Is Delaware an At-Fault or No-Fault State?
No — Delaware is an at-fault (tort) state, not a no-fault state.
- Fault system
- At-fault (tort)
Delaware is one of the few at-fault states that also makes personal injury protection compulsory, the same structure Oregon uses. PIP pays your early medical bills and lost earnings no matter who caused the crash, and unlike a no-fault state Delaware sets no injury threshold you must clear before suing the driver who did. The one limit is evidentiary, and it is stricter than it looks: § 2118(h) bars you from pleading or proving any damages that the compulsory PIP and the $10,000 of property protection were *capable* of covering — whether or not they were actually paid, and whether or not you chose a deductible. Pick a deductible to save premium and you cannot sue the other driver for it either.
- Comparative negligence rule
- Modified comparative — 51% bar
You recover as long as your share of the fault is not greater than the defendant's, or than the combined fault of all the defendants you are claiming against. At exactly 50% you still recover, cut in half; at 51% you recover nothing.
- PIP minimum limit
- $15,000
Mandatory, not optional, and not waivable. The PIP insurer is subrogated to your claim against the at-fault driver up to the amount it paid, and it recovers out of the tortfeasor's liability limits after your own claim is settled.
How Delaware compares with every other state
What the fault rule decides
In an at-fault state the driver who caused the crash — through their liability insurer — pays for the harm. That is the arrangement in 38 of the 51 jurisdictions on this site, so it is the one most US advice assumes. The practical consequence is that your recovery depends on two things you do not control: how much liability cover the other driver bought, and what share of the blame you are assigned.
Modified comparative fault turns the case into a percentage. On a hypothetical $100,000 of damages — arithmetic, not a figure from Delaware law — being 20% to blame leaves you $80,000, and being 40% to blame leaves you $60,000. Cross the line at 51% and the award is not reduced, it is gone. 24 of the 50 jurisdictions on this site draw the line in the same place, and the whole dispute after a serious crash tends to be about which side of it you land on.
The $15,000 of personal injury protection is the money that moves first, before anyone argues about blame — and it is higher than 11 and lower than 4 of the 18 that require it. Treat it as a floor rather than a budget: it is what the state makes you carry, not an estimate of what an injury costs.
Every statute cited for Delaware
Why the rule looks like this
- What Changed in 2026Liability minimums doubled in Hawaii, two states dropped pure comparative fault, New Hampshire stopped inspecting cars, and three crash reporting thresholds moved — a dated account of the 2026 changes, and the ones already signed for 2027 and beyond.
- The One Percentage Point That Decides Your ClaimAcross the states covered on this site there are four different rules for what your own share of the blame does to your claim — and in North Carolina, Maryland and Virginia, being 1% at fault ends it entirely.
- No-Fault Does Not Mean Nobody Is at FaultNo-fault restricts the right to sue rather than removing it. Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan and New York run it, New Jersey and Pennsylvania let you choose, and Michigan lets every driver pick one of six PIP ceilings — which changes who pays after a crash.
More on Delaware
Checked against the primary sources above on September 29, 2026. If a figure here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it — what we have corrected so far is public.