The declarations page is a short document, and after a Westside wreck it does more work than most people expect. It shows whether the other driver met California’s current liability floor, whether your own uninsured-motorist coverage was kept or turned down, and whether any medical-payments coverage can help with early bills. The official numbers changed recently, so an older habit of quoting fifteen / thirty / five can now be wrong.
The liability floor, and when it changed
VEH 16056 is the financial-responsibility statute. For a policy or bond first written or renewed from January 1, 2025 onward, if the wreck resulted in bodily injury or death, the policy has to provide at least thirty thousand dollars because of harm to, or the death of, one person in any one accident, and at least sixty thousand dollars for two or more people in that same accident, and, if other people’s property was hurt or destroyed, at least fifteen thousand dollars for that property damage. Those figures are exclusive of interest and costs.
The same section still recites the older fifteen / thirty / five floor in paragraph (a)(1). A policy first written or renewed from January 1, 2025 onward, is in the new paragraph. A policy written before that date that has not come up for renewal may still carry the prior floor until it is renewed. The section also says that for a policy or bond first written or renewed from January 1, 2035 onward, the minimum increases again, by twenty thousand, forty thousand and ten thousand dollars for those three categories. The current official text became operative on January 1, 2025.
Those are floors, not typical limits, and they are not a measure of what a serious injury is worth. A hospital stay after a 405 wreck can exceed sixty thousand dollars quickly, which is when underinsured coverage and a careful read of every household policy matter.
Uninsured and underinsured coverage
INS 11580.2 requires uninsured-motorist coverage on a bodily-injury auto policy, with the exceptions the statute names, at least as high as the 16056 floor. It must be offered with limits matching the bodily-injury limits on the same policy, though an insurer is not required to offer it above the thirty-thousand and sixty-thousand figures in subdivision (m). A named insured can turn it down in writing, or agree in writing to a lower amount that is still at least the statutory floor. Underinsured coverage is included with uninsured coverage on policies first written or renewed from July 1, 1985 onward, and the two are offered as a single coverage. Limits are not stacked across vehicles or policies.
For an unknown owner or operator, the injury must have arisen out of physical contact, and the wreck must have been reported within 24 hours to the city police, or, in unincorporated territory, to the sheriff or the local CHP. A first-party UM claim also has its own two-year hook, including suit, agreement or formal arbitration notice, in the official text. The uninsured and Proposition 213 guide works through those details, including when CIV 3333.4 blocks non-economic damages.
If proof of financial responsibility is a problem in the file, the declarations page is a better starting point than a memory of an old minimum. Confirm any current DMV reporting form, and any current reporting threshold, on the official DMV site before you treat a summary as complete.
Medical-payments coverage
Medical-payments coverage is optional first-party coverage on many household policies. If it is on the policy, it can cover early hospital and clinic charges while the liability claim is still being worked out, no matter who caused the wreck. It can also sit alongside a health plan or a later reimbursement claim, so the later settlement math has to be done with care. The bills and liens guide covers that part of the folder.
Rideshare, truck and government files
A wreck involving an Uber or Lyft driver is not capped at thirty / sixty / fifteen. PUC 5433 requires a one-million-dollar primary policy after a request is accepted, and a fifty / one-hundred / thirty floor, plus excess coverage, while the driver only has the app open and is waiting for a match. The rideshare guide walks through the periods. A wreck involving a city or county vehicle runs into the Government Claims Act, including the six-month date in GOV 911.2, which is when underinsured coverage on a household policy can also become important if a public-entity recovery is limited in fact or in law.
Open the declarations page and review liability limits, UM and UIM figures, any written waiver and any medical-payments coverage. Tell your own company about the wreck even when you think the other driver caused the wreck. The crash-report guide covers how to obtain the LAPD or CHP document that should sit in the same folder.
A lawsuit still has to be lodged with a clerk within two years under CCP 335.1. Policy deadlines can be shorter. Read the contract. Official instruction CACI 405 still reduces a recovery by the injured person’s share of blame, with no half-fault cutoff in that instruction. The deadline and fault guide puts those two ideas together.
- Declarations page
- The short page that shows the limits, rejections and endorsements that actually apply, which matters more than a remembered slogan about “full coverage.”
- Financial-responsibility floor
- The official minimum in VEH 16056, currently thirty / sixty / fifteen for policies first written or renewed from January 1, 2025 onward.
- No stacking
- The INS 11580.2 rule that uninsured and underinsured limits on two vehicles or two policies are not added together to enlarge the available coverage.