Hawaii Car Accident Settlements: The Minimums Just Doubled

Hawaii just doubled the amount of insurance every driver has to carry — a change that took effect this January and that most published guidance still hasn’t absorbed. It also runs a no-fault system that, unusually, doesn’t pay for lost wages at all unless you bought an add-on.

Quick answer: Effective January 1, 2026, Hawaii’s minimum liability limits roughly doubled to 40/80/20 (from the long-standing 20/40/10). Hawaii requires $10,000 PIP (HRS § 431:10C-103.5), but basic PIP covers medical expenses only — wage loss requires a separate endorsement. The threshold to sue for pain and suffering is $5,000 in medical expenses or a permanent injury. Comparative negligence uses a 51%-style bar measured against the aggregate fault of all defendants (HRS § 663-31). For multiple defendants, economic damages stay jointly and severally liable, while noneconomic damages are joint and several only against a defendant at 25% or more fault (HRS § 663-10.9). The filing deadline is 2 years.

The 2026 Increase: 20/40/10 Became 40/80/20

This is the single most time-sensitive fact about Hawaii auto claims right now. Effective January 1, 2026, Hawaii’s statutory minimum liability limits roughly doubled:

Coverage	Old minimum	New minimum (from Jan 1, 2026)
Bodily injury per person	$20,000	$40,000
Bodily injury per accident	$40,000	$80,000
Property damage	$10,000	$20,000

The new limits apply to all new policies and to existing policies renewed on or after that date. The prior 20/40/10 minimums had been in place for many years without keeping pace with medical and repair costs, which is the stated rationale for the increase. Practically: a great deal of published material — and a fair number of drivers’ assumptions — still reflect the old figures, and the difference between a $20,000 and a $40,000 per-person ceiling is decisive in a moderately serious injury claim.

PIP That Doesn’t Cover Your Lost Wages

Hawaii requires at least $10,000 per person in Personal Injury Protection under HRS § 431:10C-103.5, paid regardless of fault. But the scope is narrower than most no-fault states: basic PIP covers medical and rehabilitative expenses only. Wage-loss benefits are not included by default and require a separate optional endorsement.

That’s genuinely unusual. Our no-fault / PIP benefits calculator models this explicitly rather than assuming wage replacement, because it’s a reasonable assumption that happens to be wrong here — most no-fault states covered on this site fold wage loss into the same benefit, whether at Florida’s 60%, Massachusetts’s 75%, or Minnesota’s 85%. In Hawaii, a claimant who never purchased the endorsement has no first-party wage benefit at all while the liability claim develops.

The Threshold to Sue Sits Below the PIP Ceiling

To pursue the at-fault driver for pain and suffering, a Hawaii claimant generally must either exceed $5,000 in medical expenses or have suffered a permanent injury.

Worth noticing: the $5,000 threshold is half the $10,000 PIP medical minimum. So a claimant can clear the gate to sue while still holding unused PIP coverage — clearing the threshold and exhausting PIP are separate events here, the same structural quirk Minnesota has with its $4,000 threshold against a $20,000 medical pool.

Comparative Negligence, Measured Against the Aggregate

Under HRS § 663-31, your contributory negligence bars recovery only if it is greater than the negligence of the person — or the aggregate negligence of the persons — against whom recovery is sought. Two consequences:

• At exactly 50/50 against a single defendant, you still recover (reduced by half). This is the 51%-bar branch of the rule, not the stricter equal-fault bar used in Maine, Tennessee and Colorado.
• In a multi-defendant case, your fault is compared against the defendants’ combined total, not each one separately — which is meaningfully more forgiving. Connecticut applies the same aggregate comparison.

The 25% Cliff on Noneconomic Damages

Hawaii’s treatment of multiple defendants under HRS § 663-10.9 splits by damage category, and the noneconomic side has an unusually low threshold:

• Economic damages — medical bills, lost income — remain jointly and severally liable in personal injury and death actions. Any liable defendant can be pursued for the full economic award.
• Noneconomic damages — pain and suffering — are jointly and severally liable only against a tortfeasor whose individual degree of negligence is 25% or more. Below 25%, that defendant’s noneconomic liability is limited to direct proportion to their assigned negligence.

The 25% line is a cliff, not a slope. A defendant at 24% fault pays 24% of the noneconomic damages and nothing more; a defendant at 26% can be held liable for the entire noneconomic award. Compare Wisconsin, which uses the same per-defendant threshold concept but sets it at 51% and applies it to the whole judgment — Hawaii’s much lower line means far more defendants cross into joint liability on the noneconomic side. And compare California, which splits economic from noneconomic the same way Hawaii does but attaches no fault threshold to the noneconomic side at all.

Illustrative Hawaii Settlement Ranges

These ranges assume the tort threshold is cleared. They also assume adequate coverage — and for accidents involving policies written or renewed before January 1, 2026, the old 20/40/10 limits may still cap what is realistically collectable from the at-fault driver.

Deadlines in Hawaii

Claim	Deadline
Personal injury lawsuit	2 years from the date of injury (HRS § 657-7)
PIP benefit claim against your own insurer	Separate, shorter timelines — confirm with your policy
Wrongful death	Confirm the specific deadline, which differs from the general injury period
Claims against a government entity	Substantially shorter notice periods apply — confirm immediately

Practical Checklist for a Hawaii Crash

1. Check whether the at-fault driver’s policy was written or renewed on or after January 1, 2026 — that determines whether you’re facing a $40,000 or a $20,000 per-person ceiling.
2. Confirm whether you purchased the PIP wage-loss endorsement, because basic PIP won’t replace lost income and there may be no first-party wage benefit at all.
3. Identify which threshold route applies — $5,000 in medical expenses or a permanent injury — and document that one specifically.
4. Push for precise fault percentages for every defendant, since the 25% line determines whether a defendant is jointly liable for all noneconomic damages or only their own slice.
5. Track economic and noneconomic damages separately, since Hawaii treats them under entirely different liability rules.
6. Calculate your two-year deadline and diary it now, and confirm separately for PIP or government claims.

Sources & Further Reading

• HRS § 431:10C-103.5 — the $10,000 minimum PIP benefit and its medical/rehabilitative scope
• HRS § 663-31 — comparative negligence measured against the individual or aggregate negligence of the persons against whom recovery is sought
• HRS § 663-10.9 — abolition of joint and several liability with exceptions: economic damages retained, noneconomic damages joint and several only at 25% or more individual negligence
• HRS § 657-7 — the two-year personal injury limitations period
• Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Insurance Division — guidance on the minimum liability limits effective January 1, 2026 (40/80/20)
• See our no-fault / PIP benefits calculator for how Hawaii’s medical-only PIP compares to the other eleven no-fault states, and our guides to Wisconsin and California car accident settlements for two other approaches to splitting liability among multiple defendants