New Jersey Car Insurance Minimum Requirements
New Jersey requires at least 35/70/25 liability coverage. That is $35,000 for injuries to one person, $70,000 per accident and $25,000 for property damage.
- Shorthand
- 35/70/25
This is the Standard policy minimum. New Jersey also lets owners choose a Basic policy instead — $15,000 PIP and $5,000 property damage, with bodily injury liability only as a $10,000 option — and Medicaid recipients may buy a Special Automobile Insurance Policy (medical coverage only).
- Bodily injury — per person
- $35,000
Applies to Standard policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2026. The minimum was $15,000 before 2023 and $25,000 from January 1, 2023 (P.L.2022, c.87). A Basic policy does not include bodily injury liability at all — see the shorthand note.
- Bodily injury — per accident
- $70,000
Applies to Standard policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2026; it was $30,000 before 2023 and $50,000 from January 1, 2023.
- Property damage
- $25,000
Standard policy minimum for policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2023. The low-cost Basic policy carries only $5,000 of property damage liability.
- Uninsured / underinsured motorist
- Required on Standard policies
Every Standard policy must include uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage at least equal to the 35/70 bodily injury minimum, plus up to $25,000 of property damage subject to a $500 exclusion. It can be bought up to your liability limits. Basic policies include none.
- Personal injury protection (PIP)
- Required
Personal injury protection pays your own medical expenses regardless of fault and is mandatory on both Standard and Basic policies. Under the Standard policy, $250,000 of medical expense benefits applies unless you choose a lower limit in writing.
- PIP minimum limit
- $15,000
The lowest medical expense limit you may select, per person per accident. Even at that limit, up to $250,000 is payable for permanent or significant brain injury, spinal cord injury or disfigurement, and for certain trauma-center care. The Basic policy's PIP is also $15,000.
New Jersey sets $25,000 — higher than 23 of the 51 jurisdictions on this site. The range runs from $5,000 to $50,000.
How New Jersey compares with every other state
What these numbers buy you
Those first two numbers are two different walls, and drivers regularly mistake them for one. $35,000 is the most the policy pays for any single person's injuries. $70,000 is the ceiling for everyone hurt in the same crash put together. Injure one person badly and $35,000 is all your insurer owes, however large the bill. Injure three people and they divide $70,000 between them. Anything a court awards above those lines is yours to pay, and it does not go away when the policy runs out.
The $25,000 of property damage cover is the figure drivers look at last and need first. It pays for what you hit — the other car, a guardrail, a storefront — and nothing else. Only 2 states on this site set a higher one. Whatever the repair or replacement actually costs above $25,000 is not covered by this policy, and the difference is a debt in your name rather than your insurer's.
None of this is what New Jersey drivers actually spend. The average premium written per insured vehicle here was $491 in 2023, 10th highest of 51 states and DC — and that average covers policies far above the legal floor, not the bare minimum on this page.
Carrying the minimum is legal, not safe. It is the line below which New Jersey will not let you drive — and the penalties for falling under it are on the driving uninsured page.
Common questions
Is uninsured motorist coverage required in New Jersey?
Required on Standard policies.
Is PIP required in New Jersey?
Required.
Is full coverage required in New Jersey?
No. Collision and comprehensive — the two coverages people usually mean by "full coverage" — are not part of what New Jersey law requires. A lender or leasing company will usually require them until the car is paid off.
Every statute cited for New Jersey
What changed
January 1, 2026
Liability minimums rise to 35/70/25
The second step of P.L.2022, c.87 raised bodily injury liability minimums to $35,000 per person and $70,000 per accident for Standard policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2026. The uninsured/underinsured motorist minimums rose by the same amounts. Property damage stays at $25,000. Guides quoting 25/50/25 describe the 2023–2025 limits.
P.L.2022, c.87 (approved August 5, 2022)January 1, 2023
Liability minimums raised from 15/30 to 25/50/25
P.L.2022, c.87 raised Standard policy minimums from $15,000/$30,000 to $25,000/$50,000 for bodily injury and set property damage at $25,000 for policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2023. UM/UIM minimums rose with them. The Basic policy ($5,000 property damage, optional $10,000 bodily injury) was not changed.
P.L.2022, c.87 (approved August 5, 2022)
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.
- Fifteen Thousand Dollars, or Two Hundred and Fifty ThousandThe legal minimum for injuring one person in a crash ranges from $15,000 in Pennsylvania to $250,000 in Michigan — and in Florida there is no bodily injury requirement at all.
More on New Jersey
Checked against the primary sources above on September 22, 2026. If a figure here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it — what we have corrected so far is public.