STATE RULES

State car insurance rules, read from the regulator and the statute

Car insurance is regulated state by state, and the rules that decide what happens to you after a crash or a cancellation letter are written in each state's insurance code, transportation code and department regulations, not in a national standard. Minimum limits differ. So do the deadlines an insurer must meet to acknowledge, decide and pay a claim, the notice it must give before cancelling or refusing to renew, the coverages it must offer unless you reject them in writing, and the plan that insures drivers whom private insurers decline.

The pages in this section are built only from primary sources: the state department of insurance, the state motor vehicle agency, and the statute or regulation text itself, each cited with the date it was read. They are written one state at a time, and only for states whose regime is genuinely distinct, so each page has its own structure rather than a shared template with the state name swapped in. Where a rule could not be confirmed from a primary source, it is left off the page.

These pages answer a different question from the state rate index. A rate page reports what drivers in a state paid on average in a past year, from the NAIC published dataset. A rules page reports what the law requires of drivers and insurers today. Read both: the average sizes the market, and the rules tell you what you can insist on.

General information, not legal or insurance advice. Statutes change; confirm current requirements with the state insurance department or a licensed agent in your state.

State rules guides

• Texas car insurance laws: what the statute and TDI require of drivers and insurers
• New York no-fault insurance: what PIP pays, the claim deadlines and what DFS requires
• Florida car insurance rules: what the statutes require, what they leave out and what a lapse costs
• Michigan no-fault PIP choices: the options in the statute, who qualifies for each and what the default is

How to use a rules page

Read a rules page with your own documents beside it. When an insurer acknowledges a claim, write the date next to the deadline the state sets. When a cancellation or nonrenewal letter arrives, compare its date with the notice period the statute requires. When a quote shows a coverage you did not choose, check whether your state includes it by default unless you reject it in writing. Each rule is cited to its section, so you can quote it in a letter to the insurer or in a complaint to the state insurance department.

Rules that apply in every state

Some protections are federal and do not change at the state line. The Fair Credit Reporting Act governs the claims-history and credit reports insurers read, including your right to see them and to dispute errors; the walk-through is in your CLUE report and MVR. How a state's minimum limits compare across the 25 states in this index is covered in state minimum liability limits explained, and how insurers file their rates with each state is in how to read your state's approved rate filing.