Most people do not spend much of their time worrying about car accidents, but there is always the possibility that you could be involved in one. Whether an accident is relatively minor, or very serious, one of the first things you would be thinking about is whether you were insured enough. This article explores both the compulsory types of car insurance you must have to legally drive in Massachusetts as well as the variety of optional insurance policies that provide added protection and more peace of mind.
Compulsory car insurance in Massachusetts
To be able to register your car in Massachusetts, you must purchase a minimum 4 types of insurance. These protect you and anyone else your accident involves to some extent, while not providing full cover in very serious accidents. Compulsory minimum amounts of insurance cover for personal injury and property damage increased on July 1, 2025.
The main compulsory insurance amounts are as follows:
- PIP insurance – to protect yourself and others from personal injury.
- Bodily Injury to Others – to compensate anyone who you injured.
- Damage to Others Property – to compensate another driver whose property was damaged by you or whoever was driving your car.
- Uninsured Auto insurance – to protect you if you were injured in a hit and run or by an uninsured driver
1.PIP insurance
As Massachusetts is what is called a “no-fault” state for personal injury protection, you must have at least the minimum Personal Injury Protection (PIP) insurance. By having this insurance, it means that you should be covered for up to $8,000 for medical bills and up to 75% of lost wages if you are involved in an accident, regardless of who was at fault. This is also extended to someone else who you allowed to drive your car, passengers in your car who were injured or if you were a pedestrian when you were hit.
The main benefit of PIP is that you don’t have to worry whether you have to prove that someone else was to blame for the accident before obtaining compensation. The limitation of PIP is that it doesn’t extend to property damage and serious accidents can leave you short of the full cost of medical treatment or loss wages. For any surplus, you could have bought extra personal injury protection insurance when you first purchased a PIP policy, or resort to a personal injury claim if you can prove that another driver was at fault for your injuries.
Note also that some insurers may include deductibles in a PIP policy which you may not be aware of. There is more written about deductibles and what you should check out before purchasing a plan later in this article.
2. Bodily Injury to Others insurance
You must purchase insurance to cover at least $25,000 for an individual you have inured in a car accident or up to $50,000 for more than one person injured. This compulsory cover is only for accidents within Massachusetts and does not cover anyone else injured in your own car.
3. Damage to Property
You must purchase insurance to cover a minimum amount of $30,000 of damage to another person’s property if you were involved in an accident, or someone else you allowed to drive your car was involved in the accident.
4. Uninsured Auto Insurance
This compulsory insurance covers you and anyone in your car at the time of an accident in the event that you were involved in a crash with a driver who didn’t stop (hit and run) or an uninsured driver. You must purchase enough insurance to cover yourself for a minimum of $25,000 and a minimum of $50,000 for more than one person.
Why take out extra insurance cover?
While the above insurance cover is a compulsory minimum, you may be liable for out of pocket expenses if you were involved in a serious accident which could cost you more than you were covered for. For example, if another car driver was seriously injured, and their car was totaled, you may be liable for more compensation than you had taken out minimum insurance for. Also, note that there is no compulsory cover required for damage to your own vehicle which doesn’t involve claiming against another driver. For example, let’s say you dozed off momentarily and hit a post on the road side. Any injuries you have suffered will be covered by your own PIP insurance, but if there was any damage to your vehicle (very likely), the cost of repair or replacement would not be covered simply from your own compulsory insurance policies. You would have to have taken out extra optional cover for damage to your own property.
The minimum compulsory amounts also do not cover the full cost of medical treatment or compensation for other people’s property if there is a very serious accident. It is of course a gamble whether you opt to take out extra insurance cover but for peace of mind it may be worth considering.
The question of deductibles
Insurance providers operate in a competitive environment, but it is important that you do some ground work before you commit to any suite of auto insurance policies. For example, buried in the small print for any type of policy may be the amount of deductibles, if any, in any payment following a claim. For example, even when a PIP policy is supposed to be compulsory, the deductible a particular provider may include in the policy may be so big that the $8,000 cover can disappear. Let’s say that you had an accident and had $4,000 losses in wages and $3,000 in medical costs. However, if the policy had a deductible of $5,000, you would only obtain $2,000 in compensation from your PIP policy. It is certainly worth shopping around for the best policies, compulsory or optional!
Legal assistance after a car accident
Car accident compensation may be a challenging and stressful exercise despite the best intentions of compulsory coverage. If you are having problems with your insurer after an accident or feel you need to file a personal injury claim after a serious accident or are facing a claim which you are yourself challenging, it is wise to contact a professional attorney to help you with your legal options.