If you just got hurt in a New Hampshire crash and someone told you to "file your PIP," start with this: New Hampshire doesn't have PIP. There's no personal injury protection, no no-fault system, and no 14-day filing clock like the one Florida drivers deal with. New Hampshire is an at-fault, or tort, state. The coverage that does one slice of what PIP does in other states is Medical Payments coverage, almost always written on your policy as "Med-Pay," and a short list of statutes controls exactly how it works.
New Hampshire has no PIP, and no no-fault deadline
Because New Hampshire runs on fault, the driver who caused the crash (through their liability insurer) is the one who ultimately owes you for your injuries. There's no PIP box to check and no no-fault reporting window that can quietly kill your claim. What state law does require, on any private passenger policy that actually gets issued, is Med-Pay. So the practical question in New Hampshire isn't "did I elect PIP in time." It's "how much Med-Pay did I buy, and how do I use it."
The $1,000 med-pay floor and what it covers
Under RSA 264:16, I, any motor vehicle liability policy covering a private passenger automobile that's registered or principally garaged in New Hampshire has to include Medical Payments coverage of at least $1,000 per person. It pays reasonable medical costs from injuries in an accident involving the insured vehicle, and it covers both the driver and the passengers in that vehicle.1
That $1,000 is a floor, not a ceiling. You can buy $5,000, $10,000, or more, and most people don't realize how thin the mandatory minimum is until a single emergency-room bill blows past it. Two built-in limits live in the statute: the costs have to be reasonable (the insurer can decline what it decides isn't), and only costs you incur within 3 years of the injury date count.1
Med-pay pays no matter who caused the crash
The whole point of Med-Pay is speed with no fault fight attached. It pays your reasonable medical costs regardless of who caused the crash.1 You don't have to prove the other driver was negligent, and you don't have to wait for the liability claim to settle before the money moves. Even if you were the one who rear-ended someone, your own Med-Pay still pays your bills.
You keep med-pay and your injury settlement
Here's the New Hampshire rule people miss most often. RSA 264:17 says the insurer that pays Med-Pay has no right of subrogation against any third party.2 In plain terms, your insurer can't claw the Med-Pay back out of your eventual settlement with the at-fault driver, and it can't go chase the at-fault driver to be repaid either. Many no-fault and PIP states build in some reimbursement or offset. New Hampshire doesn't. The $1,000 or more of Med-Pay is money you keep on top of whatever you recover from the person who hit you.
Med-pay, your health insurance, and who gets to bill
Med-Pay is designed to stack with your health insurance rather than cancel it out. RSA 264:16, II bars a health carrier from coordinating benefits against Med-Pay,1 so your health plan can't cut what it pays just because you also carry Med-Pay. RSA 264:16, III makes Med-Pay non-assignable to a health care provider,1 which stops a hospital from taking over the claim and aiming it at your coverage. And paragraph IV gives you, the insured, the exclusive right to decide whether a given bill goes to Med-Pay, to your health insurance, or to both, with one guardrail: you can't collect twice for the same expense.1 In practice the smart move with a small Med-Pay limit is to point it at what health insurance leaves behind, like your deductible and copays.
Insurance itself is optional in New Hampshire
New Hampshire is one of only two states that doesn't force every driver to carry auto insurance. Instead, the state expects you to be able to cover the damage if you cause a crash. RSA 264:21 lets a driver prove financial responsibility by depositing money or securities with the state rather than buying a policy.3 That said, if you do carry a private passenger policy, and the large majority of New Hampshire drivers do, the Med-Pay and uninsured-motorist coverages described here are baked in and aren't yours to skip.
What rides alongside med-pay: UM/UIM and liability limits
When you buy liability coverage in New Hampshire, the statutory floor is 25/50/25: $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident for bodily injury, plus $25,000 for property damage, under RSA 264:20.4
Your policy also carries uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage by default. RSA 264:15 requires UM/UIM equal to your own liability limits, and it automatically rises to match if you raise those limits.5 You can reject it, but only in writing, and a named insured's written rejection binds every insured and every vehicle on the policy until someone revokes it in writing.5 This coverage carries extra weight in New Hampshire for a simple reason: because insurance is optional here, a real share of the other drivers on the road legally carry nothing at all.
Fault still decides the big money
Med-Pay is the quick, no-fault slice, and it's a small one. Everything past that first $1,000 to $10,000, meaning your remaining medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering, runs through a fault-based claim against the driver who hit you. New Hampshire uses modified comparative negligence. RSA 507:7-d lets you recover as long as your share of the fault is not greater than the other side's, and it reduces your award in proportion to your own percentage of fault.6 Once your fault crosses the 51% line, you recover nothing.
Vehicle damage and diminished value run on a separate track from your injury claim. New Hampshire's rules for that side are covered on the New Hampshire diminished value page.
The deadline that ends everything
Med-Pay has its own internal clock: 3 years from the injury to incur the costs it will pay.1 Your lawsuit deadline runs on a separate 3-year track. RSA 508:4, I gives you 3 years from the crash to file a personal injury or property damage suit, with only a narrow discovery-rule exception for an injury that couldn't reasonably have been found sooner.7 Miss that deadline and even an airtight claim is over.
If you need the official crash record to back any of this up, start with the New Hampshire crash report page. And if your medical bills are outrunning your Med-Pay and you're weighing a claim against the at-fault driver, a New Hampshire attorney can tell you whether the case is worth bringing.
This is general information, not legal advice.
Sources
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New Hampshire General Court, RSA 264:16, Medical Payments. https://www.gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/XXI/264/264-16.htm
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New Hampshire General Court, RSA 264:17, Subrogation. https://www.gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/XXI/264/264-17.htm
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New Hampshire General Court, RSA 264:21, Proof of Financial Responsibility. https://www.gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/XXI/264/264-21.htm
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New Hampshire General Court, RSA 264:20, Financial Responsibility Required Limits. https://www.gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/XXI/264/264-20.htm
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New Hampshire General Court, RSA 264:15, Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Coverage. https://www.gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/XXI/264/264-15.htm
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New Hampshire General Court, RSA 507:7-d, Comparative Fault. https://www.gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/LII/507/507-7-d.htm
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New Hampshire General Court, RSA 508:4, Personal Actions Statute of Limitations. https://www.gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/LII/508/508-4.htm