Insurance System & Requirements

Mississippi follows a traditional at-fault insurance system. The driver who causes a crash is financially responsible for the damages, and an injured person recovers by proving that driver's negligence through a claim on the at-fault driver's policy, a claim on their own coverage where it applies, or a lawsuit. Mississippi requires no Personal Injury Protection (PIP) coverage, so your own auto policy does not automatically pay your medical bills after a crash.

Minimum required coverage

Every vehicle operated in Mississippi must be covered by a liability policy that meets the limits set in § 63-15-3(j):

• Bodily injury: $25,000 per person / $50,000 per accident
• Property damage: $25,000 per accident

These limits pay for injuries and damage you cause to other people. They don't pay for your own injuries, lost income, or vehicle repairs, and in a serious crash they run out quickly.

Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage (UM/UIM)

Mississippi doesn't leave this coverage to chance. Under § 83-11-101, an auto liability policy can't be issued or delivered in the state without uninsured motorist coverage for bodily injury and death, plus a property damage provision, unless the named insured rejects it in writing on a signed form. A signed rejection binds everyone insured under the policy and is presumed to be an informed, knowing waiver, so read what you sign at purchase or renewal. You can raise UM limits above the minimum, up to your own liability limits, and policies covering four or more vehicles may offer a single-limit, non-stacking option, but only with a signed disclosure form (§ 83-11-102).

This matters more in Mississippi than in most states. Insurance industry data showed Mississippi with the highest uninsured driver rate in the country in 2019, at 29.4 percent against a national average of 12.6 percent.

Medical Payments (MedPay) coverage

MedPay is optional. It pays medical expenses for you and your passengers regardless of fault, up to its limit, and is commonly used for deductibles, copays, and early bills while a claim is pending.

Rideshare coverage requirements

For Uber, Lyft, and similar drivers, § 77-8-15 sets coverage by app status:

• Logged in and available, no ride accepted: primary liability of $50,000 per person / $100,000 per accident for bodily injury and $25,000 for property damage, plus uninsured motorist coverage to the extent § 83-11-101 requires
• Engaged in a prearranged ride: $1,000,000 for death, bodily injury, and property damage, plus the same uninsured motorist coverage

The driver's own policy, the company's policy, or a combination can satisfy these requirements. If the driver's coverage has lapsed or falls short, the company's insurance must provide the required coverage. Personal auto policies commonly exclude rideshare use, so a driver relying only on a personal policy while logged in may face a gap, and a rideshare endorsement is worth asking about.

Penalties for non-compliance

• Driving without required insurance (§ 63-16-13(1)): a misdemeanor punishable by a $100 fine, plus court assessments, and suspension of your driving privileges for one year or until you show proof of compliant insurance and pay the fines, assessments, and Department of Public Safety reinstatement fees. A judge decides whether a defendant is indigent and, if so, may allow reinstatement on proof of insurance under a payment plan. A 2026 bill to raise this fine died in committee, so $100 is still the statutory figure
• Not carrying proof of insurance (§ 63-15-4(4)): the same $100 fine and suspension. If you show at your hearing or when you pay that coverage was in effect at the time of the citation, the case is dismissed with prejudice and court costs are waived. An officer who checks the state's electronic insurance verification system and finds coverage may not cite you for a missing card, and you can't be convicted under both statutes for the same incident
• Civil liability: an uninsured driver who causes a crash is personally responsible for the injured person's damages, with no insurer to step in.

Fault & Negligence Laws

Pure comparative fault

Mississippi follows a pure comparative negligence, or fault, rule under Miss. Code § 11-7-15. In an action for personal injury, death, or property damage, the injured person's own negligence does not bar recovery. The jury instead reduces the damages "in proportion to the amount of negligence attributable to the person injured."

