Bodily injury liability
Updated for plan year 2026
In plain terms
Bodily injury (BI) liability is the part of a car insurance policy that pays for the injuries of other people when you are at fault in a crash: their medical bills, lost wages, and your legal defense if they sue. It is written as two numbers, such as 100/300, meaning $100,000 per person and $300,000 per accident. It does not pay for your own injuries.
A plain example
You run a red light and injure two people. Your 100/300 BI limits will pay up to $100,000 for each person and up to $300,000 for the whole accident. If the combined claims run to $250,000, your policy covers it; if they run to $400,000, you are personally on the hook for the extra $100,000.
Why it matters
State minimums for BI are dangerously low (often $25,000 per person), and a single serious injury can blow past that in a day, leaving your home and savings exposed to a lawsuit. Sizing BI to at least your net worth is the cheapest way to protect everything you own.
A common point of confusion
People assume the state-minimum limit is 'enough because it's legal.' Legal and adequate are different things: the minimum is the floor the state accepts, not the amount that actually protects you.