The declarations page in the glove box is now the first place to look after a Raleigh wreck. North Carolina raised its ordinary auto liability floors on July 1, 2025, for a policy that was issued or renewed on or after that date. The current statute, G.S. 20-279.21, requires coverage of fifty thousand dollars for one person’s bodily injury or death in a single wreck, one hundred thousand dollars for bodily injury to, or the death of, two or more people in that wreck, and fifty thousand dollars for injury to, or destruction of, someone else’s property in that wreck. People still call those figures 50/100/50.
The North Carolina Department of Insurance explained the change on its official page about rating changes effective July 1, 2025. Before that date, the floors were thirty thousand, sixty thousand, and twenty-five thousand dollars. A policy that was already in force on June 30, 2025, kept its then-current limits until it was issued or renewed beginning July 1. By late 2026, most ordinary annual policies have already renewed into the new floors, but the only reliable way to know is to read the declarations page for the policy that actually applied on the collision date.
What the new floors do, and what they do not do
The floors are a minimum, not a measure of what a case is worth. Hospital bills, lost wages, and property damage after a beltline or Capital Boulevard wreck can exceed fifty thousand dollars for one person very quickly. If the at-fault driver carried only the floor, the rest of a valid claim may have to be paid from that driver’s personal assets, or through underinsured-motorist coverage on a household policy, or through some other policy that actually applies. The floor is the starting coverage, not the ceiling on the harm.
The same July 2025 change also put underinsured-motorist coverage into every new or renewed policy. Before that date, a policy sitting at the old 30/60/25 floors did not have to include underinsured-motorist coverage. That gap is the one the legislation closed at renewal. If you are looking at a wreck that happened after July 1, 2025, and the at-fault policy had already renewed, underinsured-motorist coverage should be on that household policy unless a later, valid selection of different limits is already in the file. Read the declarations page and the forms that came with it.
The Department of Insurance also described three other underinsured-motorist changes that took effect with the same legislation. Whether a vehicle is underinsured is now judged by the damages the injured person actually sustained, not only by lining up the liability limits that applied when the wreck occurred. The amount of underinsured-motorist coverage applicable to a claim is not reduced by a setoff or credit against other coverage, including liability coverage, except for workers’ compensation as the statute provides. If the claimant has underinsured-motorist coverage on separate or additional policies, the applicable amount is the sum of the highest limit available under each policy. Intra-policy stacking is still restricted. The underinsured-motorist limits on one motor vehicle under a policy shall not be combined with or added to the limits on another motor vehicle under that same policy.
How this meets a Triangle wreck
Write down each carrier, each policy number, and the issue or renewal date. A Five Points wreck can involve a Raleigh resident on a newly renewed 50/100/50 policy, a visitor whose policy last renewed in June 2025 and still showed 30/60/25 on the crash date, and a household uninsured or underinsured endorsement as well. The dates decide which floor applies to which policy. Do not assume every vehicle on the scene was already on the new figures.
Rideshare coverage is a separate statute. G.S. 20-280.4 sets a fifty / one hundred / twenty-five thousand dollar primary floor while a driver is logged into the app but is not yet providing TNC service, and a one-million-dollar primary floor while the driver is engaged in TNC service. That logged-on property figure, twenty-five thousand dollars, is not the same as the ordinary 2025 auto property floor of fifty thousand dollars. The uber-and-lyft guide on this site walks through those periods. Do not read the ordinary auto floors onto a logged-on rideshare claim without checking the TNC statute.
A truck that was operating in interstate commerce may also carry federal financial-responsibility coverage far above the state auto floors. Those federal figures are explained in the truck guide. Again, the state floor is the ordinary private-auto minimum, not a cap that travels with every vehicle on I-40.
Fault still sits beside the numbers
Higher floors do not soften contributory negligence. If the defense proves that you also had a part in the wreck, the liability claim against the other driver can still end, even when that driver carried 50/100/50 or more. That is why first-party coverage on your own policy, including uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage and any medical-payments coverage you bought, remains important after a Raleigh crash. The uninsured-motorist guide on this site explains the notice steps that go with those claims.
If a city or state vehicle is involved, the ordinary auto floors may not be the right framework at all. City immunity is waived only to the extent of purchased insurance, or a qualifying reserve, under G.S. 160A-485. A state tort claim is filed with the Industrial Commission and is subject to the one-million-dollar cap in G.S. 143-299.2. Those paths are in the city-and-state guide. The declarations page is still worth reading, but it is not the whole coverage map.
Take the declarations pages, the crash report, and a date list to the first serious conversation about the file. Ask which floor applied on the day of the wreck, whether underinsured-motorist coverage was on each policy, and whether any rideshare, truck, city, or state coverage sits beside the ordinary auto insurance. The July 2025 change is already in the statute. The only question left is which policy, on which date, actually follows it.