Mississippi sets no percentage cutoff. If a jury awards $50,000 and finds you 20 percent at fault, you recover $40,000. If it finds you 80 percent at fault, you still recover 20 percent of the award. This is more forgiving than the 50 or 51 percent bars used in many states covered in this series, where crossing the threshold ends the claim entirely. Mississippi's rule is also less exposed to a single disputed judgment call, since a small change in the share of fault changes the recovery by that same small amount. For a broader comparison of how these systems work across states, see our article on comparative and contributory negligence.

Seat belts do not count as comparative negligence

Mississippi requires drivers and passengers to wear seat belts, but the law is explicit that failing to do so cannot be used to reduce an injured person's recovery. Under § 63-2-3, failure to provide and use a seat belt restraint device "shall not be considered contributory or comparative negligence," and the violation is not entered on a driving record. Some law firm websites suggest that not wearing a seat belt can lower your recovery by a fault percentage, but that is not what the statute says.

Several-only liability: each defendant pays only their own share

When more than one person contributes to a crash, Mississippi does not let an injured person collect the whole judgment from whichever defendant can pay. Under § 85-5-7, liability for damages caused by two or more people is several only, and not joint and several. Each defendant is liable only for the amount of damages allocated to them in direct proportion to their percentage of fault. If one at-fault driver is uninsured or cannot pay, the other defendants do not make up the shortfall.

Two practical consequences follow. First, the jury assigns a percentage of fault to each party alleged to be at fault, including people who are legally immune or whose liability is limited by law, such as certain government defendants. Fault assigned to them is not shifted onto the other defendants (§ 85-5-7(5)), so the injured person absorbs that share. Second, the Mississippi Supreme Court has held that a jury may consider the fault of participants who are not parties to the lawsuit, such as a driver who was never sued or could not be identified (Estate of Hunter v. General Motors Corp., 729 So. 2d 1264 (Miss. 1999)), and a share assigned that way is generally not recoverable from the defendants who were sued.

The statute has two limits worth knowing. An employer and its employee, or a principal and its agent, are treated as one defendant when the employer's liability comes from the employee's negligent act, which matters in crashes involving commercial vehicles. And joint and several liability still applies to anyone who consciously and deliberately pursues a common plan or design to commit a tortious act, or actively takes part in it, with a right of contribution among those defendants. That describes intentional wrongdoing rather than ordinary negligent driving.

Multi-vehicle collisions

In a crash involving several vehicles, fault is divided among the drivers based on evidence, including police reports, witness statements, photographs, and each driver's response to traffic signals and other traffic laws. Each at-fault driver is responsible only for their own percentage, and an injured driver's recovery is separately reduced by their own percentage. A driver who is also partly at fault should expect the other side to press hard on that number, since every point of fault assigned to you reduces your recovery dollar for dollar.

Passenger rights

Passengers injured in a Mississippi crash can seek compensation from the at-fault driver, whether that is the driver of their own vehicle or another driver. Where more than one driver is at fault, a passenger can pursue each of them, but because liability is several only, each driver answers only for their own share. If the at-fault driver has no insurance, a passenger may be able to use uninsured motorist coverage, either their own or, under many policies, the coverage on the vehicle they were riding in, so check the policy's definition of who is insured. A passenger's recovery can be reduced by their own percentage of fault if their conduct contributed to the crash, such as by distracting the driver, but it is not barred.

Statute of Limitations

Standard filing deadlines in Mississippi

• Personal injury: 3 years from the date the cause of action accrued, under the general limitations statute, Miss. Code § 15-1-49(1), which covers all actions with no other period prescribed. For a crash injury, that generally means the date of the crash
• Property damage: 3 years under the same statute
• Wrongful death: 3 years. The wrongful death statute (§ 11-7-13) sets no deadline of its own, so the general three-year statute governs, generally measured from the death. Only one lawsuit may be brought for a single death, and the statute limits who may sue to the personal representative and listed close relatives, all of whom must be included or represented in that one action.

Mississippi's discovery rule is narrow. Under § 15-1-49(2), a claim does not accrue until the injury is discovered only in cases involving latent injury or disease. Most crash injuries are immediate, so do not assume a later start date.

