Filing a car accident lawsuit in South Carolina

Most South Carolina crash claims settle with an insurance company. A lawsuit is what you file when the insurer won't pay what the case is worth, or when the three-year clock is about to run out. South Carolina is an at-fault (tort) state, so the driver who caused the wreck, and that driver's insurer, pays for the harm.¹ The rules below are the ones that actually decide a case here: who can sue, by when, in which court, and how much is on the table.

The deadline to file

You generally have three years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit. That comes from S.C. Code Ann. § 15-3-530(5), the limitations statute covering "any injury to the person or rights of another."² The same three-year window applies to the property-damage side of your claim, the dented car and its lost value.² Miss the deadline and the court will almost always throw the case out, no matter how badly you were hurt.

A few things move that date. If the injured person was a minor or was under a legal disability when the crash happened, the clock is paused, though § 15-3-40 caps that extension at five years (or one year after the disability ends, whichever is shorter).³

The big exception is a government defendant. If the at-fault driver was in a state or county vehicle, or a road-design defect is part of your claim, you're under the South Carolina Tort Claims Act, not the ordinary rule. There the lawsuit deadline is two years, stretched to three only if you first filed a verified claim with the agency, and that verified claim is itself due within one year of the loss.⁴ The Act also caps what you can collect from a governmental entity at $300,000 per person and $600,000 per occurrence.⁴ Same crash, much tighter timeline and a hard ceiling.

How shared fault works

South Carolina follows modified comparative negligence with a 51% bar. The rule comes from the state Supreme Court's decision in Nelson v. Concrete Supply Co., which abolished the old contributory-negligence rule for claims arising on or after July 1, 1991.⁵ You can recover as long as your share of the fault is not greater than the other side's, meaning 50% or less. Your award is then reduced by your percentage. If a jury finds your damages were $100,000 and puts you 20% at fault, you collect $80,000. Cross the line to 51% and you get nothing.⁵

This is why the adjuster works so hard to pin part of the blame on you. Every point of fault shifted onto you comes straight off the check.

Which court hears the case

Where you file depends on how much you're claiming. South Carolina magistrate courts, the small-claims level, can only hear cases up to $7,500.⁶ Anything larger belongs in the Court of Common Pleas, the circuit trial court, which has no upper limit.⁶ Most injury cases with real medical bills land there. Venue is usually the county where the defendant lives or does business.

The insurance behind your claim

Every South Carolina policy has to carry at least 25/50/25 in liability: $25,000 for bodily injury per person, $50,000 per accident, and $25,000 for property damage, under S.C. Code Ann. § 38-77-140.⁷ Those are floors, and they're low, which is why the next two coverages matter so much.

Uninsured motorist (UM) coverage is mandatory in South Carolina and must match the same 25/50/25 minimums, § 38-77-150.⁸ It covers you when the at-fault driver had no insurance or fled. Underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage works differently: insurers must offer it up to your liability limits, but you can turn it down in writing, § 38-77-160.⁸ If you never rejected it, you may have UIM to tap when the other driver's $25,000 doesn't cover your injuries.

One thing South Carolina does not have is no-fault insurance. There's no PIP requirement; § 38-77-144 states flatly that no personal injury protection coverage is mandated under state law.⁹ Medical payments coverage is an optional add-on. So there's no no-fault filing deadline to track, and your medical bills come out of the at-fault driver's coverage, not a first-party PIP pot.

