Car Accident Lawyers in Hawaii

Most states start a car accident claim with a question about fault. Hawaii starts with a question about your own insurance card. Every driver here carries Personal Injury Protection, and PIP pays the first medical bills after a crash no matter who caused it — which means a Hawaii claim often spends its opening weeks entirely outside the fault system altogether.

Fault only enters the picture once an injury is serious enough to clear a statutory line. What follows is how that no-fault layer works, what the 51% comparative fault bar does once a claim clears it, and what the state’s insurance minimums and damage caps mean in practice.

PIP First, Lawsuit Second

Under HRS § 431:10C, every Hawaii auto policy must include at least $10,000 in PIP coverage per person. That coverage pays medical and rehabilitation costs for the policyholder and passengers regardless of fault — no waiting on a liability investigation, no dispute over who ran the stop sign. For a lot of minor collisions, PIP is the beginning and the end of the claim.

To step outside no-fault and pursue the at-fault driver directly, an injured person has to clear the threshold in HRS § 431:10C-306(d). That happens two ways: a monetary threshold, where medical-rehabilitative expenses reach $5,000 or more, or a verbal threshold covering death, significant permanent loss of a bodily function, or permanent serious disfigurement. Below that line, PIP is generally the only recovery available.

The 51% Bar, Once a Claim Clears the Threshold

Hawaii uses modified comparative negligence under HRS § 663-31. An injured driver recovers as long as their own fault does not exceed the other party’s — found 45% at fault, they still collect 55% of the award. Found 51% or more at fault, they recover nothing. Because that line sits so close to a straight fifty-fifty split, insurers scrutinize police reports, dashcam footage, and witness accounts closely once a claim moves past the no-fault stage.

What Changed in the Insurance Minimums for 2026

Hawaii’s liability minimums had sat at 20/40/10 for years before rising to 40/80/20 for policies new or renewing on or after January 1, 2026 — $40,000 bodily injury per person, $80,000 per accident, and $20,000 property damage, on top of the $10,000 PIP requirement. The increase means a driver hurt badly enough to clear the threshold has a larger pool of liability coverage behind the at-fault driver than claimants faced in years past, though catastrophic injuries can still exceed even the new floor.

Damage Caps and Where They Do Not Apply

• Pain and suffering is capped at $375,000 under HRS § 663-8.7 in most car accident cases.
• Medical bills and lost income are uncapped, regardless of how the case is otherwise valued.
• The cap disappears for DUI and intentional-conduct cases under HRS § 663-10.9(2), which comes up often in Hawaii’s drunk-driving crash litigation.
• Joint and several liability survives for economic damages and for any defendant found at least 25% at fault, even though it has largely been abolished for non-economic damages.

County Notice, Circuit Courts, and the Two-Year Clock

Most Hawaii car accident claims must be filed within two years under HRS § 657-7. But a crash involving a county bus, a county road crew, or a county-owned vehicle triggers a separate notice requirement under HRS § 46-72 — six months, not two years — and missing it can bar the claim long before the general deadline would otherwise matter. Because the islands are physically separate, venue depends on which circuit court has jurisdiction: Oahu crashes generally proceed in the First Circuit Court in Honolulu, while Maui, Hawaii Island, and Kauai each file locally.

Finding the Right Attorney in Hawaii

The Lawyer Atlas is a directory, not a law firm — we do not give legal advice and do not represent anyone. Consultations for crash cases are nearly always free, and representation is nearly always contingency-based. Ask a prospective attorney how they evaluate the no-fault threshold on your injuries, how they approach the 51% fault line, and how costs are handled if the claim does not resolve. Then start with your island — Honolulu’s freeway network and tourism traffic produce a caseload with its own patterns worth knowing.