.1-11 (Motor vehicle liability policy; minimum limits). https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t39c16-1.pdf
North Dakota Century Code §§ 26.1-40-15.2 and 26.1-40-15.3 (Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage). https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t26-1c40.pdf
North Dakota Century Code § 26.1-40-16 (Exclusion of named persons; restrictive endorsements). https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t26-1c40.pdf
North Dakota Department of Transportation, Purchase a Crash Report (reportable crashes under N.D.C.C. § 39-08-09). https://www.dot.nd.gov/travel-and-safety/safety/purchase-crash-report

Filing a car accident lawsuit in North Dakota