Minimum car insurance requirements in Massachusetts

Massachusetts law sets a hard floor for auto coverage: 25/50/30 in liability, $8,000 in no-fault PIP, and matching uninsured-motorist protection, all raised on July 1, 2025. Here's what each coverage pays, what it doesn't, and the penalties for skipping it.

ThatCarHitMe.com Editorial
Jun 17, 2026
6 min read

If another driver hit you in Massachusetts, the first thing standing between you and a stack of medical bills is often just their insurance policy. There were 128,769 reported crashes across the state in 2025, and any one of them can leave you bumping up against the limits of someone else's coverage.1

Massachusetts is a compulsory-insurance state. You can't register a car here without proof that the policy carries four specific coverages, and the Registry of Motor Vehicles verifies that electronically before it processes the registration.2 Here's exactly what those four coverages are and what each one has to pay.

The four coverages every Massachusetts policy must carry

Bodily injury to others. This pays people you injure or kill with your car. The minimum is $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident, written as 25/50.3 It covers the people in the other car or on the sidewalk, not you or your own passengers.

Personal injury protection (PIP). Massachusetts is a no-fault state, so your own PIP pays your medical bills and part of your lost income no matter who caused the crash. The mandatory amount is $8,000 per person, and it also covers up to 75 percent of lost wages plus certain replacement-service costs.42 There's a coordination wrinkle worth knowing: if you carry your own health insurance, PIP pays the first $2,000 of medical bills, your health plan then covers what it covers, and PIP fills the gaps such as copays and deductibles up to the $8,000 limit.2 Once a treating physician sends notice of your disability, the insurer has ten days to start paying or to send written notice explaining why it won't, and if payable benefits go unpaid past thirty days you can sue for them.4

Bodily injury caused by an uninsured auto. Uninsured motorist (UM) coverage steps in when the driver who hit you had no insurance or fled the scene. It's mandatory in Massachusetts, and it has to match your bodily-injury limits, so the floor is the same 25/50.5

Damage to someone else's property. This pays for the other person's car, fence, or guardrail when you're at fault. The minimum is now $30,000 per accident.6

Put it together and the Massachusetts minimum reads 25/50/30, plus the separate $8,000 of PIP and 25/50 of uninsured-motorist coverage.

What changed on July 1, 2025

For decades the minimums sat at 20/40 for bodily injury and just $5,000 for property damage. The Legislature raised them through Chapter 275 of the Acts of 2024, signed December 23, 2024 as an emergency law.7 The new figures, 25/50 for bodily injury and $30,000 for property damage, apply to any policy issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2025.367 If your policy renewed just before that date, you may still be carrying the old limits until it comes up again.

The property-damage jump is the one that matters most day to day. Five thousand dollars stopped covering a wrecked car a long time ago, and $30,000 is far closer to what a modern collision actually costs.

Why the minimum often isn't enough

Meeting the state minimum keeps you legal. It does not mean you're covered for a serious crash. One ambulance ride, an ER visit, and a few weeks out of work can pass $25,000 quickly, and if you caused the wreck, the injured person can pursue your personal assets for whatever the policy doesn't pay.

A few coverages are worth buying above the floor. Underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage is the one people most often drop by accident. It pays when the at-fault driver has insurance but not enough of it. Insurers in Massachusetts have to offer UIM, but you can decline it, and that waiver must be in writing.5 If a driver carrying only the 25/50 minimum injures you badly, UIM on your own policy may be the only place left to recover real money.

Higher liability limits protect your own savings, not just the other driver's. Collision and comprehensive coverage pay to repair or replace your own car, which none of the four mandatory coverages do. Winter raises the stakes here: Boston averages about 49 inches of snow a year,8 and icy roads produce exactly the kind of multi-vehicle pileups that drain a minimum policy. Boston alone logged 451 crashes in April 2026.9

The tort threshold and no-fault

Because PIP pays first, Massachusetts limits when you can sue the other driver for pain and suffering. You generally can't bring that claim unless your reasonable medical expenses top $2,000, or the injury caused death, a fracture, permanent and serious disfigurement, loss of a body member, or substantial loss of sight or hearing.10 Clear that threshold and you can step outside the no-fault system to pursue the at-fault driver's bodily-injury coverage for your full damages.

Fault still shapes what you collect. Massachusetts uses modified comparative negligence with a 51 percent bar: your recovery drops by your share of the blame, and if you're found more than half at fault, you recover nothing.11

Penalties for driving without it

Operating an uninsured vehicle is not a minor ticket here. A conviction carries a fine of $500 to $5,000, up to a year in a house of correction, or both.12 The RMV suspends your license or right to operate for sixty days on a first offense, and for a full year on a second or later conviction within any six-year period.12 You can also be ordered to repay the state insurance plan the greater of $500 or a full year's premium at the highest-rated territory and class.12 All of that comes on top of being personally liable for every dollar of damage you cause while uninsured.

After a crash, the deadlines that matter

The other driver's minimum policy is your starting point, but it's rarely the whole story. You have three years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury or property damage lawsuit in Massachusetts, and missing that deadline usually ends the claim no matter how strong it was.13

Pull the official Massachusetts crash report for your accident; it records who was involved and which insurers were on the vehicles. If your car lost resale value even after a clean repair, that's a separate diminished value claim worth pursuing. And when the injuries are serious or fault is disputed, talk to a lawyer before accepting any insurer's first offer. You can find one through the legal directory.

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

Sources

  1. thatcarhitme.com, Massachusetts statewide year-over-year crash report, 2025. https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/statewide/2025-annual-report

  2. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Basics of Auto Insurance (Mass.gov). https://www.mass.gov/info-details/basics-of-auto-insurance

  3. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 90, § 34A (motor vehicle liability policy; bodily injury minimums). https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXIV/Chapter90/Section34A

  4. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 90, § 34M (personal injury protection). https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXIV/Chapter90/Section34M

  5. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 175, § 113L (uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage). https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXXII/Chapter175/Section113L

  6. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 90, § 34O (compulsory property damage liability). https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXIV/Chapter90/Section34O

  7. Acts of 2024, c. 275 (amending c. 90, §§ 34A and 34O; effective July 1, 2025). https://malegislature.gov/Laws/SessionLaws/Acts/2024/Chapter275

  8. NOAA/National Weather Service, Boston/Norton climate normals (annual snowfall about 49 in.). https://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=NWS&product=CLM&issuedby=BOS

  9. thatcarhitme.com, Boston, MA crash report, April 2026. https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/boston/april-2026-report

  10. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 231, § 6D (tort threshold for pain and suffering). https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIII/TitleII/Chapter231/Section6D

  11. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 231, § 85 (comparative negligence). https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIII/TitleII/Chapter231/Section85

  12. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 90, § 34J (operating without a liability policy; penalties). https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXIV/Chapter90/Section34J

  13. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 260, § 2A (three-year statute of limitations). https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIII/TitleV/Chapter260/Section2A

About This Guide

Written by: ThatCarHitMe.com Editorial

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