PIP and MedPay rules in New Mexico

If you were just hurt in a crash and someone told you to "file a PIP claim," here's the part that surprises most people: New Mexico doesn't have PIP. There's no personal injury protection product to buy and no no-fault system behind it. New Mexico runs on a traditional at-fault, or tort, model, so the driver who caused the wreck pays for your injuries through their liability insurance.¹

That single fact changes how your bills get paid. Below is what actually exists in New Mexico, the coverage that quietly fills the gap PIP would fill in other states, and the deadlines that decide whether you collect anything at all.

New Mexico never adopted no-fault

Personal injury protection belongs to no-fault states, where your own insurer pays your medical costs up to a set limit no matter who caused the crash, and your right to sue is restricted in exchange. New Mexico isn't one of those states. The Motor Vehicle Division requires only three coverages, all of them liability: $25,000 for bodily injury or death of one person, $50,000 per accident, and $10,000 for property damage. That's the standard 25/50/10.¹² Nothing on that list is PIP, because the state has never required it.

So after a New Mexico crash, the money for your injuries comes from the at-fault driver's liability policy, not from a no-fault benefit of your own. That is slower, and it depends on the other driver actually carrying insurance. The upside is that you keep the full right to sue for everything a tort claim allows, including medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.

What MedPay is, and how it works here

The closest thing to PIP you can buy in New Mexico is medical payments coverage, usually called MedPay. It's optional. No statute requires it, and carriers sell it as an add-on rather than a mandatory line, so whether you have it depends entirely on what you chose when you bought the policy.¹ There's no election deadline written into state law, so you can usually add it at renewal or mid-term if your insurer allows.

MedPay does one useful thing, fast. It pays reasonable medical and funeral expenses from a crash regardless of fault, typically in amounts like $5,000 or $10,000, and it covers you, family members in your car, and your passengers. You don't have to prove the other driver was negligent to use it. That makes it valuable in the first weeks after a crash, when bills start arriving and the liability claim is nowhere near settled. It can also cover the deductibles and copays your health insurance leaves behind.

Why MedPay is worth more here than people assume

New Mexico follows the collateral source rule. Money you get from a source unconnected to the at-fault driver, including your own MedPay coverage, does not reduce what that driver owes you. The New Mexico Supreme Court reaffirmed this in Sunnyland Farms v. Central New Mexico Electric Cooperative, holding that a wrongdoer can't shrink its liability just because the injured person was careful enough to carry insurance.³ So MedPay can pay your bills now, and you can still recover the full value of those same bills from the at-fault driver later.

There is a catch. Your MedPay insurer can ask to be paid back out of your recovery. New Mexico handles that through equitable apportionment instead of a strict made-whole rule. Under Amica Mutual Insurance Co. v. Maloney, the insurer's reimbursement shrinks in proportion to how much of your total damages you actually recovered, and it's reduced again to share the attorney fees that produced the recovery.⁴ If you collected only part of what your case was worth, the insurer gets back only part of what it paid.

The coverage that really fills the PIP gap

Because there's no PIP, and because a lot of New Mexico drivers carry nothing more than the 25/50/10 minimum, the coverage that protects you most is uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage (UM/UIM). Insurers have to offer it, at limits equal to your liability limits. You can reject it, but only in writing. A spoken "no" doesn't count.⁵

Two recent developments make this the piece to get right. In June 2025 the New Mexico Supreme Court decided Kileen v. Didio, ruling that insurers must offer UM/UIM on a per-vehicle basis so a policyholder can buy the coverage they can afford instead of taking or refusing it across every car at once.⁶ Months later the Office of Superintendent of Insurance issued Bulletin 2025-013, ordering carriers to adopt per-vehicle disclosure and rejection forms.⁷

Then there's the minimum-limits trap. New Mexico applies an offset, meaning your underinsured coverage is reduced by whatever liability money the at-fault driver's policy pays. Since Schmick v. State Farm, that offset has meant a minimum $25,000 UIM policy pays nothing extra when another minimum-limits driver hits you, because the $25,000 you collect from them cancels it out.⁸ Courts now require insurers to disclose that this coverage is "illusory." The takeaway is simple. Buy UM/UIM above the minimum, and if you ever turn it down, do it in writing and per vehicle.

Deadlines and fault rules that decide your claim

Coverage is worthless if you miss the clock. In most cases you have three years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit in New Mexico, and four years for property damage to your vehicle.⁹¹⁰ If a government vehicle or a public employee caused your crash, the timeline tightens sharply. You must serve a written notice of claim within 90 days under the Tort Claims Act, and the lawsuit itself is barred after two years.¹¹¹²

Fault is split under pure comparative negligence. Since Scott v. Rizzo, a New Mexico jury assigns each party a percentage of blame, and your recovery is reduced by your share but never wiped out, even if you were mostly responsible.¹³ That's why the police account of the crash matters so much. If you need the official write-up, start with the New Mexico crash report page.

What to do after a New Mexico crash

Use MedPay first if you carry it, then pursue the at-fault driver's liability coverage, and fall back on your own UM/UIM if that driver was uninsured or carried too little. Save every bill and photograph the damage. If your car is worth less on resale now that it has an accident on record, that's a separate diminished value claim. When the numbers are large or an insurer starts fighting you on the offset and reimbursement rules, an attorney can line those rules up against your specific policy.

This is general information about New Mexico law, not legal advice for your situation.

Sources

1. New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division, auto insurance requirements. https://www.mvd.newmexico.gov/what-automobile-insurance-am-i-required-to-have-in-new-mexico/

2. NMSA 1978 § 66-5-215, minimum liability limits. https://law.justia.com/codes/new-mexico/chapter-66/article-5/part-3/section-66-5-215/

3. Sunnyland Farms, Inc. v. Central New Mexico Electric Cooperative, Inc., 2013-NMSC-017. https://law.justia.com/cases/new-mexico/supreme-court/2013/32-968.html

4. Amica Mutual Insurance Co. v. Maloney, 1995-NMSC-059, 120 N.M. 523. https://law.justia.com/cases/new-mexico/supreme-court/1995/120-n-m-523.html

5. NMSA 1978 § 66-5-301, uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage and rejection. https://law.justia.com/codes/new-mexico/chapter-66/article-5/part-4/section-66-5-301/

6. Kileen v. Didio, No. S-1-SC-39256 (N.M. June 30, 2025). https://law.justia.com/cases/new-mexico/supreme-court/2025/s-1-sc-39256.html

7. New Mexico Office of Superintendent of Insurance, Bulletin 2025-013. https://www.osi.state.nm.us/en/news/bulletin-2025-013/

8. Schmick v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., 1985-NMSC-073, 103 N.M. 216. https://law.justia.com/cases/new-mexico/supreme-court/1985/15459-0.html

9. NMSA 1978 § 37-1-8, three-year limitation for injury to the person. https://law.justia.com/codes/new-mexico/chapter-37/article-1/section-37-1-8/

10. NMSA 1978 § 37-1-4, four-year limitation for injury to property. https://law.justia.com/codes/new-mexico/chapter-37/article-1/section-37-1-4/

11. NMSA 1978 § 41-4-16, Tort Claims Act notice of claim. https://law.justia.com/codes/new-mexico/chapter-41/article-4/section-41-4-16/

12. NMSA 1978 § 41-4-15, Tort Claims Act statute of limitations. https://law.justia.com/codes/new-mexico/chapter-41/article-4/section-41-4-15/

13. Scott v. Rizzo, 96 N.M. 682 (1981). https://law.justia.com/cases/new-mexico/supreme-court/1981/96-n-m-682.html