New Hampshire Rideshare Accident Settlements

If an Uber or Lyft crash left you hurt in New Hampshire, the size of any settlement comes down to three things: which insurance layer was active at the moment of the crash, how much fault (if any) lands on you, and the fact that New Hampshire sets no dollar ceiling on what a crash victim can recover.

This page stays on the numbers, deadlines, and exceptions that are specific to New Hampshire. The general mechanics of a rideshare claim are covered on the main guide.

The three insurance periods decide how much coverage is available

New Hampshire regulates Uber and Lyft under RSA chapter 359-U, the Transportation Network Company statute. This part trips up a lot of older write-ups. In 2023 the state repealed its original rideshare law, the old RSA 376-A, and recodified the whole chapter as RSA 359-U, effective July 1, 2023, with the Department of Safety now running the permit program.¹² If a page you are reading still cites RSA 376-A, it is pointing at a statute that no longer exists.

How much coverage is available tracks which of three periods the driver was in when the crash happened.

App off. The driver is just a private motorist, and only a personal auto policy applies. No rideshare coverage attaches.
App on, waiting for a request. RSA 359-U:8 sets a primary liability floor of at least $50,000 per person and $100,000 per crash for injuries, plus $25,000 for property damage, and this layer carries a duty to defend.³
Ride accepted, through drop-off. The statutory floor jumps to at least $300,000 combined for death, bodily injury, and property damage.³

That $300,000 is New Hampshire's legal minimum, not the number you will usually be working with. The rideshare companies' own policies provide at least $1,000,000 in third-party liability during an accepted ride, far above the state floor.⁴ That larger policy is what makes a serious injury case in Period 2 or 3 worth pursuing against the rideshare insurer rather than the driver alone.

One catch sits in RSA 359-U:10. A personal auto insurer is allowed to exclude all coverage for a loss that happens while the driver is logged on or giving a ride.⁵ That is why the period matters so much. If the driver's personal insurer wrote that exclusion and the crash fell in the app-on waiting period, the contingent $50,000/$100,000 layer may be all that stands behind the driver.

How the 51 percent fault rule changes your number

New Hampshire uses modified comparative negligence under RSA 507:7-d. Your recovery drops by your own share of fault, and if that share climbs past 50 percent you recover nothing at all.⁶ A passenger in the back of an Uber almost never carries fault, so this rarely touches a passenger's payout. It matters more when you were driving another car, on a bike, or on foot when the rideshare vehicle hit you and the insurer argues you share the blame.

The math is blunt. At 30 percent fault on a claim worth $100,000, you collect $70,000. At 51 percent, you collect zero. Insurers know this and will push fault onto you to shrink the payout, so how the fault question gets documented early is the biggest factor they control.

No caps on what you can recover

New Hampshire does not cap damages in an ordinary crash case. Your economic losses (medical bills, lost income) and your noneconomic losses (pain, permanent impairment) are both left open-ended. The state's one attempt at a cap, a $250,000 limit on noneconomic damages, was struck down as unconstitutional in Carson v. Maurer in 1980 and was never replaced.⁷

The limit runs the other way on punitive damages. RSA 507:16 bars them statewide unless a specific statute allows them, and no rideshare or drunk-driving exception exists.⁷ Even if the driver who hurt you was intoxicated or reckless, you cannot add punitive damages as a separate category. What you can recover is the full measure of your actual harm, with nothing capping it artificially.

Coverage that stacks on top of the liability payout

Two other coverages can add to what you take home, independent of who was at fault.

Every private passenger auto policy in New Hampshire has to include at least $1,000 in medical payments coverage under RSA 264:16.⁸ Med pay covers treatment costs regardless of fault for expenses incurred within three years of the crash, and under RSA 264:17 those benefits are non-subrogable, so the insurer cannot claw them back out of your settlement.⁹ The amount is small, but it does not reduce your liability recovery.

Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is the larger piece, and it matters more here than in almost any other state. New Hampshire is the only state that does not require most drivers to carry liability insurance at all. The duty to show financial responsibility is triggered only after an accident or a conviction under RSA chapter 264, so the car that hit you may legally carry no coverage whatsoever.¹⁰ RSA 264:15 requires insurers to include UM/UIM equal to your own liability limits unless you rejected it in writing.¹¹ That coverage is what stands in when the at-fault side has nothing, or carries only New Hampshire's 25/50/25 minimum under RSA 264:20.¹² In a rideshare crash it surfaces two ways: the driver was in the app-on waiting period behind the thin $50,000/$100,000 contingent layer, or an uninsured or minimally insured third car caused the wreck.

The three-year deadline and the evidence behind your number

You have three years from the date of the crash to file suit in New Hampshire under RSA 508:4, I. The same statute covers property damage, so the clock on a claim over your vehicle is also three years.¹³ Miss it and the claim is gone, and the insurer knows it.

Settlement value is built long before that deadline, from the evidence you lock down early. The police crash report anchors the fault question, and you can request yours through our New Hampshire crash reports page. If your own vehicle was damaged, its lost resale value is a separate item you can claim on top of the repair cost, which our New Hampshire diminished value page walks through.

When alcohol was involved

If the driver had been drinking, New Hampshire's dram shop law, RSA chapter 507-F, can open a second source of recovery. A bar or server that negligently served someone already visibly intoxicated, or served a minor, can be sued by the crash victim.¹⁴ That puts another defendant and another insurance policy in play, which can matter when the driver's own coverage falls short. The punitive damages bar still applies, so this widens who pays rather than what you can claim.

Because the fault rule and the insurance-period question decide so much of the outcome, most New Hampshire rideshare cases turn on evidence and negotiation, not a fixed formula. If you want help handling the insurer and the fault fight, you can find a New Hampshire attorney through our legal directory.

This article is general information about New Hampshire law, not legal advice.

Sources

New Hampshire General Court, N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. ch. 359-U (Transportation Network Companies). https://gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/XXXI/359-U/359-U-mrg.htm
New Hampshire General Court, N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. ch. 376-A, repealed by 2023, 30:1, eff. July 1, 2023. https://www.gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/XXXIV/376-A/376-A-mrg.htm
New Hampshire General Court, N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 359-U:8, Financial Responsibility of TNCs. https://gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/XXXI/359-U/359-U-8.htm
Uber Technologies, Inc., Insurance for rideshare and delivery drivers. https://www.uber.com/us/en/drive/insurance/
New Hampshire General Court, N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 359-U:10, Motor Vehicle Insurance Provisions. https://gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/XXXI/359-U/359-U-10.htm
New Hampshire General Court, N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 507:7-d, comparative negligence. https://www.gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/LII/507/507-7-d.htm
New Hampshire General Court, N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 507:16; Carson v. Maurer, 120 N.H. 925 (1980). https://www.gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/LII/507/507-16.htm
New Hampshire General Court, N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 264:16, medical payments coverage. https://www.gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/XXI/264/264-16.htm
New Hampshire General Court, N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 264:17. https://www.gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/XXI/264/264-17.htm
New Hampshire General Court, N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. ch. 264, Accidents and Financial Responsibility (§§ 264:2, 264:3). https://gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/xxi/264/264-mrg.htm
New Hampshire General Court, N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 264:15, uninsured motorist coverage. https://www.gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/XXI/264/264-15.htm
New Hampshire General Court, N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 264:20, minimum liability limits. https://www.gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/XXI/264/264-20.htm
New Hampshire General Court, N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 508:4, I. https://www.gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/LII/508/508-4.htm
New Hampshire General Court, N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. ch. 507-F, Alcoholic Beverage Licensee Liability. https://www.gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/LII/507-F/507-F-mrg.htm

Rideshare Accident Settlement Amounts in New Hampshire