California Car Insurance Minimum Requirements
What California law requires you to carry, and what your insurer must offer you on top of it.
- Shorthand
- 30/60/15
Raised from 15/30/5 by SB 1107 for any policy issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2025. Guides still listing 15/30/5 are describing the pre-2025 rule.
- Bodily injury — per person
- $30,000
Drivers who qualify on income can instead buy a California Low Cost Automobile (CLCA) policy at 10/20/3, which the Vehicle Code treats as meeting the financial responsibility requirement.
- Bodily injury — per accident
- $60,000
Scheduled to rise again on January 1, 2035, when the limits become 50/100/25. Because Proposition 103 requires the Insurance Commissioner to approve every California auto rate before it is used, the Vehicle Code directs the Commissioner to start soliciting rate filings for those limits by July 1, 2033.
- Property damage
- $15,000
- Uninsured / underinsured motorist
- Included by default; rejectable in writing
Every bodily injury liability policy must carry uninsured motorist coverage unless you and the insurer delete or reduce it by written agreement. It is offered up to 30/60, and underinsured motorist coverage matches the uninsured limits.
- Personal injury protection (PIP)
- Not required
California's financial responsibility law requires only bodily injury and property damage liability. There is no PIP requirement; medical payments coverage is sold as an optional add-on.
What changed
January 1, 2025
Minimum liability limits raised from 15/30/5 to 30/60/15
SB 1107, the Protect California Drivers Act, doubled California's minimum liability limits for every policy issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2025: $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident for bodily injury or death, and $15,000 for property damage. The old 15/30/5 figures had stood since 1967 and still appear in a great many guides; under Veh. Code § 16056 they now apply only to policies written before 2025. The same act schedules a further increase to 50/100/25 on January 1, 2035.
Cal. Veh. Code § 16056 (Stats. 2022, Ch. 717 — SB 1107)