If you were hurt in a Delaware crash, the first insurance money you see usually won't come from the driver who hit you. It comes from your own policy, through Personal Injury Protection (PIP). Delaware is one of the few states that makes PIP mandatory on every registered vehicle, and it pays fast, before anyone argues about fault.1
Here is what that coverage actually looks like, what it doesn't do, and how "Med-Pay" fits into a Delaware policy.
What Delaware PIP covers
Every auto policy issued in Delaware has to carry at least $15,000 in PIP for any one person and $30,000 for all people injured in a single accident.1 Within those limits, PIP pays your reasonable and necessary medical, hospital, dental, surgical, x-ray, prosthetic, and ambulance bills, and it replaces your net lost earnings, including lost income if you are self-employed.1 If someone dies in the crash, the policy pays up to $5,000 in funeral expenses.1
There is a clock on it. PIP only covers expenses you incur within two years of the accident date.1 Treatment that starts inside that window is covered; bills for care you first get in year three generally are not.
The coverage follows the car and the people around it, not just the policyholder. It applies to the named insured and members of their household, to anyone occupying the insured vehicle, and to pedestrians struck by it.1 So a passenger in your car and a person you accidentally hit in a crosswalk can both draw on your PIP, no matter who caused the collision.
Med-Pay is optional here, and often redundant
In many states, Medical Payments coverage (Med-Pay) is the main first-party coverage for crash injuries. Delaware works differently. The state's compulsory-insurance statute requires liability coverage and PIP,1 and uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage is added by default unless you reject it in writing.2 Med-Pay is not on that required list.
Because PIP already pays your medical bills from the first dollar, regardless of fault, a separate Med-Pay rider does less work in Delaware than it does elsewhere. Where an insurer offers it, treat it as optional supplemental coverage that sits on top of PIP rather than replacing it. If a policy calls its medical coverage "PIP," that is the mandatory benefit described above.
PIP pays no matter who was at fault, and it doesn't cap your lawsuit
Delaware is often described as a no-fault state, but it is more accurately an "add-on" state. PIP pays your early bills without regard to fault, and there is no injury threshold you have to clear before you can sue.1 You keep the full right to bring a claim against the driver who hit you for everything PIP doesn't cover: pain and suffering, medical costs above your PIP limit, and long-term losses.
That at-fault claim runs against the other driver's liability insurance, which Delaware sets at a minimum of $25,000 per person, $50,000 per accident, and $10,000 for property damage.3 If those limits fall short of your injuries, your own uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage is the backstop. UM/UIM is built into your policy at the same limits as your liability coverage unless you reject it in writing on the insurer's form, and insurers must offer UIM up to $100,000 per person and $300,000 per accident.2
Your PIP insurer can recover what it paid, but only within limits. The statute subrogates the insurer to your rights against the at-fault party, capped at the amount of that party's available liability coverage.1 In practice this is worked out between the insurance companies and rarely reduces what you personally take home.
The deadlines your insurer has to hit
Delaware puts hard timelines on PIP claims, and misses cost the insurer money.
Once you notify your insurer of a claim, it has 10 days to send you a claim form.4 After you submit a written request for benefits with documentation that the treatment or expense is compensable, the insurer has 30 days to either pay or give you a written explanation of why it is denying all or part of the claim.4
If it blows the 30-day deadline, the unpaid benefits start earning interest for you: 1.5% per month from day 31 through day 60, 2% per month from day 61 through day 120, and 2.5% per month after that.4 One catch to know: if you don't file suit within 90 days of a denial or of the date benefits were due, the penalty interest doesn't start running until the day you actually file.4
When your insurer calls a bill "unreasonable"
A recurring fight in Delaware PIP claims is the insurer paying only part of a medical bill and calling the rest "unreasonable." The Delaware Department of Insurance addressed this directly in Auto Bulletin No. 10.5
The Insurance Commissioner's position is that PIP carriers must pay all of an insured's PIP costs, less any applicable deductible, when those costs are reasonable and the services were necessarily required for care.5 A dispute over whether a fee is too high does not make the treatment itself "unnecessary," and the portion of the bill that isn't in dispute has to be paid.5 If a provider then sues the insured over the disputed balance, the carrier has to provide a defense.5
The bulletin also warns insurers that routinely shaving claims can be an unfair trade practice. Under Delaware's Unfair Practices Act, settling claims for less than the policy requires, often enough to look like a general business practice, is prohibited.6 If your PIP insurer is chipping away at legitimate bills, that statute and the bulletin are worth putting in front of them.
Deductibles, higher limits, and the fine print
The $15,000/$30,000 figures are floors. Delaware lets you buy more, and many insurers sell PIP limits well above the minimum.1 If you drive a lot or have people who depend on your income, higher PIP is one of the cheaper ways to protect yourself.
Delaware also lets the vehicle owner elect deductibles, waiting periods, sublimits, and similar reductions on PIP, but only as they apply to the owner and household members.1 That trims your premium in exchange for paying the first slice of your own bills. It cannot be used to cut coverage for passengers or pedestrians.
The deadline that outlasts your PIP
Don't confuse the two-year PIP expense window with the deadline to sue. A Delaware personal-injury lawsuit generally has to be filed within two years of the crash under 10 Del. C. § 8119.7 That clock is paused while an injured person is under 18, but for most adults, waiting past the two-year mark means losing the claim entirely, no matter how strong it is.
If you're gathering documents, your crash report from the Delaware State Police anchors the timeline and the fault findings. If your car lost resale value, that's a separate diminished value claim against the at-fault driver, not something PIP pays. And if the PIP math or the liability claim gets complicated, you can find a Delaware attorney who handles these cases.
Delaware's PIP system is built to get money moving quickly after a crash. Knowing the exact limits, the 30-day rule, and the interest penalties is what keeps your insurer honest about paying what it owes.
This is general information about Delaware law, not legal advice.
Sources
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Delaware Code, 21 Del. C. § 2118 (required insurance coverage and PIP). https://delcode.delaware.gov/title21/c021/sc01/index.html
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Delaware Code, 18 Del. C. § 3902 (uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage). https://delcode.delaware.gov/title18/c039/index.html
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Delaware Code, 21 Del. C. § 2902(b)(2) (minimum motor vehicle liability limits). https://delcode.delaware.gov/title21/c029/sc01/index.html
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Delaware Code, 21 Del. C. § 2118B (processing and payment of insurance benefits). https://delcode.delaware.gov/title21/c021/sc01/index.html
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Delaware Department of Insurance, Auto Bulletin No. 10, "Personal Injury Protection (PIP)" (adopted Dec. 5, 1994; amended June 12, 1995 and Oct. 15, 1998). https://insurance.delaware.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2017/01/autobull10.pdf
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Delaware Code, 18 Del. C. § 2304(16) (Unfair Practices in the Insurance Business). https://delcode.delaware.gov/title18/c023/index.html
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Delaware Code, 10 Del. C. § 8119 (two-year statute of limitations for personal injuries). https://delcode.delaware.gov/title10/c081/index.html