PIP and Med-Pay rules in California

If you were hurt in a California crash and you're trying to figure out who pays your medical bills, start with the fact that surprises most people: California has no PIP. Personal injury protection is the standard first-party medical coverage in no-fault states, and California isn't one of them. You can't be required to carry PIP here, and insurers don't even sell it.¹²

California is an at-fault (tort) state. After a crash, the driver who caused it, through their liability insurer, is responsible for the other side's injuries and vehicle damage.¹ There's no PIP pool that pays your own bills first. That one difference drives everything else on this page.

What California actually requires

To register and drive a car in California, you carry liability insurance, and none of it covers your own medical care. As of January 1, 2025, the minimum liability limits are 30/60/15: $30,000 for injury or death to one person, $60,000 per accident when more than one person is hurt, and $15,000 for property damage.³⁴ Those numbers, part of SB 1107 (the Protect California Drivers Act), replaced limits that hadn't moved since 1967, and they're scheduled to rise to 50/100/25 on January 1, 2035.³

You can also meet the requirement without a policy by putting a $75,000 cash deposit with the DMV, posting a $75,000 surety bond, or qualifying for a DMV self-insurance certificate.¹ Notice what's absent from all of it: any coverage for your own injuries. Liability pays the person you hurt. It does nothing for you.¹

MedPay, California's closest thing to PIP

The coverage that fills part of the PIP gap here is medical payments coverage, usually called MedPay. It's optional. The California Department of Insurance describes it as coverage you "may be offered" and "can choose not to buy," with a minimum limit you can purchase of $1,000 per person.² Insurers commonly sell higher limits, often $2,000, $5,000, $10,000, and $25,000.

MedPay is first-party, no-fault coverage. It pays medical and funeral expenses for you and your passengers regardless of who caused the crash, there's no deductible or copay, and it pays providers directly.² Using it isn't grounds for a premium increase.

Where it parts ways with true PIP: MedPay is medical-only. It doesn't replace lost wages or pay for household help the way PIP does in no-fault states, and the limits are usually much lower. Treat it as a cushion for immediate bills and copays while the liability claim plays out. It won't stand in for a full income-and-medical package. California sets no statutory deadline for filing a MedPay claim; the timing comes from your own policy, so report the crash to your insurer promptly and submit bills within the window the contract sets.

The made-whole rule, the California-specific part that matters

Here's where California law does something you should understand before you spend a dollar of MedPay. Most MedPay policies give the insurer a right to be paid back if you later recover from the at-fault driver. California limits that right hard.

Under the made-whole rule, your MedPay insurer can't take reimbursement out of your settlement until you've been fully compensated for your actual damages.⁵ In 21st Century Insurance Co. v. Superior Court (2009) 47 Cal.4th 511, the California Supreme Court also held that the insurer has to shoulder its fair share of your attorney fees before it collects. The court gave a plain example: it had paid $1,000 in MedPay on a $6,000 settlement, so it bore one-sixth of the fees and collected that much less.⁵

So MedPay money isn't a loan you repay off the top of a settlement. If your recovery doesn't cover everything you lost, the insurer may get nothing back, and even when it does, it pays a proportional share of what it cost you to get that recovery.⁵

There's a flip side that helps you. Under California's collateral source rule, the at-fault driver doesn't get to pay less just because your MedPay or health insurance already covered a bill. In Helfend v. Southern California Rapid Transit District (1970) 2 Cal.3d 1, the California Supreme Court kept that kind of payment away from the jury and explained that a driver who caused the harm shouldn't profit from the victim's decision to carry insurance.⁶ Running early bills through MedPay doesn't shrink what you can still collect from the person who hit you.

When the at-fault driver has no insurance

Because your own medical bills ride on the other driver's liability coverage, an uninsured or underinsured at-fault driver is a real problem in California. Uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage is the backstop.

Insurers must offer UM/UIM on every liability policy, and you can drop it only by signing a written waiver.⁷² If you never signed one, you may carry UM/UIM even if you don't remember buying it. UM bodily injury generally matches your liability limits, and there's uninsured motorist property damage of up to $3,500 when the at-fault driver is identified.²

One California wrinkle: underinsured motorist coverage fills a gap, it doesn't stack on top of the other driver's policy. Your UIM payout is your UIM limit minus whatever you already collected from the at-fault driver's liability insurance, so if that driver carries limits equal to or above yours, UIM adds nothing.⁷ For loss of the vehicle's resale value beyond repairs, see the diminished value guide for California.

Deadlines that actually control your case

MedPay has no statutory clock, but the claim that ultimately pays for a serious injury, the one against the at-fault driver, does. In California you generally have two years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit.⁸ Claims for vehicle or other property damage get three years.⁹ Miss those and the right to sue is usually gone, MedPay or not.

One more California rule shapes how much you collect: pure comparative negligence. If you're found partly at fault, your recovery drops by your percentage of fault, but it never vanishes entirely, even at 99% fault.¹⁰ That share feeds the made-whole math, because "fully compensated" is measured against what you were legally entitled to recover.

Putting it together after a crash

A workable order of operations for most California crashes:

• Use MedPay (if you have it) and your health insurance for immediate bills, so care doesn't wait on a liability fight.
• Document everything, including the official California crash report.
• Pursue the at-fault driver's liability coverage for the full value of your injuries, and your own UM/UIM if that driver is uninsured or underinsured.
• Settle any MedPay reimbursement last, with the made-whole rule and fee-sharing applied.

If the injuries are more than minor, or an insurer is pushing reimbursement before you've been made whole, that's the point to talk to a lawyer. You can find a California attorney here.

This is general information about California law, not legal advice.

Sources

1. California DMV, Insurance Requirements for Vehicle Registration. https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/vehicle-registration/insurance-requirements/

2. California Department of Insurance, Automobile Insurance (consumer guide). https://www.insurance.ca.gov/01-consumers/105-type/95-guides/01-auto/auto101.cfm

3. California Legislative Information, Cal. Veh. Code § 16056. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=VEH&sectionNum=16056.

4. California Legislative Information, SB 1107 (Protect California Drivers Act). https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB1107

5. 21st Century Insurance Co. v. Superior Court (2009) 47 Cal.4th 511, California Supreme Court. https://scocal.stanford.edu/opinion/21st-century-insurance-v-super-ct-32973

6. Helfend v. Southern California Rapid Transit District (1970) 2 Cal.3d 1, California Supreme Court (via Justia). https://law.justia.com/cases/california/supreme-court/3d/2/1.html

7. California Legislative Information, Cal. Ins. Code § 11580.2. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=11580.2&lawCode=INS

8. California Legislative Information, Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=335.1&lawCode=CCP

9. California Legislative Information, Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 338(c)(1). https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=338.&lawCode=CCP

10. Li v. Yellow Cab Co. (1975) 13 Cal.3d 804, CourtListener. https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1139343/li-v-yellow-cab-co/