Partner at Charbonnet Law Firm LLC
Practice Areas: Car Accident, Slip-and-Fall, Work-related Injury
After a car accident, you may expect the at-fault driver’s insurance to cover your medical bills, lost wages, vehicle damage, and other losses. But insurance coverage has limits. If your losses exceed the driver’s policy limit, the insurance company may not pay the full amount.
Louisiana law sets minimum insurance requirements for drivers, but those minimums may not cover the losses from a serious crash. Your own coverage may also matter, especially if the other driver has little or no insurance.
Understanding these limits can help you see what insurance may cover and what happens when your losses exceed the available coverage. If you are dealing with a serious claim, a car accident injury lawyer in New Orleans can also help you understand the insurance policies involved and your options.
Louisiana requires drivers to carry liability insurance, but you can add other coverage to protect yourself, your passengers, and your vehicle.
The right combination depends on your car, budget, and how much risk you are willing to take on yourself.
Louisiana requires drivers to carry minimum liability coverage of 15/30/25:
These are the minimum limits required to drive legally in Louisiana. They are not necessarily enough to cover the full cost of a serious crash.
For example, if you cause a crash and another driver’s medical bills reach $20,000, a minimum policy would cover $15,000. You may have to cover the remaining $5,000 from another source.
The same limits apply when more than one person is injured. The policy can pay up to $30,000 total for bodily injuries from one accident, subject to the $15,000 per-person limit. The Louisiana Department of Insurance explains how these limits work.
In Louisiana, auto liability coverage generally follows the vehicle. If someone drives your car with your permission, your policy may cover a crash they cause, up to the policy limits, unless that driver is specifically excluded.
That means your insurance can cover an accident even when you were not driving the car.
Your share of fault can also affect how much you recover. Louisiana’s rule changed on January 1, 2026, so the crash date matters.
For crashes before January 1, 2026, Louisiana used pure comparative fault. Your recovery could be reduced by your percentage of fault, even if you were mostly responsible.
For crashes on or after January 1, 2026, you generally cannot recover if you are 51% or more at fault. If you are 50% or less at fault, your recovery is reduced by your share of fault under Civil Code article 2323.
For example, if your damages are $60,000 and you are 25% at fault, you could recover $45,000. If you are 55% at fault in a crash that happened in 2026 or later, you generally cannot recover damages.
Louisiana’s “No Pay, No Play” law can limit what an uninsured driver can recover after a crash. La. R.S. 32:866, an uninsured driver may have to absorb the first $100,000 of bodily injury damages and the first $100,000 of property damage, even when the other driver caused the crash.
The amounts changed on August 1, 2025, so the crash date matters. Older crashes may be subject to the previous limits.
The rule applies to the uninsured driver, not someone who was properly insured. There are also some exceptions. You can read La. R.S. 32:866 for the full rule.
Every insurance policy has limits on how much the insurer will pay. With Louisiana’s minimum coverage, those limits are:
|
Type of limit |
What it covers |
Minimum Limit |
| Per person | Injuries to one person | $15,000 |
| Per accident | Injuries to everyone hurt in one crash | $30,000 |
| Property damage | Damage to another person’s property | $25,000 |
Higher limits provide more coverage, but the insurance company’s obligation still ends at that point. If your losses go beyond the at-fault driver’s policy limits, your own UM/UIM coverage or a claim against the driver personally may provide another way to recover.
The minimum is 15/30/25: $15,000 for one person’s injuries, $30,000 for injuries in one accident, and $25,000 for property damage.
Not necessarily. If the driver’s policy has a $15,000 limit and your medical bills are higher, the insurer doesn’t keep paying until the bills are covered.
That is where your own UM/UIM coverage can become important. It may cover injuries and other losses when the driver who caused the crash has no insurance or not enough.
No. The insurance claim generally goes through the driver who caused the accident and that driver’s insurer.
It can. Louisiana looks at each person’s share of fault. For crashes from January 1, 2026 onward, a person found 51% or more at fault generally cannot recover damages.
Insurance limits can become a problem when a serious crash leaves you with losses that are much higher than the other driver’s coverage. Your own insurance may provide additional options, depending on the policy.
Charbonnet Law Firm has represented injured people in New Orleans and nearby areas for three generations. If you were injured in a crash, call (504) 888-2227 for a free consultation and to discuss your legal options.
With over 50 years of legal experience serving families in the New Orleans area and surrounding Louisiana communities, our firm takes pride in providing clients with personalized legal services tailored to individual needs.