What you can recover, and the caps

Good news for injured people: South Carolina puts no cap on compensatory damages in an ordinary crash case. Medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering are all recoverable in full. The $350,000 noneconomic-damages cap you may have read about applies only to medical malpractice, § 15-32-220, not to car wrecks.¹⁰

Punitive damages, the kind meant to punish reckless conduct, are capped. § 15-32-530 limits them to the greater of three times compensatory damages or $500,000, rising to four times or $2 million for financially motivated or felony-level conduct.¹¹ But the cap disappears entirely in the situations that matter most after a serious crash: when the defendant intended harm, was convicted of a felony for the conduct, or was impaired by alcohol or drugs to the point of substantially impaired judgment.¹¹

When drink or a phone was involved

That last exception is aimed squarely at drunk drivers: punitive damages against an impaired driver escape the usual cap.¹¹ South Carolina also allows dram-shop claims against a bar or restaurant that knowingly serves someone already intoxicated. A 2025 change tightened this. Under 2025 Act No. 42 (H.3430), signed May 12, 2025 and effective January 1, 2026, a liable establishment's share is capped at 50% of your actual damages when the drunk driver is also found at fault, and servers now have to complete state-approved alcohol training.¹²

Distracted driving got its own overhaul. The Hands-Free and Distracted Driving Act, 2025 Act No. 40 (H.3276), amended § 56-5-3890 to bar holding or supporting a phone while driving.¹³ It was signed May 12, 2025 and took effect September 1, 2025; officers issued warnings during a grace period, then citations began February 28, 2026 ($100 for a first offense, $200 and two license points for a second within three years).¹³ A driver who was on a handheld phone at the moment of impact hands you strong evidence of negligence.

Motorcycles: a fault wrinkle

On a motorcycle, two rules can affect your case. South Carolina requires a DPS-approved helmet with a chin strap only for riders and passengers under 21; those 21 and up may legally ride without one, § 56-5-3660.¹⁴ Lane-splitting is illegal statewide, § 56-5-3640.¹⁴ Breaking either doesn't automatically end your claim, but the defense will use it to argue comparative fault, which feeds right back into that 51% math.

Building the case

Two documents do a lot of early work. The official crash report, filed with the South Carolina DMV, sets out the officer's account and is available for $10 on Form FR-50.¹⁵ You can read how to pull yours on our South Carolina crash reports page. If your car lost market value even after a solid repair, that's a separate recovery covered on our South Carolina diminished value guide. When the numbers get serious or fault is contested, that's the point to talk to a lawyer, and you can start from our legal directory.

This is general information about South Carolina law, not legal advice.

Sources

1. South Carolina Department of Insurance, Auto Insurance FAQ. https://online.doi.sc.gov/Eng/Public/faqs/autofaq.aspx

2. S.C. Code Ann. § 15-3-530. https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t15c003.php

3. S.C. Code Ann. § 15-3-40 (tolling for minority or legal disability). https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t15c003.php

4. South Carolina Tort Claims Act, S.C. Code Ann. §§ 15-78-80, 15-78-110, 15-78-120. https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t15c078.php

5. Nelson v. Concrete Supply Co., 303 S.C. 243, 399 S.E.2d 783 (S.C. 1991). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1265650/nelson-v-concrete-supply-company/

6. South Carolina Judicial Branch, Magistrates Court FAQ (civil jurisdiction up to $7,500). https://www.sccourts.org/media/pb2kvc1v/faqmagistrate.pdf

7. S.C. Code Ann. § 38-77-140. https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t38c077.php

8. S.C. Code Ann. §§ 38-77-150, 38-77-160. https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t38c077.php

9. S.C. Code Ann. § 38-77-144. https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t38c077.php

10. S.C. Code Ann. § 15-32-220. https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t15c032.php

11. S.C. Code Ann. § 15-32-530. https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t15c032.php

12. 2025 Act No. 42 (H.3430), Tort Reform and Liquor Liability. https://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess126_2025-2026/bills/3430.htm

13. 2025 Act No. 40 (H.3276), Hands-Free and Distracted Driving Act, amending S.C. Code Ann. § 56-5-3890. https://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess126_2025-2026/bills/3276.htm

14. S.C. Code Ann. §§ 56-5-3660, 56-5-3640. https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t56c005.php

15. South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles, Collision Reports. https://www.dmv.sc.gov/Vehicle-Owners/Collision-Reports