Car insurance claims in Hawaii

Hawaii runs motor-vehicle injury claims through a no-fault scheme, and the first thing to know about it is that the compulsory limits have just gone up. Every Hawaii policy must provide both «Coverage specified in section 431:10C-304» — the first-party personal injury protection benefit — and liability insurance «to pay on behalf of the owner or any operator of the insured motor vehicle … sums which the owner or operator may legally be obligated to pay for injury, death, or damage to property of others» (§ 431:10C-301(a)). For any policy on or after 1 January 2026 the liability minimums are $40,000 per person, $80,000 per accident and $20,000 for property damage, the figures introduced by an act of 2024. The old tier — $20,000, $40,000 and $10,000 — applied until 31 December 2025 and is still what most descriptions of Hawaii give, so treat any 20/40/10 figure you meet as out of date.

Personal injury protection is capped at «an aggregate limit of $10,000 per person», and an insurer «may offer additional coverage in excess of the $10,000 aggregate limit» (§ 431:10C-103.5(c)) — a single aggregate rather than the itemised menu of sub-limits some no-fault states use. What it covers is defined by reference to prepaid health care standards and is unusually broad: «all appropriate and reasonable treatment and expenses necessarily incurred as a result of the accidental harm and which are substantially comparable to the requirements for prepaid health care plans», naming medical, hospital, surgical, professional, nursing, advanced practice nursing, dental, optometric, naturopathic medicine, chiropractic, ambulance, prosthetic services, medical equipment, x-ray, psychiatric, occupational therapy and rehabilitation — with «physical therapy pursuant to prescription by a medical doctor» and «therapeutic massage by a licensed massage therapist when prescribed by a medical doctor» conditioned on that prescription (§ 431:10C-103.5(a)). The benefit reaches the widest first-party class in this dataset: «Any person, including the owner, operator, occupant, or user of the insured motor vehicle», «Any pedestrian, including a bicyclist», «Any user or operator of a moped» and «Any user or operator of an electric foot scooter» — while pointedly excluding «any operator or passenger of a motorcycle or motor scooter» unless the policy expressly provides for it (§ 431:10C-304(1)). Payment is made «without regard to fault, to the provider of services» rather than to the injured person. Benefits must be paid within thirty days of the insurer receiving reasonable proof of the fact and amount of benefits accrued AND a demand for payment; a denial must be given in writing with reasons within the same thirty days, in triplicate and in a format the commissioner has approved; and where the insurer cannot pay or deny because something is missing it must send «an itemized list of all the required documents» within those thirty days. Anything still unpaid after thirty days carries interest «at the rate of one and one-half per cent per month» (§ 431:10C-304(3)–(4)). THOSE ARE HAWAII’S EVIDENCED INSURER CLOCKS AND THEY ARE PIP PAYMENT AND DENIAL DUTIES. No acknowledgement deadline is stated on this page: none was found in any statute read, the Insurance Division’s administrative rules were not opened, and the fifteen-working-day figure that several mainland states share is not Hawaii’s and is not borrowed. Chapter 431:10C was not read end to end either, so this page does not claim its three thirty-day duties are the only timing rules Hawaii has.

Suing the other driver requires crossing a threshold, because the no-fault article «abolishes tort liability» of the owner, operator or user of an insured motor vehicle, and of the operator or user of an uninsured one «who operates or uses such vehicle without reason to believe it to be an uninsured motor vehicle» (§ 431:10C-306(a)). Liability is NOT abolished where death occurs; where the injury consists in whole or in part of «a significant permanent loss of use of a part or function of the body»; where it consists of «a permanent and serious disfigurement which results in subjection of the injured person to mental or emotional suffering»; or where «the personal injury protection benefits incurred by such person equal or exceed $5,000» (§ 431:10C-306(b)). That $5,000 is measured in BENEFITS INCURRED and not in medical bills, and the statute says what counts toward it: PIP benefits incurred by, paid to or payable to or on behalf of the injured person, «or similar benefits under social security, worker’s compensation, or public assistance laws», «the applicable amounts of deductible or copayment paid or incurred», and amounts paid by or on behalf of an injured person not entitled to PIP, by health insurance or other funds. Two things a reader should not do with it: call it a medical-expense threshold, and treat it as gating property-damage or economic claims — subsection (a) abolishes tort liability for «accidental harm», and every carve-out concerns injury to the person. Past the threshold, shared fault is handled by § 663-31: contributory negligence does not bar recovery unless it is greater than the aggregate negligence of those sued, and otherwise the award is reduced by the claimant’s percentage, with a mandatory special verdict stating each party’s percentage and a duty on the court to instruct the jury on how comparative negligence works.

