What Is Bodily Injury Liability?

Bodily injury liability pays other people

Bodily injury liability is the part of an auto policy that pays other people for injuries you cause. Bodily injury liability pays their medical bills, their lost wages and their pain and suffering claim, up to the limits on your policy, and it pays your legal defense when they sue.

Texas requires it. Texas Transportation Code §601.072 sets the state minimum at 30/60/25, and the first two numbers are the bodily injury limits: $30,000 for the injuries of any one person and $60,000 for all injuries in one accident. The 25 is property damage, a separate coverage with its own limit.

Bodily injury liability pays nothing to you. Your own injuries belong to personal injury protection, medical payments, health insurance or uninsured motorist coverage, and which one answers turns on what you bought and who was at fault.

How the two numbers work

A 30/60 bodily injury limit is two caps rather than one. The first number caps what the policy pays for any single injured person. The second caps what the policy pays for everyone injured in the same accident, however many people that turns out to be.

One accident with one injured person reaches the per-person cap and stops there, even though the per-accident number is larger. One accident with three injured people shares the per-accident cap among them, and none of the three can draw more than the per-person cap.

Both caps reset with each accident. A driver who exhausts the limits in March still carries full limits in April, because bodily injury liability is written per occurrence and not per year.

What bodily injury liability does not pay

Bodily injury liability pays third parties, which leaves every loss on your side of the crash to another coverage on the same policy.

Not paid by bodily injury liability:

• Your own injuries, which fall to personal injury protection (PIP) under Texas Insurance Code §1952.152, or to medical payments
• Injuries caused by a driver carrying nothing, which fall to uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage under Texas Insurance Code §1952.101
• Damage to any property, the other vehicle included, which is the property damage limit
• Damage to your own vehicle, which is collision or comprehensive
• Everything above the limit, which becomes personal debt

Defense costs are the exception that runs the other way. The liability section of the Texas personal auto policy form pays defense costs in addition to the limit rather than out of it, so lawyers do not consume what is owed to the injured person.

The Texas version

Texas sets the floor at 30/60/25 under Texas Transportation Code §601.072 and stops there. Texas does not require any limit above the minimum, does not index the floor to medical costs, and does not raise it when a vehicle carries passengers.

A Texas judgment above your limit is yours. The insurer pays its limit, tenders it, and steps out of the case, and the remainder follows the at-fault driver rather than the policy.

Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is the other side of the same problem. Texas Insurance Code §1952.101 requires insurers to offer it, which means the driver you hit may be relying on it if your limits run out.

Aulona Insurance Group places the coverage this question is about: Minimum Auto Insurance in Texas.

What the Texas minimum pays and what it leaves

Each loss in a crash you caused is answered by one coverage and capped by one number. The table sorts them at the state minimum limits.

Loss in a crash you caused	Paid by	Capped at
One person’s injuries	Bodily injury liability	$30,000 per person
Several people’s injuries	Bodily injury liability	$60,000 per accident
The other driver’s vehicle	Property damage liability	$25,000
Your own injuries	PIP, medical payments or health insurance	The limit you bought
Your own vehicle	Collision	Actual cash value, less the deductible
Anything above the limits	You	Nothing caps it

Reading down the middle column is the point of the table. Six losses, five different coverages, and only two of them are bodily injury liability.

Why the state floor runs out

The 30/60 floor was written as a floor, and a single serious injury reaches it fast. An ambulance ride, an emergency department workup, one surgery and a short admission can consume the per-person limit before rehabilitation has started.

Two structural reasons make the per-accident number the tighter of the two:

• A vehicle carrying three or four occupants turns one crash into three or four claims sharing one cap
• Lost wages and future care belong to the claim, and neither is bounded by the hospital bill

An injured Texan whose claim runs past your limits has two places left to go: your assets, and the uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage on their own policy.

What to have ready before you ask an agent

Bring the declarations page. Bodily injury liability limits are printed on it in the 30/60 form, and the conversation starts with the number you already carry.

Have these in front of you:

• The declarations page for every vehicle, showing the liability limits
• Every licensed driver in the household, with dates of birth and license dates
• Any at-fault accident and any injury claim filed against you
• Household assets a judgment could reach, in general terms
• Whether an umbrella or excess liability policy already sits above the auto policy

Assets are what set the limit, not the vehicle. A paid-off car and a house with equity behind it is the situation where the state minimum is the weakest choice on the page.

Liability limits are settled on a recorded call with Luka Cenaj before Aulona Insurance Group takes a Texas auto risk to an insurer.