What the Per-Person Limit Does

The first figure in 30/60/15 is the most you can carry for any single person injured in an accident you caused. Insurance Code section 11580.1b sets it at 30,000 dollars, and understanding exactly what it is measured against is how you decide whether it is enough for you.

What it applies to

It responds to bodily injury to one person — the medical treatment, and the other costs that flow from an injury claim. It is a per-person ceiling, so it does not matter whether one person or four were hurt; each individual claim is capped at this figure.

It does not cover your own injuries. It does not cover any vehicle. It does not cover your passengers' injuries if you were at fault in a way that... actually, this is worth stating plainly: bodily injury liability covers injuries you cause to others, and that generally includes passengers in your own vehicle. What it never covers is you.

Why one injury can exceed it

An injury claim is not just an emergency room bill. It can include transport, imaging, surgery, follow-up treatment, physical therapy, and lost income during recovery. A single injury that requires a hospital admission and a period off work is not an exotic scenario; it is an ordinary one.

We are deliberately not going to give you an average figure for any of that, because any number we produced would be invented and this page carries a license. What we will say is that in our office, the calls where a driver discovers the limit was reached are not rare, and the discovery always comes at the worst possible time.

What happens when the limit is reached

Your insurer pays up to the limit. Beyond it, the claim does not stop existing — it becomes a claim against you. What that means practically depends on the circumstances and on what you have, and it is genuinely a question for an attorney rather than an insurance page. What we can say is that the exposure is real and that it is the exposure the limit was supposed to cover.

The related point about defense

Liability coverage generally includes the insurer defending a claim against you, which is worth real money and is easy to overlook. The important detail is that this obligation is tied to the policy limits — once the limits are exhausted by payment, the insurer's role generally ends. How this works varies by policy, so read yours or ask your carrier directly.

How to decide whether 30,000 is your number

Ask yourself one question: if an injury claim against me exceeded this figure, what would I be able to pay?

• If the honest answer is "nothing, I have no savings and no assets", then higher limits are protecting less than you might think, and minimum coverage may genuinely be the right call for now.
• If the answer is "I have savings, or a house, or a solid income", the limit is protecting all of that, and it is worth knowing what a higher limit costs before you decide it is out of reach.

That is the whole analysis, and it takes two minutes of honest thought rather than a spreadsheet. Ask us to price the minimum and one step above it together — knowing the difference costs nothing.