Claims against government entities: a strict, multi-step process

If your crash involves a city, county, state agency, or another public entity, the Mississippi Tort Claims Act replaces the ordinary deadline with a shorter and more procedural one under § 11-46-11:

1. Sue within 1 year of the conduct that caused the harm
2. File a written notice of claim at least 90 days before suing. It must be in writing, delivered in person or by registered or certified mail, and state the facts, the injury, the time and place, the people involved, the damages sought, and your residence. Where it goes depends on the defendant: the chancery clerk for a county, the city clerk for a municipality, and the chief executive officer for a state entity or other political subdivision
3. Filing the notice within the one-year period pauses the clock for 95 days from the date the official receives it
4. You cannot sue until you receive a denial or the pause ends, whichever comes first. You then have 90 more days to file. The government must serve any denial by certified mail

Missing any of these steps is an absolute bar to the claim. The Act's time limit also controls over any other deadline that might otherwise apply, no matter how the claim is labeled. This is far shorter than the three-year deadline for a claim against a private driver, so treat any crash involving a public vehicle or employee as urgent from the start. See our article on sovereign immunity and suing the government for the broader framework.

Minors and other exceptions

• Minors: Mississippi treats anyone under 21 as a minor (§ 1-3-27). Under § 15-1-59, an injured minor can bring a claim within the normal time limit after turning 21, which for a three-year claim means until their 24th birthday. The Tort Claims Act has its own version: a minor's one-year period, and the notice steps above, begin once the disability of minority ends (§ 11-46-11(4))
• Unsound mind: the same statutes apply, but the extension can never run longer than 21 years
• Negligent medical treatment after a crash: a claim against a health care provider is separate and follows its own rules under § 15-1-36. You have 2 years from when the negligence was, or with reasonable diligence should have been, discovered, and in most cases no more than 7 years after the act itself. You must also give the provider at least 60 days' written notice before suing, and serving that notice within the last 60 days of the deadline extends it by 60 days

MVA Procedures & Police Involvement

When you must report a crash

Under Miss. Code § 63-3-411, the driver of a vehicle involved in a crash that causes injury or death, or property damage with an apparent total of $500 or more, must immediately, by the quickest means of communication, notify law enforcement. Who receives the call depends on where the crash happened:

• Inside an incorporated municipality: the local police department
• Outside a municipality: the nearest sheriff's office or Highway Patrol station

The report goes to police, the sheriff, or the Highway Patrol, not to the Department of Public Safety directly. If the driver is too badly hurt to report, the code has a separate provision (§ 63-3-413) for an occupant of the vehicle to make the report. Stay at the scene, exchange information, and get help for anyone injured; leaving after a crash can be treated as a hit-and-run.

What happens after you call

An officer who investigates a reportable crash must forward a written report within six days of finishing the investigation, to the Department of Public Safety if the crash was outside a municipality or to the municipal police department if it was inside one. Municipal police then forward their reports to the department within six days of the crash. The department can also require drivers to file supplemental reports when the original is incomplete, and can require witnesses to file reports. Because of this process, a report is not usually available the day after a crash.

If no officer comes to the scene

Exchange names, addresses, insurance details, and license plate numbers with every driver, photograph the vehicles, the scene, any skid marks, and any injuries, and get contact information for witnesses. This applies whether the crash happened on a public road or on private property such as a parking lot, where responding agencies vary in whether they will write a report. Notify your own insurer promptly, and keep the legal deadlines in the Statute of Limitations section above in mind, especially if a government vehicle or employee was involved.

How to get your crash report

Crash reports are not open to the general public. Access is generally limited to people involved in the crash, their next of kin, and people against whom a claim is made.

• Highway Patrol reports: request in person at the district Highway Patrol station for $15, or online for $20, which includes a $5 handling fee
• Reports from other agencies (city police, sheriff's offices): contact the agency that handled the crash, or request the report online through the Department of Public Safety's crash report page for $20

Keep your police report number on hand; insurers and attorneys will ask for it when processing a claim. If yours contains errors, addressing them promptly matters. See our article on what to do if your car accident police report is inaccurate for the steps involved.

