A crash in Minnesota is not handled the way it is in most states. Minnesota is one of about a dozen no-fault states, and that changes who pays your first medical bills, when you're allowed to sue the other driver, and how the numbers work out. In 2024 the state recorded roughly 475 traffic deaths (preliminary), along with tens of thousands of injury crashes, many of them on snow and ice.1 Here is what the law actually requires, with the statute numbers so you can check any of it yourself.
Your own insurance pays first
Minnesota's No-Fault Automobile Insurance Act requires every auto policy sold in the state to carry "basic economic loss" benefits, usually called PIP. After a crash you turn to your own insurer for the first round of costs, no matter who caused the collision. The minimum is $40,000 per person: $20,000 for medical and rehabilitation expenses, and a separate $20,000 for wage loss, replacement services, and funeral costs.2 Wage loss is paid at 85 percent of your gross income up to $500 a week. Replacement services (paying someone to do what your injury stops you from doing, like childcare or clearing the driveway) run up to $200 a week, and funeral expenses are capped at $5,000.2
Your insurer is on a clock. Benefits are overdue if they aren't paid within 30 days after you give reasonable proof of the loss, and anything overdue carries 15 percent simple interest per year.3 If a company is sitting on a valid claim past that point, the interest is not a suggestion, it is owed.
When you can sue the at-fault driver
Because PIP covers your economic losses regardless of fault, you can't automatically sue the other driver for pain and suffering. Minnesota sets a "tort threshold." You can bring a claim for noneconomic damages only if your injury clears one of these bars: more than $4,000 in reasonable medical expenses, 60 or more days of disability, permanent injury, permanent disfigurement, or death.4 Stay below that line and no-fault is your only remedy. Cross it and the door to a full injury claim opens. This is why documenting every treatment matters, because the $4,000 figure and the 60-day count are what determine which side of the line you land on.
How Minnesota splits the blame
Minnesota uses modified comparative fault. You can still recover money even if you were partly to blame, as long as your share of the fault is not greater than the other party's.5 Practically, that means you're fine at 50 percent or less and barred at 51 percent. When you do recover, your damages are reduced by your own percentage: 20 percent at fault on a $100,000 claim leaves you $80,000.5 That rule does a lot of work in winter crashes, where the other insurer's first move is often to argue you were driving too fast for the conditions and should absorb part of the fault.
The coverage every Minnesota driver must carry
The minimum liability limits are 30/60/10: $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident for bodily injury, plus $10,000 for property damage.6 Minnesota also requires something many states leave optional. Every registered vehicle must carry separate uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage of at least $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident.7 When the driver who hit you has no insurance or nowhere near enough, that UM/UIM coverage on your own policy is frequently what actually pays.
Deadlines that can end your claim
For most injury claims you have six years from the date of the crash to file a lawsuit under Minn. Stat. § 541.05, subd. 1(5), and the same six years for vehicle and property damage under subdivision 1(4).8 Six years is longer than most states allow, but it is not a reason to wait. PIP applications and insurer notice requirements come due much sooner, and evidence gets harder to pin down the longer you sit on it.
Two situations shorten or reshape the timeline in ways that catch people off guard:
- A government defendant. If a city snowplow, a Metro Transit bus, or a squad car caused your injuries, your recovery is capped at $500,000 per claimant and $1,500,000 for all claims from a single occurrence.9 You also have to serve a formal notice of claim well before the ordinary deadline, and missing that notice can sink an otherwise valid case.
- A drunk-driving crash. If a bar, restaurant, or store illegally served an obviously intoxicated or underage driver who then hit you, Minnesota's dram shop law lets you sue that seller.10 But you have to give the seller written notice within the window set by statute, and blowing that deadline forfeits the claim.
The rules that decide who was at fault
Two Minnesota traffic laws show up constantly when insurers fight over fault. The first is the hands-free law. Since 2019 it has been illegal to hold or manually operate a wireless device while driving; calls, texts, and apps are allowed only in voice-activated or hands-free mode, and it is a primary offense, meaning an officer can pull a driver over for that alone.11 A hands-free citation issued to the other driver is strong evidence of negligence in your claim.
The second is newer. As of July 1, 2025, motorcycle lane splitting and lane filtering are legal statewide. A rider may split between lanes of moving traffic at no more than 25 miles per hour and no more than 15 over the surrounding flow, and may filter past stopped traffic at up to 15 miles per hour, but not in roundabouts, school zones, freeway on-ramps, or single-lane work zones.12 In a car-versus-motorcycle crash after that date, whether the rider stayed inside those speed and location limits is now part of the fault analysis.
Punitive damages are the exception, not the norm. Minnesota allows them only on clear and convincing evidence that a driver acted with deliberate disregard for the safety of others, the kind of showing that can apply to an extreme drunk-driving case.13
Vehicle damage, crash reports, and getting help
Your PIP does not pay for car repairs. Property damage runs through the at-fault driver's liability coverage or your own collision coverage instead. If your vehicle was fairly new and the repair leaves it worth less than it was before the wreck, that loss can be its own claim; our Minnesota diminished value guide walks through how that works. The official crash record is held by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Driver and Vehicle Services,14 and you can request your report through our Minnesota crash reports page.
Most minor Minnesota crashes never need a lawyer. The moment to talk to one is when your injuries clear the tort threshold, when a government vehicle or a served bar is involved, or when an insurer is stalling past the 30-day deadline. If you're at that point, you can find a Minnesota attorney here.
This is general information about Minnesota law, not legal advice.
Sources
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Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Office of Traffic Safety, fatal crash numbers. https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/ots/reports-statistics-and-data/fatal-crash-numbers
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Minn. Stat. § 65B.44 (basic economic loss benefits). https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/65B.44
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Minn. Stat. § 65B.54 (payment of benefits; overdue payments and interest). https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/65B.54
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Minn. Stat. § 65B.51 (tort threshold for noneconomic loss). https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/65B.51
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Minn. Stat. § 604.01 (comparative fault). https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/604.01
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Minn. Stat. § 65B.49, subd. 3 (residual liability minimums). https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/65B.49
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Minn. Stat. § 65B.49, subd. 3a (uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage). https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/65B.49
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Minn. Stat. § 541.05, subd. 1 (six-year limitation for injury and property). https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/541.05
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Minn. Stat. § 466.04, subd. 1(a) (municipal tort liability limits). https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/466.04
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Minn. Stat. § 340A.801 (civil liability for illegal sale of alcohol; notice under § 340A.802). https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/340A.801
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Minn. Stat. § 169.475 (use of wireless communications device; hands-free requirement). https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/169.475
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Minn. Stat. § 169.974, subd. 5 (motorcycle lane splitting and lane filtering, effective July 1, 2025). https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/169.974
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Minn. Stat. § 549.20 (punitive damages standard). https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/549.20
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Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Driver and Vehicle Services (crash records). https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/dvs/contact/driver-and-vehicle-records-requests