If you were just in a crash, one of the first real questions is whether the other driver, and you, carried enough insurance to cover what happened. Virginia changed its answer to that question twice in the space of two years. The state raised the minimum liability limits every driver has to carry, and it closed the old loophole that let people skip insurance entirely by paying a fee. Here is what the law actually requires now.
The minimum liability limits
Every auto liability policy issued or renewed in Virginia on or after January 1, 2025 must carry at least these limits:
- $50,000 for bodily injury to or death of one person in a single accident
- $100,000 for bodily injury to or death of two or more people in a single accident
- $25,000 for damage to someone else's property
Agents write that as 50/100/25.12 It's a real increase from the old floor. Policies issued between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2024 only had to carry 30/60/20, so a driver whose policy predates the change may still be running on the lower numbers until the next renewal locks in the new ones.12
One thing worth being clear about: these limits are what your insurer pays to other people when you are the at-fault driver. They do nothing for your own injuries or your own vehicle. That's a common misread of what "full coverage at the state minimum" buys you.
Insurance is now mandatory, and the uninsured fee is gone
For decades Virginia was an outlier. You could legally register a vehicle without buying any insurance if you paid the state an annual Uninsured Motor Vehicle (UMV) fee, which had climbed to $500. That option no longer exists. Effective July 1, 2024, the DMV stopped collecting the UMV fee, and every vehicle registered in Virginia now has to be covered by an insurance policy that meets the state's liability limits.3
If you were hit before July 2024 by a driver who had paid the fee instead of buying coverage, that history still matters to your claim. Going forward, though, "I paid the uninsured fee" is no longer a lawful substitute for a policy in Virginia.
Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is built in
Virginia doesn't stop at liability. Every auto policy sold in the state has to include uninsured and underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage at limits that match your liability limits, which means at least 50/100/25 for a minimum policy.4 It also has to include at least $20,000 of UM coverage for damage to your own property, subject to a $200 deductible in hit-and-run situations where the at-fault driver can't be identified.4
A named insured can reject the extra UM/UIM coverage above the state minimum in writing, and that rejection binds everyone on the policy.4 The minimum layer itself can't be waived. This matters more in Virginia than in most states, and the reason is the state's harsh negligence rule (more on that below). If the person who hits you has no insurance, or carries only a bare 50/100/25 policy against serious injuries, your own UM/UIM coverage is often the only place real money comes from.
Medical payments and PIP
Virginia does not require personal injury protection (PIP). It also doesn't require medical payments coverage. What the law does is guarantee you can buy Med Pay: on an insured's request, the insurer has to make available medical expense and lost-income benefits up to $2,000 per person, and you and the insurer can agree to a different limit if you want more.5 Med Pay follows you regardless of fault and can help cover deductibles, co-pays, and bills that pile up while a liability claim is still being sorted out. For a few dollars a month it's one of the more useful add-ons a Virginia driver can carry.6
What happens if you drive without insurance
The DMV runs an Insurance Verification Program that checks coverage electronically with insurers, so an uninsured vehicle tends to surface even without a traffic stop.7 Get caught driving or registering an uninsured vehicle and the DMV can suspend your driver's license, registration, and plates. To get them back you have to pay a $600 statutory noncompliance fee, file an SR-22 certificate of financial responsibility and keep it in force for three years, and pay the standard reinstatement fee.7 The SR-22 is your insurer's promise to the DMV that you're carrying at least the § 46.2-472 minimum, and a lapse during those three years can restart the clock.
After a DUI, the FR-44 doubles your limits
Virginia is one of only two states (Florida is the other) that uses an FR-44 filing. A DUI or DWI conviction, along with a handful of related offenses like maiming while intoxicated or driving on a forfeited license, triggers it.8 The FR-44 is stricter than an SR-22 in one specific way: the DMV requires liability coverage at double the standard § 46.2-472 minimum.8 With the minimum now at 50/100/25, an FR-44 driver has to carry 100/200/50, and keep that filing active for three years. That's a large, ongoing cost that often surprises people more than the fine did.
Why the minimum is often not enough
The state floor is a legal requirement, not a measure of what a serious crash costs. A single ambulance ride, an ER visit, and a few weeks of physical therapy can burn through $50,000 in bodily injury coverage quickly, and a modern vehicle can exceed the $25,000 property damage limit on its own.
Virginia's negligence rule makes carrying more coverage, especially UM/UIM, even more important. The state follows pure contributory negligence, meaning an injured person who is found even one percent at fault can be barred from recovering anything from the other driver, subject only to a narrow "last clear chance" exception.9 Because a defense lawyer's whole strategy is often to pin a sliver of blame on you, the money you can count on is frequently your own coverage rather than the other side's. Higher UM/UIM limits are the practical answer.
If your car was totaled or lost resale value even after a good repair, that's a separate property claim worth understanding; Virginia recognizes diminished value claims. To document what happened, you'll usually want the official Virginia crash report. And keep the clock in mind: you generally have two years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit in Virginia, and five years for property damage.10 If your injuries are significant or fault is being disputed, it's worth talking to a Virginia attorney well before that deadline, because coverage questions like stacking UM/UIM and reading exclusions get complicated fast.
This is general information, not legal advice.
Sources
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Va. Code Ann. § 46.2-472, https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title46.2/chapter4/section46.2-472/
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Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, Insurance Requirements, https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/vehicles/insurance-requirements
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Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, New Laws Take Effect Today, July 1, 2024, https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/news/new-laws-take-effect-today-july-1-2024
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Va. Code Ann. § 38.2-2206, https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title38.2/chapter22/section38.2-2206/
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Va. Code Ann. § 38.2-2201, https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title38.2/chapter22/section38.2-2201/
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Virginia State Corporation Commission, Bureau of Insurance, Virginia Auto Insurance Consumer Guide, https://www.scc.virginia.gov/consumers/insurance/property-casualty-consumer/virginia-auto-insurance-guide/
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Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, Financial Responsibility Requirements, https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/businesses/insurance/frrequire
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Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, Financial Responsibility Certifications (SR-22 and FR-44), https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/businesses/insurance/certifications
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Lawrence v. Wirth, 226 Va. 408, 309 S.E.2d 315 (1983), https://law.justia.com/cases/virginia/supreme-court/1983/810149-1.html
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Va. Code Ann. § 8.01-243, https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title8.01/chapter4/section8.01-243/