Limited Tort And Full Tort, Explained
In states that offer the choice, one line on your own auto policy decides whether you can be paid for pain and suffering at all. Most people do not know which one they picked.
The choice sits on your own policy
Many states make every insurer offer two versions of the same auto policy and put the choice to the named insured in writing, on a standardized form, in language the statute itself sets out. You chose one when the policy was written, or one was chosen for you. If a named insured never answers either notice, the statute treats them as having chosen full tort.
Full tort
A person bound by the full tort election stays eligible to seek compensation for noneconomic loss as well as economic loss from a crash caused by someone else's fault. Noneconomic loss is defined in the same chapter as pain and suffering and other nonmonetary detriment. Economic loss is the measurable part: the bills, the lost wages, the out of pocket costs.
Limited tort
Limited tort keeps the economic side and rules out a claim for noneconomic loss unless the injury is a serious injury. The chapter defines a serious injury as a personal injury resulting in death, serious impairment of body function or permanent serious disfigurement. Whether an injury clears that bar is exactly the kind of question that gets argued about, which is why it is worth asking early rather than assuming.
The exceptions matter as much as the rule
Someone otherwise bound by limited tort can recover as though they had full tort in several situations the statute lists:
- The person at fault is convicted of, or accepts a diversion program for, driving under the influence in that crash
- The person at fault was operating a vehicle registered in another state
- The person at fault intended to injure themselves or another person
- The person at fault had not maintained the financial responsibility the chapter requires
- The claim is against a business that designed, built, repaired, serviced or maintained the vehicle, over a defect
- You were hurt as an occupant of a vehicle other than a private passenger motor vehicle
What to do with this
Find your declarations page. The tort election is printed on it, and your insurer has to produce it if you cannot. Then have someone read it with you before you talk to anybody about what a claim is worth, because the answer is different under the two options and different again if one of those exceptions applies. A free case evaluation is a reasonable place to do that reading.
- The tort choiceStates that offer limited tort require insurers to explain the choice to the policyholder in writing when the policy is bought.
- The default choiceWhere the policyholder never makes a choice, the rule usually sets which option applies by default.
- Full tortFull tort keeps the right to claim for pain and suffering as well as for bills and lost income.
- Limited tort and its exceptionsLimited tort restricts pain and suffering claims unless the injury is serious, and the rule lists exceptions that restore full tort.
- Vehicle definitionsInsurance rules usually define the vehicles they reach, and motorcycles and commercial vehicles are often outside the definition.
