Do I Have to Use My Own Insurance First After a Salt Lake City Car Accident?

Yes. Utah is a no-fault state for medical bills, so your own personal injury protection coverage pays first no matter who caused the crash, and every Utah policy carries at least $3,000 of it. You cannot ask the at-fault driver for pain and suffering until your case clears a statutory threshold. A bone fracture clears it on its own, whatever the bills add up to.

Drivers hear the phrase no-fault and assume it means nobody gets blamed. That is not what it means in Utah. Fault still decides who ultimately pays for the damage and for what you went through. No-fault only decides who pays the first medical bills and how badly you have to be hurt before the other driver’s insurer owes you anything beyond receipts.

The gap between those two ideas is where most Salt Lake City claims go wrong in the first month. This page walks the actual sequence, the dollar figure that permits a general damages claim, the five injuries that qualify without any dollar figure at all, and the amendment that renumbered the governing statute in May of this year. To have someone read your own policy against your own injuries, call William Andrews Injury Attorney at 801-322-HURT.

Utah Pays Your First Medical Bills Through Your Own Policy

Every Utah auto policy includes personal injury protection, and that coverage answers first. It does not wait for an adjuster to decide who ran the light. You submit your bills to your own insurer, and your own insurer pays them up to the policy limit while the fault investigation continues somewhere else entirely.

Utah Code 31A-22-307 sets the floor at medical benefits of “not less than $3,000 per person.” Most drivers carry exactly that floor, because it is what the cheapest compliant policy includes and almost nobody asks for more at renewal.

What Utah PIP Covers Beyond the Medical Bill

The medical benefit gets all the attention, though the statute funds four other things that matter to a household with someone out of work. Lost income pays “the lesser of $250 per week or 85% of any loss of gross income and loss of earning capacity per person from inability to work, for a maximum of 52 consecutive weeks.” Household services pay “a special damage allowance not exceeding $20 per day for a maximum of 365 days,” which covers hiring out the cooking, cleaning, and childcare you can no longer do yourself.

The statute also provides funeral, burial, or cremation benefits “not to exceed a total of $1,500 per person,” and a death benefit payable to the person’s heirs “in the total of $3,000.” Those last two figures have not moved in a long time, and they do not come close to what a Salt Lake City funeral actually costs.

The Three-Day Waiting Period Written Into the Statute

Two of those benefits carry a delay that most people never learn about until a check fails to arrive. The lost income benefit need not be paid for the first three days of disability unless the disability lasts longer than two consecutive weeks. Household services carry the same structure, with no payment for the first three days after the injury unless the inability to perform them lasts more than two consecutive weeks.

So a driver who misses four days of work and returns receives payment for one day. A driver who misses three weeks receives payment for all of it, including the first three days. The rule rewards nobody for going back early, and it catches people who assumed a short absence would be covered dollar for dollar.

The Threshold That Decides Whether You Can Sue for Pain and Suffering

PIP handles bills. It does nothing for what the injury actually cost you in pain, limitation, and loss of normal life. Utah calls that general damages, and it restricts who may claim it.

Utah Code 31A-22-309(1)(a) provides that a person covered by personal injury protection “may not maintain a cause of action for general damages arising out of personal injuries alleged to have been caused by an automobile accident, except where the person sustains one or more of the following.” Six items follow. Death. Dismemberment. Permanent disability or permanent impairment based upon objective findings. Permanent disfigurement. A bone fracture. Or medical expenses in excess of $3,000.

Meeting any single one of the six is enough. You do not need several. That structure matters because the dollar figure is the item everyone fixates on and it is only one of six qualifying conditions.

A Bone Fracture Clears the Threshold Regardless of Cost

The bone fracture item is the most useful and the least understood. A clean wrist fracture treated in a single visit and a cast might generate under $2,000 in bills. Under the dollar test alone that driver would not qualify for a general damages claim. Under the fracture item that driver qualifies outright because the statute names a bone fracture as its own category with no price attached.

Get the fracture documented on imaging and named in the record. A note that reads possible hairline fracture is a weaker foundation than a radiologist’s reading that identifies one.

What Permanent Impairment Based on Objective Findings Requires

This item decides most soft tissue cases. The statute asks for objective findings, which means something a clinician can measure or see rather than something you report. Range of motion measurements, imaging that shows a disc protrusion, nerve conduction studies, and a physician’s permanent impairment rating all qualify as objective. Your own account of daily pain, standing alone, does not.