Compensation: Types & Limits

Economic damages

Mississippi places no cap on economic damages against a private defendant. Medical bills, lost wages, future earning capacity, and property damage are recoverable in full, subject only to proving them and to the comparative fault reduction discussed in the Fault section above. Insurance adjusters will scrutinize these figures closely, so documentation matters.

Non-economic damages

Pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, and similar losses are capped under § 11-1-60 at $1,000,000 for most civil actions filed on or after September 1, 2004, or $500,000 if the defendant is a health care provider being sued for malpractice. The jury is never told a cap exists; a judge reduces any excess award after the verdict.

This cap has been tested. In Learmonth v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., a federal jury awarded a Mississippi car accident victim $4 million, including roughly $2.2 million in non-economic damages, which the trial court reduced to $1 million. The Fifth Circuit affirmed on February 27, 2013, rejecting arguments that the cap violates the Mississippi Constitution's jury trial guarantee or separation of powers. Because the Mississippi Supreme Court had declined to answer the underlying state-law question, the Fifth Circuit's ruling is a federal court's best guess at how Mississippi law works. It's persuasive and it's the only appellate word on this so far, but it doesn't bind Mississippi's own courts, which have never conclusively ruled on the cap's constitutionality.

Punitive damages

Punitive damages require proof, by clear and convincing evidence, of actual malice, gross negligence showing willful, wanton, or reckless disregard for others' safety, or actual fraud. Mississippi tries these claims in two phases: the jury decides compensatory damages first, and only if it awards them does the court hold a hearing on whether punitive damages can even go to the jury.

Under § 11-1-65, an award is capped on a sliding scale tied to the defendant's net worth, from 2 percent of net worth for a defendant worth $50 million or less, up to a flat $20 million for a defendant worth more than $1 billion. The jury is not told about this cap either. It does not apply if the defendant was convicted of a felony that caused the harm, or was under the influence of alcohol or unprescribed drugs at the time.

Claims against government entities

As discussed in the Statute of Limitations section above, a claim against a Mississippi city, county, state agency, or their employees follows the notice and filing steps of the Mississippi Tort Claims Act. If those steps are met, recovery is still far more limited than a claim against a private driver:

• $500,000 total, for all claims arising out of a single occurrence under § 11-46-15, not $500,000 per injured person. If a crash injures several people, they share one $500,000 ceiling
• No punitive or exemplary damages
• No pre-judgment interest
• No attorney's fees, unless separately authorized by law
• A judge, not a jury, decides the case, and must reduce any verdict that, combined with costs and authorized fees, would exceed the cap

When more than one driver is at fault

As discussed in the Fault section above, Mississippi's several-only liability rule means each at-fault defendant pays only their own share of a judgment. This affects total recovery directly: if one of several at-fault drivers is uninsured or otherwise unable to pay, the shortfall isn't shifted to the others, and the injured party bears it.

Medical Coverage Considerations

No PIP means you rely on other coverage first

Mississippi is an at-fault state with no PIP requirement, discussed in the Insurance section above. This means there's no automatic, no-fault source of quick payment for your medical bills after a crash. You (or your health insurer) generally pay first, and you seek reimbursement from the other driver's liability coverage once fault is established, which can take time.

Keep your medical records and bills organized from the start, since they're the backbone of any claim for your treatment costs.

Medical Payments (MedPay) coverage

MedPay, discussed in the Insurance section above, is optional but useful precisely because Mississippi has no PIP. It pays your medical expenses and your passengers' up to its limit, regardless of who caused the crash, and doesn't require a fault determination first. It's commonly used to cover a deductible, a copay, or early bills like an ambulance ride or an ER visit while a liability claim is still being worked out.

Health insurance

Health insurance typically pays your medical bills after a crash the same way it would for any other injury. Many health plans include a right of reimbursement, meaning that if you later recover from the at-fault driver's insurer for the same medical expenses, your health insurer may be entitled to be paid back out of that recovery. Read your policy or ask your insurer about this before settling a claim, since it affects how much of a settlement you actually keep.

