Every standard auto policy written in New Jersey now has to carry at least $35,000 in bodily injury coverage for one injured person and $70,000 for everyone hurt in the same crash. Those figures took effect on January 1, 2026 and represent the second half of a change the Legislature approved in 2022, which lifted limits that had sat untouched since the 1970s. For anyone injured by another driver, the number matters because it sets the floor on how much insurance money exists to pay for the harm.
Raising the statutory floor does not put money in anyone’s hands by itself. What an injured person actually recovers depends on which policies apply, when each of them was issued, and how well the injury and its costs are documented. Knowing where to look for coverage, and what the increase does and does not reach, is what turns a larger legal minimum into a larger recovery.
What actually changed at the start of 2026
Bodily injury liability limits moved from $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident up to $35,000 and $70,000, while the property damage requirement stayed at $25,000. The earlier phase, in January 2023, had already lifted the per person figure from $15,000 and raised property damage from $5,000, so the combined effect over three years is substantial for anyone dealing with a driver who carries nothing beyond the legal minimum. Serious injuries still outrun these numbers regularly, and a New Jersey auto accident law firm opening that kind of file starts by asking what other coverage exists, since a single surgery and a short hospital stay exceed $35,000 before lost wages enter the calculation. Where the increase makes the clearest difference is in the middle range of cases, the fractures and disc injuries that previously exhausted a minimum policy and left the injured person with nowhere else to go.
Why the increase reaches uninsured and underinsured coverage
Uninsured and underinsured motorist limits in New Jersey generally track the liability limits on the same policy, which means the statutory increase quietly improved the protection drivers carry for themselves. Someone struck by a hit-and-run driver, or by a motorist who never bought insurance at all, is now looking at a higher minimum recovery through their own policy than the same crash would have produced a year earlier. Underinsured coverage works differently and only becomes available once the at-fault driver’s liability limits are shown to be insufficient, and the notice requirements around that step are strict. Reviewing that sequence before any settlement is signed avoids the most common way underinsured benefits get lost, which is settling with the at-fault carrier without preserving the second claim.
Your renewal date decides which limits apply
Coverage attaches to the policy in force on the day of the crash rather than to the calendar year in which the law changed. The new minimums apply to policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2026, so a driver whose policy renewed in November 2025 was still carrying the earlier limits well into the following year. That single detail decides whether $25,000 or $35,000 sits behind a claim, and it is worth confirming with NJ injury claim lawyers before any figure gets discussed. The distinction runs the other way as well, since the at-fault motorist may have renewed under the new rules while your own policy has not yet caught up, which affects the underinsured analysis on your side of the file.
Where additional coverage usually turns up
Minimum limits are only the starting point, and in serious cases most of the recovery comes from policies nobody mentioned at the scene. Finding them means putting specific questions to the right people rather than waiting for an adjuster to volunteer the information.
Umbrella and excess policies: Households with property or savings often hold an umbrella policy sitting above the auto limits, adding a million dollars or more that never appears on the auto declarations page. These policies are rarely volunteered and usually surface only when someone asks the right question in writing.
Other household policies: Resident relatives, second vehicles and policies covering a spouse sometimes provide additional uninsured or underinsured coverage depending on the wording. Reading each declarations page in the household is routine work that regularly turns up limits nobody remembered buying.
Business and permissive use: Someone driving a company vehicle, running an errand for an employer, or borrowing a car with permission may bring an entirely separate commercial or owner’s policy into the claim. Establishing what the driver was doing at the moment of the crash is what opens that door, and the answer usually comes from records rather than from the driver.
Higher limits still have to be earned through proof
Available insurance and recovered compensation are two different things, and the gap between them is filled with documentation. New Jersey drivers choose between the limitation on lawsuit option and the unlimited right to sue, and that election controls whether a claim for pain and suffering can proceed at all without medical evidence of a qualifying permanent injury. Personal Injury Protection pays medical costs early regardless of fault, which keeps treatment moving but produces records the other carrier will comb through later. Objective findings, consistent treatment and a clear account of how the injury affects work and daily life are what move a claim toward the top of a policy rather than the middle of it.
Making the larger baseline count
New Jersey generally allows two years to bring an injury lawsuit, and claims involving a public entity carry a notice requirement measured in months rather than years. Gathering the declarations pages, the police report and the full treatment record early gives a car accident injury lawyer the material needed to identify every policy that applies before any of those deadlines start pressing. The statutory increase widened the pool of money available after a crash, and the claims that reach it are the ones where somebody went looking for every layer of coverage rather than accepting the first policy limit offered.
Higher statutory minimums mean more coverage is available, but only if the claim is presented properly. Karns & Karns Personal Injury and Accident Attorneys can identify every applicable policy and pursue the full limits your injuries justify. Speak with our team at 1-800-4-THE-WIN (1-800-484-3946).
