California's New 30/60/15 Insurance Minimums, Explained

For 58 years, California let drivers carry some of the thinnest auto insurance in the country. The old minimums — $15,000 per injured person, $30,000 per accident, $5,000 for property damage — were set in 1967 and never updated, even as medical bills and vehicle prices multiplied many times over.

That finally changed on January 1, 2025. Under Senate Bill 1107, known as the Protect California Drivers Act, California's minimum car insurance rose to 30/60/15 — double the old injury limits and triple the property damage coverage. A second increase is already written into law for 2035.

If you drive in California, this change affects your policy and probably your premium. If you have been hurt by another driver, it affects how much money is actually available to compensate you. Here is what the numbers mean, why they changed, and why the new minimums still fall short when someone is seriously injured.

What Is California's Minimum Car Insurance Now?

Since January 1, 2025, every standard auto policy issued or renewed in California must carry at least:

• $30,000 in bodily injury liability per person
• $60,000 in bodily injury liability per accident
• $15,000 in property damage liability per accident

Together, those three figures make up the new California minimum car insurance 30/60/15 standard. Insurers were required to bring older minimum-limit policies up to the new floor at the first renewal on or after January 1, 2025 — so by now, virtually every active policy in the state reflects the change automatically.

Here's how the old, current, and future minimums stack up:

The current requirements come from Senate Bill 1107, passed in 2022.

What Does 30/60/15 Mean?

“What does 30/60/15 mean?” is one of the most common questions we hear after a crash. The three numbers on your declarations page describe the caps on what your insurer will pay other people when you cause a crash. Read them left to right.

The first number — $30,000 — is the most your insurer pays for any one person you injure. If you rear-end someone and their medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering add up to $45,000, your policy contributes $30,000. The remaining $15,000 doesn't disappear; it becomes your personal problem. More on that below.

The second number — $60,000 — is the total available for everyone injured in a single accident. Injure three people and they all share $60,000, with no single person collecting more than $30,000. In a crash involving a family, that pool drains fast.

The third number — $15,000 — covers damage to other people's property. Usually that means their vehicle, but it also applies to fences, guardrails, storefronts, and anything else you hit.

Two things trip people up here. First, liability coverage never pays you — it exists to pay the people you injure. Your own treatment and repairs come from other coverage (health insurance, med-pay, collision) or from the at-fault driver's policy when someone else caused the crash. Second, these numbers are ceilings, not payouts. The insurer pays proven damages up to the limit, not the limit automatically.

What Changed Under SB 1107 (the Protect California Drivers Act)

California adopted its 15/30/5 minimums in 1967 and then left them alone for nearly six decades. Nothing about the cost of a car crash stood still during those decades. By 2024, a $5,000 property damage limit couldn't handle a moderate fender-bender on a newer SUV, and a single emergency room visit could eat a meaningful share of the $15,000 injury limit before treatment even began.

Senate Bill 1107, authored by Senator Bill Dodd and signed by Governor Newsom in September 2022, finally raised the floor — in two scheduled steps. On January 1, 2025, the minimums rose from 15/30/5 to 30/60/15. And under SB 1107, California's minimums rise again on January 1, 2035, to 50/100/25.

The law reaches beyond liability coverage, too. Under Insurance Code section 11580.2, every California auto insurer must offer uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, and the required offer tracks the state's liability floor, so those minimums climbed along with the new law.

One practical effect worth knowing: drivers who carried bare-minimum policies saw premiums rise at renewal, because they're now buying two to three times the coverage they had before. Drivers who already carried higher limits — and most do — noticed little or no change from the law itself.

Why 30/60/15 Still Isn't Enough for a Serious Injury

The new California insurance minimums sound substantial until you price out a real injury. An ambulance ride plus an emergency room workup can run several thousand dollars before a single specialist gets involved. A broken bone that needs surgery can exceed the entire $30,000 per-person limit on its own. A few days in intensive care can pass six figures. And none of that touches lost income, future treatment, or pain and suffering — categories that often outweigh the medical bills in a serious case.

The shared per-accident cap makes things worse. Sixty thousand dollars sounds better than thirty until you remember it covers everyone hurt in the crash. A T-bone collision that injures a driver and two passengers leaves three people dividing a pool that might not fully compensate any one of them.

