Minimum car insurance requirements in Hawaii

Hawaii raised the floor on what every driver has to carry, and it happened recently enough that plenty of quote tools and consumer guides still show the old numbers. As of January 1, 2026, the state's minimum liability limits are 40/80/20: $40,000 per person and $80,000 per accident for bodily injury, plus $20,000 for property damage.¹ That's double the 20/40/10 minimums that had been on the books since the late 1990s, and the increase came from 2024 Act 138, which directed the Insurance Commissioner to have every motor vehicle insurer refile rates to match the new numbers in Haw. Rev. Stat. Section 431:10C-301(b).²

If you're comparing quotes or trying to figure out what an at-fault driver's policy actually owes you after a crash, these are the current legal minimums, not a number pulled from a national insurance guide. Some of Hawaii's own public materials, including the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs' general consumer page on motor vehicle insurance, still list the older 20/40/10 figures.³ The statute controls, and it says 40/80/20.¹

What Hawaii requires you to carry

Every registered vehicle needs three coverages in force at once, plus a valid Hawaii motor vehicle insurance identification card in the car at all times.³

Personal injury protection, PIP, is the core of Hawaii's no-fault system. It pays your own medical bills and a portion of lost wages after a crash, regardless of who caused it, up to an aggregate $10,000 per person.⁴ You don't wait for a liability determination to get PIP money moving, and insurers can't either: once you submit reasonable proof of a loss, the insurer has 30 days to pay or deny the claim in writing, and anything left unpaid after that accrues interest at 1.5% per month.⁵

Bodily injury liability runs $40,000 per person and $80,000 per accident. This is what your own policy pays if you injure someone else.¹

Property damage liability is $20,000 per accident, covering damage you cause to another person's car or property.¹ If the crash leaves your own car worth less even after a full repair, that's a separate diminished value claim against the at-fault driver, not something PIP or your own property damage coverage handles.

UM/UIM coverage is optional, and that's a real gap

Hawaii doesn't make you buy uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage, UM and UIM. Insurers are required to offer it, up to your bodily injury liability limits, when you first buy a policy and again at renewal, and the offer has to be conspicuous, priced, and put in front of you for a signature.¹ If you reject it in writing, the insurer doesn't have to offer it again on that policy going forward.¹ A lot of drivers sign that rejection without registering what they're giving up. Carry $100,000 in UM/UIM against a driver who only has the $40,000 minimum, and your own policy can make up part of the difference once the other side's limit is exhausted, subject to your policy's terms. Skip UM/UIM, and a driver at the state minimum, or with no insurance at all, is often the only source of recovery you have once PIP runs out.

What happens if you skip coverage

Driving or owning an uninsured vehicle in Hawaii carries real teeth. A first offense is a minimum $500 fine and a three-month license suspension; a second offense within five years is a minimum $2,000 fine and a full year's suspension, with courts able to substitute jail time up to 30 days, community service, or registration and plate suspension for repeat violators.⁶ The law allows a narrow good-faith defense: if you reasonably believed the vehicle was insured, such as a borrowed car whose owner said it was covered, you may avoid the penalty, though you're expected to make a reasonable inquiry first.⁶ Act 138 raised these repeat-offense penalties at the same time it raised the coverage minimums, on the theory that underinsurance and driving with no insurance at all were both leaving crash victims without a way to get paid.² If your car has no insurance in force, you're also required to surrender your registration certificate and license plates to the county director of finance.³

Fault still matters in a no-fault state

Hawaii's PIP system pays regardless of fault, but fault doesn't disappear from the picture. You can only step outside no-fault and sue for pain and suffering if the case clears a threshold: death, a significant permanent loss of a body part or function, permanent serious disfigurement, or PIP benefits paid or payable that reach $5,000.⁷ Once you clear that threshold, Hawaii applies modified comparative negligence with a 51% bar.⁸ A jury that assigns you 30% of the fault reduces your recovery by 30%. Assign you 51%, and you recover nothing, even if the other driver was still more at fault than you.⁸

Why there's no damage cap here

There's no cap on the pain-and-suffering damages you can recover in an ordinary car accident case. Hawaii does have a $375,000 cap on noneconomic damages in some tort cases, but the statute that creates the cap specifically carves out motor vehicle accident claims.⁹ That matters for the minimum-limits conversation: a $40,000 bodily injury policy caps what an at-fault driver's insurer will pay you, full stop, no matter how large your actual damages turn out to be. The ceiling comes from the policy limit purchased, not from any statutory cap on the claim itself.