Insurers know this and build their denials around it. A Salt Lake City driver with real ongoing neck pain and a normal set of films has a weak claim unless the medical workup is thorough enough to produce measurable findings.

The May 2026 Amendment That Renumbered Utah’s Threshold Statute

Anything you read about this rule that was written before this spring may cite the wrong subsection. The Utah Legislature amended 31A-22-309 through Chapter 45 of the 2026 General Session, and the current version took effect on May 6, 2026.

The dollar amount did not move. The structure did. The medical expense test used to lead the provision and now sits last, at subsection (1)(a)(vi), behind death, dismemberment, permanent disability or impairment, permanent disfigurement, and bone fracture. Anyone quoting the old numbering is quoting a version the Legislature superseded, which matters when a demand letter cites a statute an adjuster then looks up.

An Uninsured Motorist Claim Skips the Threshold Entirely

One category of Utah claim ignores everything above. Subsection (1)(b) of the same statute reads that the threshold “does not apply to a person making an uninsured motorist claim.”

Read what that gives you. If the driver who hit you carried no insurance, or fled and was never identified, and you turn to your own uninsured motorist coverage, you do not have to prove a fracture or clear $3,000 in bills before claiming general damages. The restriction that applies to every other Utah car accident claim does not apply to you at all.

Drivers who declined uninsured motorist coverage to save a few dollars a month give up more than they realize. They lose the coverage and they lose the exemption that comes with it.

Why $3,000 Runs Out Before a Salt Lake City Emergency Room Visit Ends

The $3,000 floor was set decades ago and it buys very little emergency care now. An ambulance ride, an emergency department evaluation, and a single CT scan can exhaust it before anyone has treated the injury. Physical therapy, follow up imaging, and a specialist consultation all land after the coverage is gone.

What happens next depends on what else you carry. Health insurance usually picks up the balance and then asserts a right to be repaid out of any settlement. Medical payments coverage, if you bought it, extends the no-fault pool. Some Salt Lake City providers will treat on a lien and wait for the case to resolve, which keeps care going and adds a repayment obligation at the end.

Every one of those paths reduces what reaches you at the close of the case. Understanding which one you are on is worth doing early, not at the settlement table. The firm explains how legal fees fit alongside those repayment obligations so the arithmetic holds no surprises.

Utah Raised Its Minimum Liability Limits for Policies Renewed in 2025

The other driver’s coverage caps what you can recover in most cases, and that cap moved recently. Utah Code 31A-22-304 now requires $30,000 per person and $65,000 per accident for bodily injury and $25,000 for property damage on most policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2025. Policies issued on or before December 31, 2024 carried $25,000, $65,000, and $15,000.

The per person figure went up by five thousand dollars and the property damage figure by ten thousand. Neither increase does much against a fracture that requires surgery. A Salt Lake City driver hit by someone carrying state minimums can exhaust the entire available policy on the hospital bill alone, which is exactly the situation underinsured motorist coverage on your own policy is built for.

Fault Still Decides the Case Once You Are Past the Threshold

No-fault ends at the threshold. Past it, Utah runs a modified comparative fault system, and the bar is stricter than most drivers assume.

Utah Code 78B-5-818(2) lets a person recover from any defendant or group of defendants whose fault, “combined with the fault of persons immune from suit and nonparties to whom fault is allocated, exceeds the fault of the person seeking recovery.” Two parts of that sentence do work an insurer will use against you. Blame gets assigned to people who are not in the courtroom and cannot be sued, and the defendants’ total has to exceed yours rather than merely match it. Subsection (3) then limits each defendant to its own share, so a defendant found 30% at fault pays 30% and no more.

Where a Salt Lake County Car Accident Lawsuit Actually Gets Filed

Most claims settle without a filing. When one does not, the venue for a Salt Lake City crash is the Third Judicial District Court, which serves Salt Lake, Summit, and Tooele counties. The Scott M. Matheson Courthouse sits at 450 South State Street in downtown Salt Lake City.

Smaller disputes go elsewhere. Utah small claims cases are usually filed in a justice court, and the ceiling is $20,000, an amount that includes attorney fees but excludes court costs and interest. Many Utah firm websites still print an older $15,000 figure. Property damage disputes and very minor injury claims fit in small claims. A fracture case does not.

