Minimum car insurance requirements in Wyoming

If you drive in Wyoming, state law sets a floor for the liability insurance you have to carry, and the numbers are smaller than most people assume. The minimum is written as 25/50/20: $25,000 for bodily injury to one person, $50,000 for bodily injury per crash when more than one person is hurt, and $20,000 for property damage.¹ Those figures come straight from Wyo. Stat. 31-9-405, and they have not changed in years.

Wyoming is an at-fault (tort) state. There is no no-fault system and no Personal Injury Protection sold here.² The driver who caused the crash, through their liability insurance, is the one responsible for your injuries and vehicle damage. The minimums below are what that at-fault driver is required to carry, which is exactly why they matter if someone else hits you.

The three numbers Wyoming requires

Break 25/50/20 apart and it is easier to see what it actually buys.

The first number, $25,000, is the most one liability policy will pay for the injuries of any single person in a crash.¹ The second, $50,000, is the total available for everyone's injuries in one crash combined, no matter how many people were hurt.¹ The third, $20,000, covers damage to other people's property, usually the other vehicle, but also a fence or a storefront.¹

That $20,000 property-damage floor is worth a second look. The average new vehicle now costs far more than $20,000, so a driver carrying only the minimum can total a newer car and leave thousands in damage uncovered.

Wyoming does not require collision or comprehensive coverage for your own car. Those are optional under state law, though a lender will usually demand them while you finance or lease.

Insurance is mandatory, and the state verifies it electronically

Every motor vehicle registered in Wyoming has to be covered by a liability policy that meets those minimums, and you have to be able to prove it.³ Wyoming runs an online insurance verification system through the Department of Transportation, authorized under Wyo. Stat. 31-4-103(e), that lets the state and law enforcement check coverage in real time.³ Electronic verification counts as proof of insurance, so the card on your phone is enough at a traffic stop.⁴

If the system flags your vehicle as uninsured, the state can ask you to show proof. Fail to produce it within 30 days of that notice and your driver's license and registration can be suspended.³

What happens if you drive without it

Driving without the required coverage is a misdemeanor, and the penalties are not trivial. A first offense carries a fine of $500 to $1,500, up to six months in jail, or both.³

A second or later offense adds a harder consequence: the judge orders you to surrender the vehicle's license plates and registration to the county treasurer.³ A conviction also requires you to file and maintain proof of financial responsibility for three years, the filing many states call an SR-22.³ For those three years your insurer reports your coverage to the state, and any lapse restarts the clock.

The coverage Wyoming leaves up to you

A few coverages sit outside the mandatory minimum but matter a great deal after a serious crash.

Uninsured motorist (UM) coverage is the closest thing to required. Under Wyo. Stat. 31-10-101, every auto liability policy issued in Wyoming has to include UM coverage unless you reject it in writing.⁵ If you turned it down once, an insurer does not have to add it back at renewal unless you ask for it in writing.⁵ UM pays for your injuries when the at-fault driver has no insurance or flees the scene, and its bodily-injury limits track the same 25/50 minimums as your liability coverage unless you buy more.⁵

Underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage is a different animal. Wyoming does not require insurers to carry it or even to offer it, so it is a purely optional add-on you have to request.⁵ UIM fills the gap when the other driver has insurance but not enough, for example when their $25,000 limit falls short of your hospital bill.

Medical Payment Coverage (MPC, often called MedPay) is optional too. It pays medical and funeral costs for you and your passengers regardless of who caused the crash.² Because Wyoming has no PIP, MedPay is the only first-party medical coverage most drivers can buy in the state.²

Why the state minimum is often not enough

The 25/50/20 floor exists to keep cars insured, not to make injured people whole. One ambulance ride and a short hospital stay can pass $25,000 quickly, and once the at-fault driver's limit is exhausted, the rest comes out of their pocket, which is often empty.

Two features of Wyoming law make carrying more than the minimum worthwhile. Wyoming follows modified comparative negligence with a 51% bar, so you can recover damages as long as you were not more at fault than the other side, and your award is reduced by your share of the blame.⁶ And Wyoming puts no cap on the compensatory damages you can recover in an ordinary car-crash case. The state constitution bars the legislature from limiting damages for injury or death, with a narrow exception only for medical malpractice.⁷ Your recovery is bounded by what you can prove and by the insurance actually available. There is no statutory ceiling on it.

That is why UM and UIM matter so much. About 5.9% of Wyoming drivers were uninsured as of 2022, one of the lowest rates in the country, but drivers cross state lines constantly and the national picture is far worse.⁸ If an uninsured or underinsured driver hits you and you declined that coverage, there may be no policy to collect from no matter how strong your claim is. If you have been hit and are not sure who pays, or you just want to understand your own limits, a Wyoming attorney can walk you through it; you can start with the thatcarhitme.com legal directory.

Deadlines and next steps after a crash

Wyoming gives you four years from the date of the crash to file an injury lawsuit, under Wyo. Stat. 1-3-105(a)(iv)(C), and the same four-year window applies to claims for damage to your vehicle.⁹ That is longer than many states allow, but evidence fades fast, so it is not a reason to wait.

If you need the official police report, you can request your Wyoming crash report. If your car is worth less now because it carries an accident on its history, that lost value is a separate claim from repair costs; see diminished value in Wyoming.

One practical move today: pull out your declarations page and read the actual limits. Plenty of Wyoming drivers are carrying the bare 25/50/20 without knowing it, and the time to fix that is before a crash, not after.

This article is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

1. Wyoming Statutes § 31-9-405, "Liability policy" defined; required coverage. https://law.justia.com/codes/wyoming/title-31/chapter-9/article-4/section-31-9-405/

2. Wyoming Department of Insurance, Insurance Topics (auto coverage). https://doi.wyo.gov/consumers/insurance-topics

3. Wyoming Statutes § 31-4-103, Failure to maintain liability coverage; penalties; exceptions. https://law.justia.com/codes/wyoming/title-31/chapter-4/section-31-4-103/

4. Wyoming Department of Transportation, Insurance Verification. https://www.dot.state.wy.us/home/driver_license_records/suspensionsignition-interlock/insurance_verification.html

5. Wyoming Statutes § 31-10-101, Required coverage; rejection. https://law.justia.com/codes/wyoming/title-31/chapter-10/section-31-10-101/

6. Wyoming Statutes § 1-1-109, Comparative fault. https://law.justia.com/codes/wyoming/title-1/chapter-1/section-1-1-109/

7. Wyoming Constitution, art. 10, § 4. https://sos.wyo.gov/Forms/Publications/WYConstitution.pdf

8. Insurance Information Institute, Facts + Statistics: Uninsured motorists (Insurance Research Council data). https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-uninsured-motorists

9. Wyoming Statutes § 1-3-105, Actions other than for recovery of real property. https://law.justia.com/codes/wyoming/title-1/chapter-3/section-1-3-105/