Your two-year deadline

You have two years from the date of the crash to file a lawsuit for either injury or property damage, and it's the same statute and the same two-year window for both.¹⁰ That deadline runs whether or not you're still treating, still negotiating with an adjuster, or still waiting on a PIP payment. Insurers can spend months negotiating past the point where filing suit stops being realistic, so track the two-year date yourself rather than relying on an adjuster's timeline.

Why the minimum probably isn't enough

Doubling the state minimums closed some of the gap between what Hawaii requires and what a serious crash actually costs, but $40,000 still doesn't go far against a hospital bill for a fractured hip or a spinal fusion. If you're shopping for your own policy, carrying UM/UIM at your full bodily injury limit, not just the state floor, is usually the single highest-value dollar you can spend, since it's the only coverage that protects you against the other driver's cheap policy or no policy at all.

If you were hurt by someone carrying only the state minimum, or you're not sure what coverage applies to your crash, an attorney who works Hawaii injury claims regularly can tell you within a few minutes whether PIP, the at-fault driver's liability limits, or your own UM/UIM is the right route. You can find one through our legal directory. And because Hawaii has no state highway patrol, your crash report will come from whichever county police department responded: Honolulu, Hawaii, Maui, or Kauai. Here's how to get your Hawaii crash report.

This is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

1. Haw. Rev. Stat. Section 431:10C-301, minimum liability limits and UM/UIM offer requirement, as amended by 2024 Act 138 - https://data.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol09_Ch0431-0435H/HRS0431/HRS_0431-0010C-0301.htm

2. Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Insurance Division, Commissioner's Memorandum 2024-2R (rate filings pursuant to 2024 Haw. Sess. Laws Act 138) - https://cca.hawaii.gov/ins/commissioners-memorandum-2024-2r-rate-filings-pursuant-to-2024-haw-sess-laws-act-138/

3. Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Insurance Division, Motor Vehicle Insurance Information - https://cca.hawaii.gov/ins/consumers-mvi/

4. Haw. Rev. Stat. Section 431:10C-103.5, PIP aggregate benefit limit - https://data.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol09_Ch0431-0435H/HRS0431/HRS_0431-0010C-0103_0005.htm

5. Haw. Rev. Stat. Section 431:10C-304, PIP claim payment deadline and interest - https://data.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol09_Ch0431-0435H/HRS0431/HRS_0431-0010C-0304.htm

6. Haw. Rev. Stat. Section 431:10C-117, penalties for driving without required insurance - https://data.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol09_Ch0431-0435H/HRS0431/HRS_0431-0010C-0117.htm

7. Haw. Rev. Stat. Section 431:10C-306, no-fault thresholds for a tort claim - https://data.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol09_Ch0431-0435H/HRS0431/HRS_0431-0010C-0306.htm

8. Haw. Rev. Stat. Section 663-31, modified comparative negligence - https://data.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol13_Ch0601-0676/HRS0663/HRS_0663-0031.htm

9. Haw. Rev. Stat. Sections 663-8.7 and 663-10.9(2), noneconomic damage cap and motor vehicle tort exclusion - https://data.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol13_Ch0601-0676/HRS0663/HRS_0663-0008_0007.htm

10. Haw. Rev. Stat. Section 657-7, two-year statute of limitations for injury and property damage - https://data.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol13_Ch0601-0676/HRS0657/HRS_0657-0007.htm