How to Get the Crash Report After a Salt Lake City Collision

Your report comes from whichever agency responded, and the two most common answers work differently.

Salt Lake City Police release traffic accident reports through a public records request. The department’s records page lists a fee of $10.00 per report for up to 50 pages and $0.25 per page beyond that. You can submit online or appear in person with photo identification and payment at the Public Safety Building at 475 South 300 East, where the service desk handles records on weekday afternoons. The department has ten business days to respond, and the page warns that a report may not be available yet depending on the status of the case.

If the Utah Highway Patrol worked the crash, which is common on I-15 and I-80 through the valley, the report comes through a separate state portal rather than from the city. UHP directs all record requests to an online system that requires creating an account and verifying identity before you can enter the date, location, and case number.

The Deadlines That End a Utah Car Accident Claim

Utah is more generous than most states on time and much stricter when a government vehicle is involved.

An ordinary injury claim runs for four years. Utah Code 78B-2-307 reaches personal injury through its catch-all for relief “not otherwise provided for by law,” and subsection (3) gives damage to your vehicle the same four years rather than the three that apply to most property claims.

A crash with a city bus, a UTA vehicle, a police cruiser, or a state truck follows a different and far shorter schedule. Under Utah Code 63G-7-402, a claim against a governmental entity “is barred unless notice of claim is filed” within one year after the claim arises. Section 63G-7-403 then blocks you from filing suit until 60 days after that notice goes in and requires the action itself within two years after the claim arises. Miss the one-year notice and the four-year statute no longer help you, because the claim is already gone.

Waiting also costs you evidence. The Utah Highway Safety Office reports that Salt Lake County produced 26% of the state’s traffic fatalities from 2020 through 2024, the largest share of any county, out of 1,483 deaths statewide across those five years. UDOT and the Department of Public Safety separately recorded 281 preliminary statewide fatalities in 2024 against 279 the year before. Serious crashes in the valley are common enough that intersection video gets overwritten, witnesses move, and vehicles get repaired long before a four-year deadline arrives.

Four Answers Before You Call an Adjuster

An adjuster will raise every one of these. Here is what the law actually says.

Can My Insurer Refuse to Pay PIP Because It Thinks I Caused the Crash?

No. That is the entire point of no-fault coverage. Your personal injury protection benefits are payable regardless of who caused the collision, so an insurer cannot condition them on a fault determination. It can question whether a treatment was reasonable or related to the crash, which is a different objection. If you are told your PIP is on hold pending an investigation of fault, ask the adjuster to put that position in writing.

My Bills Are Under $3,000. Is My Claim Over?

Not necessarily. The dollar test is only one of six ways through the threshold. A bone fracture, permanent disfigurement, or permanent impairment supported by objective findings qualifies on its own. Look at the injury before you look at the invoice total.

The Other Driver Had No Insurance. Do I Still Have to Clear the Threshold?

No. Subsection (1)(b) of 31A-22-309 exempts a person making an uninsured motorist claim from the threshold entirely. That exemption only helps if you carry uninsured motorist coverage, so check your declarations page rather than assuming.

How Long Will an Insurer Take to Pay My PIP Bills?

PIP is designed to be quick, though it is not automatic. Your insurer needs the bills, the records, and often a signed authorization before it releases payment. Submitting incomplete paperwork is the single most common reason a driver waits weeks for a benefit meant to arrive in days. Send everything at once and keep a copy of what you sent.

Get Your Salt Lake City Claim Looked At in the First Month

The first month after a Salt Lake City crash decides more than most people realize. Whether your injury is documented in the way the threshold requires, whether your PIP is being billed correctly, whether a lien is quietly attaching to your future settlement, and whether a government vehicle just put a one-year clock on your file are all settled in those weeks, usually without anyone telling you.

William Andrews Injury Attorney works from 299 South Main, Suite 1310, in Salt Lake City. Will Andrews has been licensed in Utah since 2004 and has spent more than two decades representing injured individuals and families throughout Salt Lake City and across Utah, and the firm has recovered millions for injury victims. A free consultation is available 24 hours a day, and if there is no recovery there is no attorney’s fee.

Bring your declarations page, the crash report if it has been released, and every medical record you have so far. Those three things answer whether you have to use your own insurance first after a Salt Lake City car accident and what the other driver’s insurer will owe you once you are past the threshold. Call 801-322-HURT or use the contact page to set it up.