Is Hawaii an At-Fault or No-Fault State?
Yes — Hawaii is a no-fault state. Your own insurer pays your injury costs first, whoever caused the crash.
- Fault system
- No-fault
Your own insurer pays your medical treatment first, whoever caused the crash, and the article abolishes tort liability for the people it covers. You get back the right to sue for pain and suffering only if the crash caused death, a significant permanent loss of use of a part or function of the body, or a permanent and serious disfigurement causing mental or emotional suffering — or if the personal injury protection benefits incurred for your injury reach $5,000. Property damage is different: no provision of the article abolishes tort liability for damage to your car.
- Comparative negligence rule
- Modified comparative — 51% bar
Contributory negligence does not bar recovery as long as your negligence "was not greater than" that of the party or parties you are suing; damages are then cut by your percentage. Hit 51% and the court enters judgment for the defendant. The jury must state the total damages and each party's percentage separately.
- PIP minimum limit
- $10,000
$10,000 aggregate per person. The same figure doubles as the tort threshold's yardstick: benefits incurred above the basic $10,000 limit, where the injured person bought optional extra coverage, are not counted toward the $5,000 needed to sue for pain and suffering.
How Hawaii compares with every other state
What the fault rule decides
Being a no-fault state changes who pays first, not who was wrong. Your own insurer covers your medical bills and lost income up to the limit on your policy, whoever caused the crash, and the fight about blame happens later or not at all. Only 9 of the 51 jurisdictions on this site work this way, which is why advice written for the rest of the country — sue the other driver, let their insurer pay your bills — quietly does not apply here.
Modified comparative fault turns the case into a percentage. On a hypothetical $100,000 of damages — arithmetic, not a figure from Hawaii 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 $10,000 of personal injury protection is the money that moves first, before anyone argues about blame — and it is higher than 7 and lower than 7 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 Hawaii
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 Hawaii
Checked against the primary sources above on September 28, 2026. If a figure here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it — what we have corrected so far is public.