North Carolina Auto Insurance Requirements

The North Carolina Financial Responsibility Laws require that Automobile Liability coverage be maintained. The minimum coverage requirements are $30,000 Bodily Injury for each person, $60,000 total Bodily Injury for all persons in an accident and $25,000 for Property Damage.

Insurance companies and their agents are required to offer Uninsured Motorist and Combined Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist coverage. If you do not wish to have this coverage, it must be rejected in writing.

Liability Coverage (required by N.C. law)
Your Liability coverage will pay for bodily injury and property damage for which any covered individual becomes legally responsible. The Personal Automobile Policy will cover you or any family member while using any automobile or trailer, and any person using your covered automobile with permission. The North Carolina Car insurance policy will pay up to the limits listed in your policy. Under this coverage you will have separate limits of liability per person injured and limits of liability per accident. This is called split limits. For example, you may have limits of 100/300/50. This would mean your policy would pay up to a maximum of $100,000 to any one person injured by a covered driver or up to $300,000 for all injured parties combined, as a result of a single accident. Also, this coverage has a single limit of liability for all property damage resulting from any one accident. Using the above example of 100/300/50 limits, you will have a limit of $50,000 Property Damage Liability for each accident.

The liability section can be separated into three parts:
Bodily Injury Liability
This coverage will pay for damages to other people as a result of an accident caused by you or another covered driver. Examples of damages include medical and funeral expenses, lost wages, disability, rehabilitation, pain and suffering, law suit settlements and legal expenses.

Property Damage Liability
This coverage will pay for damages to other people’s property as a result of an accident that is caused by you or another covered driver. Examples of damages include the repair or actual cash value (ACV) of another individual’s
automobile or other property and legal expenses.

Supplementary Payments
This coverage is in addition to your stated limits of liability.
This section provides payment on accident related expenses involving:
1. Bail bonds;
2. Premiums on appeal bonds and bonds to release attachments;
3. Costs taxed against an insured and interest accruing after a judgment is entered;
4. Loss of earnings because of attendance at hearings or trials at the insurance company’s request;
5. Expenses for emergency first aid to others at an accident involving a covered auto; and
6. Other reasonable expenses incurred at the insurance company’s request.