The at-fault driver's liability insurance

Once fault is established, the at-fault driver's bodily injury coverage, discussed in the Insurance section above, is the main source of recovery for your medical expenses, subject to Mississippi's $25,000 per person minimum, which can be exhausted quickly in a serious crash.

Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage

If the at-fault driver has no insurance or not enough, your UM/UIM coverage, discussed in the Insurance section above, is the next source of recovery, up to your own policy's limits. Given that Mississippi has had one of the highest uninsured-driver rates in the country, this coverage carries more practical weight here than in many other states, which is part of why the law requires it to be included unless you reject it in writing.

Unique Local Considerations

Heavy rain and flash flooding

Mississippi gets frequent, often intense rainfall, and low-lying roads and rural highways can flood quickly during storms. Hydroplaning is a real risk on wet roads at highway speeds, particularly on older asphalt with worn tread grooves. Never drive through standing or moving water on a roadway; it's easy to misjudge depth and current, and a stalled or swept vehicle is far more dangerous than the delay of turning around.

Rural roads and two-lane highways

Much of Mississippi's road network outside its metro areas is rural: two-lane highways with limited lighting, sharp curves, and higher speed limits than urban streets. Combined with longer stopping distances at those speeds and less predictable traffic (farm equipment, unmarked driveways, wildlife), these roads carry a disproportionate share of the state's serious crashes compared to interstates and city streets.

Deer and wildlife collisions

Deer-vehicle collisions are common in Mississippi, particularly in rural and wooded areas, and particularly during the fall mating season and at dawn and dusk when deer are most active and visibility is lowest. A deer strike is generally handled under comprehensive coverage rather than collision coverage, so if you carry only liability insurance, as Mississippi law technically permits, a wildlife strike may leave you covering vehicle damage out of pocket.

Severe weather: tornadoes and hurricanes

Mississippi sits in an active tornado corridor and, along its Gulf Coast, in a hurricane-prone zone. Both can produce sudden, severe driving conditions: high winds, downed trees and power lines, and debris on roadways with little warning. During a tornado watch or warning, pull off the road and seek shelter rather than trying to outdrive the storm; during hurricane evacuations, expect heavy traffic on limited evacuation routes and leave earlier than seems necessary.

High uninsured-driver rate

As discussed in the Insurance section above, Mississippi has had one of the highest uninsured motorist rates in the country. This is less about road conditions and more about what to carry: given how likely you are to encounter an uninsured driver, UM/UIM coverage is worth treating as close to essential rather than optional, even though Mississippi law allows you to reject it in writing.

Legal Resources & Contacts

Mississippi Department of Public Safety (MDPS)
Oversees vehicle registration, driver’s licenses, and the Highway Patrol. Also the recipient for auto accident report forwarding, discussed in the MVA Procedures section above.

• Website: dps.ms.gov
• Crash reports: dps.ms.gov/crash-reports
• Phone: (601) 987-1212
• Mailing address: P.O. Box 958, Jackson, MS 39205
• Physical address: 209 Allen Stuart Drive, Pearl, MS 39208

Mississippi Highway Patrol (MHP)
A division of MDPS. Handles traffic enforcement and crash investigation on state and interstate highways outside municipal limits, discussed in the MVA Procedures section above. Reports can be requested in person at a district station or online, per the fees discussed above.

• Website: dps.ms.gov/highway-patrol

Mississippi Insurance Department (MID)
Regulates auto insurers and handles complaints about denied, delayed, or unfairly handled car accident claims.

• Website: mid.ms.gov
• Main switchboard: (601) 359-3569
• Consumer toll-free line: (800) 562-2957
• Mailing address: P.O. Box 79, Jackson, MS 39205-0079
• Street address: 1001 Woolfolk State Office Building, 501 North West Street, Jackson, MS 39201

For accident laws in other states, visit our state-specific legal information page.