Property damage has the same math problem. The average new vehicle in the U.S. now sells for close to $50,000, so a $15,000 limit won't come near replacing a totaled late-model car — and it can vanish entirely in a chain-reaction crash involving several vehicles.

SB 1107 raised the legal floor. It didn't raise it anywhere near the real cost of a serious collision. For crash victims, that gap between the at-fault driver's limits and the actual damages is where most of the hard work in an injury claim happens.

What Happens When Damages Exceed the Limits?

This is the question that lands on a personal injury lawyer's desk every week: the injuries are severe, the at-fault driver carries a minimum policy, and the math doesn't work. The at-fault insurer's obligation generally ends at the policy limits — but that's rarely the end of the claim. Several paths remain open.

Your own underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage. If you carry UM/UIM, it steps in when the at-fault driver's limits fall short of your damages. One California quirk is worth understanding: UIM here works on an offset. Your UIM limit is reduced by whatever the other driver's insurer paid. Carry $100,000 in UIM and collect $30,000 from the at-fault driver, and your own policy has up to $70,000 left to offer — not $100,000 on top. It's one of the most misunderstood rules in California auto coverage, and it's the single best argument for carrying high UIM limits.

A claim against the driver personally. You can sue an underinsured driver for the balance and win a judgment. Collecting it is another matter. Many minimum-coverage drivers have few assets, and a judgment against someone with nothing to take doesn't pay hospital bills. Still, when the at-fault driver has real income or property, personal recovery is a live option.

Other responsible parties. Serious cases often have more than one source of recovery. Was the at-fault driver working at the time? Their employer may be on the hook. Did a vehicle defect or a dangerous road condition contribute? A manufacturer or public entity might share liability. Part of an attorney's job is locating every policy and every defendant — including umbrella policies the other driver never mentioned.

Med-pay and health insurance. Medical payments coverage on your own policy handles early bills regardless of fault, and your health insurance covers treatment in the meantime — though health insurers usually assert a lien against your eventual settlement, which becomes its own negotiation.

What Coverage Should You Actually Carry?

We are a personal injury firm, not an insurance agency — but we see the aftermath of these decisions every day, and the pattern is consistent. The people who recover fully are usually the ones who bought coverage as if they might one day be the victim, not just the cause.

A few benchmarks worth discussing with your agent: liability limits of at least 100/300/100, since the premium jump from 30/60/15 is smaller than most people expect and it shields your own savings if you cause a serious crash. UM/UIM limits that match your liability limits, because this is the coverage that protects you when the other driver has too little or nothing — arguably the most valuable line on your declarations page. Medical payments coverage of $5,000 to $10,000 to handle immediate bills while a claim is pending. And if you own a home or have meaningful assets, an umbrella policy adds $1 million or more in protection for a relatively modest annual premium.

By some estimates, roughly one in six California drivers carries no insurance at all. Add in everyone driving on minimum limits, and the odds that the person who hits you can fully pay for the harm are worse than most people assume. In a serious crash, your own policy is often what makes or breaks the recovery.

The Bottom Line

California waited 58 years to update its auto insurance minimums, and SB 1107 finally dragged them into the present: 30/60/15 today, with 50/100/25 arriving in 2035. That is genuine progress for crash victims, who now have twice the coverage to draw on when a minimum-limits driver causes a wreck. But a raised floor is still a floor. Serious injuries routinely cost far more than $30,000, so treat the state minimum as a starting point — and build real protection on top of it, starting with uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage.

Hurt by a Driver Who Didn't Carry Enough Insurance?

The new minimums help, but “better than 1967” is a low bar. If you've been seriously injured and the at-fault driver's policy won't cover your losses, don't assume the first offer is the end of the road. Between underinsured motorist claims, additional defendants, and policy-limit strategy, there is often far more recovery available than it first appears.

Mason Law, P.C. represents injury victims in Folsom and throughout the Sacramento region. We'll review every policy in play — theirs and yours — and give you a straight answer about what your claim is worth. Call (916) 587-2997 or reach us through our contact form to get started.