What to Do After a Car Accident in North Dakota

Getting hit on I-94 or a county road outside Bismarck leaves you with more than a damaged car. North Dakota runs its auto injury system differently from most states, and a few of those differences decide how you get paid and how long you have to act. Here is what actually applies here.

Right after the crash, the first steps are familiar. Check for injuries and call for help. Let law enforcement document the scene. Serious crashes get an official investigation, and you can buy the resulting report from the North Dakota Department of Transportation for $7.¹ If you need that report, our North Dakota crash report page walks through how to get it. The rest of this guide covers the rules that are specific to North Dakota.

North Dakota is a no-fault state

North Dakota is one of about a dozen no-fault states, governed by the Auto Accident Reparations Act.² Every insured vehicle carries "basic no-fault benefits," usually called personal injury protection, or PIP. After a crash, your own insurer pays your medical bills and part of your lost wages regardless of who caused it.

Those benefits are capped. The maximum is $30,000 per person, per accident, for all economic loss combined.³ Within that cap there are sublimits: wage replacement is defined as 85% of lost income and is payable only up to $150 per week, and funeral costs are limited to $3,500.³ Your insurer cannot sit on the claim either. Basic no-fault benefits are overdue if they are not paid within 30 days after the company receives reasonable proof of the loss, and overdue amounts collect interest at the statutory judgment rate.⁴

When you can step outside no-fault

The trade-off in a no-fault system is that you cannot automatically sue the at-fault driver for pain and suffering. In North Dakota, a driver is exempt from liability for your noneconomic loss unless your injury is a "serious injury."⁵

The statute defines that term precisely. A serious injury is one that results in death, dismemberment, serious and permanent disfigurement, disability beyond 60 days, or medical expenses over $2,500.⁶ Clear one of those thresholds and the door to a pain-and-suffering claim opens. Note what the exemption does not touch: economic losses above your PIP cap, like continuing medical bills or lost income, can still be pursued against the at-fault driver.

How fault gets divided

North Dakota uses modified comparative fault. You can still recover damages even if you were partly to blame, but your recovery drops by your share of the fault, and it disappears entirely if your fault is "as great as" the combined fault of everyone else who contributed.⁷ In a typical two-car wreck, that makes 50% the cutoff: at half the blame or more, you recover nothing.

Vehicle damage follows a narrower rule. In a crash where the other driver is more than 50% at fault, direct property damage up to $5,000 (and indirect damage up to $1,000) is not reduced by your own percentage of fault.⁸ If you are dealing with the drop in your car's resale value after repairs, our North Dakota diminished value page covers that claim.

The coverage that protects you

North Dakota's minimum liability limits are 25/50/25: $25,000 for injury or death of one person, $50,000 for two or more people, and $25,000 for property damage.⁹

The state also requires something many do not. Every auto policy issued in North Dakota must include uninsured motorist coverage, and it must include underinsured motorist coverage at limits equal to the uninsured limits.¹⁰ That coverage is what pays when the driver who hit you carried nothing, or carried too little to cover your injuries. Given the 25/50/25 floor, running into an underinsured driver is common, so this coverage does real work.

Deadlines that can end your claim

North Dakota gives you a relatively long window, but missing it ends the case. A personal injury lawsuit must be filed within six years of the crash.¹¹ A property damage claim also runs six years.¹¹ A wrongful death action is shorter, at two years from the date of death.¹²

Those are the outer limits for going to court. The practical deadlines come sooner. Your PIP claim runs on the 30-day proof-of-loss clock, and evidence at a crash scene disappears fast, so reporting to your own insurer and preserving photos and the crash report early protects the claim long before any statute expires.

Drunk drivers and extra damages

If a drunk driver hit you, North Dakota opens two extra avenues.

First, the person who served the alcohol may share the bill. Anyone who knowingly furnishes alcohol to a minor or an obviously intoxicated person can be liable to someone that person later injures.¹³ That reaches licensed bars and, for minors and obviously intoxicated guests, social hosts. The claim does not extend to the drinker or to an adult passenger who rode with the drinking driver.¹³

Second, you may be able to recover exemplary damages, which are North Dakota's version of punitive damages. In a motor vehicle injury case, a court can consider them if there is clear and convincing evidence the driver was operating with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08% or higher, under the influence of drugs, or refused a chemical test.¹⁴ North Dakota does not cap compensatory damages in an ordinary injury case, although a jury's economic-damages award over $250,000 can be reviewed by the judge for reasonableness.¹⁵ Exemplary damages are capped at twice the compensatory award or $250,000, whichever is greater, and you cannot even ask for them in your complaint. You have to move to amend later, backed by evidence.¹⁶

Winter crashes

North Dakota winters are their own hazard. The odds of a blizzard in any given year top 50%, among the highest in the country, and the state averages 30 to 55 inches of snow a season.¹⁷ Ice and whiteout conditions do not excuse a driver who was following too closely or going too fast for the roads, and they do not change the fault analysis. If your crash happened in bad weather, photograph the road conditions before you leave the scene. That record helps when an insurer tries to blame the weather instead of the driver.

Getting help

You do not need a lawyer for every fender bender. But once an injury clears the serious-injury threshold, once PIP runs out, or once an insurer starts assigning you fault, the numbers get large enough that professional help usually pays for itself. If you want to talk to a North Dakota attorney, you can find one here.

This article is general information about North Dakota law, not legal advice for your situation.

Sources

North Dakota Department of Transportation, Purchase a Crash Report. https://www.dot.nd.gov/travel-and-safety/safety/purchase-crash-report
N.D.C.C. ch. 26.1-41, Auto Accident Reparations. https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t26-1c41.pdf
N.D.C.C. § 26.1-41-01(2), (24) (basic no-fault benefit and work-loss limits). https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t26-1c41.pdf
N.D.C.C. § 26.1-41-09(2) (payment overdue after 30 days). https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t26-1c41.pdf
N.D.C.C. § 26.1-41-08(1) (secured person exemption from noneconomic loss). https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t26-1c41.pdf
N.D.C.C. § 26.1-41-01(21) (definition of "serious injury"). https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t26-1c41.pdf
N.D.C.C. § 32-03.2-02 (modified comparative fault). https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t32c03-2.pdf
N.D.C.C. § 32-03.2-02.1 (automobile accident property damage). https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t32c03-2.pdf
N.D.C.C. § 39-16.1-11(2)(b) (motor vehicle liability policy limits). https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t39c16-1.pdf
N.D.C.C. §§ 26.1-40-15.2, 26.1-40-15.3 (uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage). https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t26-1c40.pdf
N.D.C.C. § 28-01-16(4), (5) (six-year limitation for injury to person and property). https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t28c01.pdf
N.D.C.C. § 28-01-18(4) (two-year limitation when death ensues). https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t28c01.pdf
N.D.C.C. § 5-01-06.1 (claim for relief for fault resulting from intoxication). https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t05c01.pdf
N.D.C.C. § 32-03.2-11(9) (exemplary damages in motor vehicle cases). https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t32c03-2.pdf
N.D.C.C. § 32-03.2-08 (review of reasonableness of economic damages). https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t32c03-2.pdf
N.D.C.C. § 32-03.2-11(1), (4) (exemplary damages cap and pleading procedure). https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t32c03-2.pdf
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information / NCICS, North Dakota State Climate Summary. https://statesummaries.ncics.org/chapter/nd/