Massachusetts Car Accident Settlement Calculator

Massachusetts uses a 51% fault threshold for car accident claims. You can recover compensation as long as you are no more than 50% at fault — even in a perfectly even 50/50 split, you still receive half your damages. This is more permissive than states using a 50% bar, where equal fault results in zero recovery.

You have 3 years to file suit in Massachusetts, a deadline that is in line with the national average of 2.7 years. This is a standard timeframe, but acting sooner preserves evidence and strengthens your position. Massachusetts does apply a discovery rule, which can adjust the starting point of the limitations period when the injury was not immediately discoverable.

As a no-fault auto insurance state, Massachusetts requires you to file a claim with your own insurance company first under your personal injury protection (PIP) policy, regardless of who caused the accident. A claim against the at-fault driver for pain and suffering is limited by Massachusetts's no-fault law. Damages for pain and suffering can be recovered only if the reasonable and necessary medical expenses of treating the injury are more than $2,000, unless the injury causes death, consists in whole or in part of loss of a body member, a permanent and serious disfigurement or a fracture, or results in a loss of sight or hearing of the kind the statute describes (M.G.L. c. 231, § 6D). As a result, many minor car accident claims in Massachusetts are resolved through PIP, while an injury that meets the statutory test can be pursued against the at-fault driver.

Massachusetts requires all drivers to carry minimum liability insurance of $25K per person / $50K per accident in bodily injury coverage and $30K in property damage coverage (commonly written as 25/50/30). These minimums are below the national average, meaning many drivers in Massachusetts may carry only enough insurance to cover a fraction of the costs from a serious accident. Massachusetts also requires uninsured motorist (UM) coverage of at least $25K per person, which protects you if the at-fault driver has no insurance. As a no-fault state, Massachusetts also mandates personal injury protection (PIP) coverage of at least $8K.

Massachusetts does not add diminished value, the resale value a properly repaired car loses because of its accident history, to the cost of repairs in a claim against the at-fault driver. Your own collision coverage is not required to pay it under Massachusetts authority. Massachusetts's Supreme Judicial Court held in Given v. Commerce Insurance (2003) that the standard collision coverage does not pay the value a repaired car still lost, and in Cubberley v. Commerce (2025) that the current standard policy excludes that loss from the at-fault driver's coverage as well. The diminished value guide in the related reading below carries the rule for every state and how to document the loss.