The limitation rules are the ones most likely to be got wrong. The general two-year period for «compensation for damage or injury to persons or property» is at § 657-7, but for a motor-vehicle claim § 431:10C-315 supplies the structure, and it is a «later of» rule rather than a flat clock. A tort suit must be brought within the later of two years after the accident, two years after the last payment of motor-vehicle insurance or optional additional benefits, or two years after the last payment of workers’ compensation or public assistance benefits arising from the accident. A suit on the policy itself runs from the later of five things: two years after the accident, two years after the last benefit payment, two years after a final arbitration order, two years after final judgment in or dismissal with prejudice of a related tort action where a bad-faith cause of action arises out of it, or — for an underinsured-motorist claim — two years after payment of the liability coverage. That last limb is the one a reader needs: a Hawaii underinsured-motorist clock starts when the at-fault driver’s insurer pays.

Uninsured motorist cover sits in every Hawaii policy «in limits for bodily injury or death set forth in paragraph (1)» — which, from 1 January 2026, means 40/80 rather than 20/40 — and comes out only where «any named insured in the policy shall reject the coverage in writing» (§ 431:10C-301(b)(3)). The paragraph is worded identically in the pre- and post-2026 texts, so the RULE did not change; only the limits it points at did. Underinsured cover may be offered in the same manner, but Hawaii prescribes the FORM of the offer as well as its substance, which is found in no other state in this dataset and is directly checkable against your own declarations page: the offer of both coverages must «be conspicuously displayed so as to be readily noticeable by the insured», «set forth the premium for the coverage adjacent to the offer … in a manner that the premium is clearly identifiable with the offer and may be easily subtracted from the total premium», and «provide for written rejection of the coverage by requiring the insured to affix the insured’s signature in a location adjacent to or directly below the offer» (§ 431:10C-301(b)(4)). Stacking is prohibited «except as provided in subsection (d)» — that is, unless the insurer’s prescribed options to stack, or to select the coverages «up to but not greater than the bodily injury liability coverage limits in the insured’s policy», were purchased. Those offers are made when the policy is first applied for or issued, and «once an insured has been provided the opportunity to purchase or reject the coverages in writing under the options, no further offer is required» at renewal or replacement; a written rejection is «presumptive evidence of the insured’s decision to reject the options» (§ 431:10C-301(c)–(e)).

Hawaii’s statutes say «collision» rather than «accident». After one, the driver must give name, address and the registration number of the vehicle, exhibit the licence «upon request and if available» — with an express carve-out that a bicycle’s rider need not exhibit a licence — and «render to any person injured in the collision reasonable assistance»; where nobody present can receive the information and no police officer is there, the driver must «forthwith report the collision to the nearest police officer» (§ 291C-14). A collision resulting ONLY in damage to a vehicle or attended property still requires stopping at the scene and remaining there until those duties are discharged, with a surcharge of up to $100 payable into the trauma system special fund for a violation (§ 291C-13). Police must be notified «immediately by the quickest means of communication» of any collision resulting in injury or death «or total damage to all property to an apparent extent of $3,000 or more» — the highest dollar threshold in its round, and cumulative across the crash because the statute says «all property», not per vehicle. The WRITTEN report is then the responding officer’s duty rather than the driver’s, and where the driver is physically incapable and another occupant can give the notice, that occupant must (§ 291C-16). Whether inherent diminished value is recoverable in Hawaii has not yet been verified against a primary text and is not stated here, and unlike several states in the same round this page claims no regulatory negative on the question either: the Insurance Division’s rules were never opened, so there is not even a searched silence to report.