Arizona Car Insurance Requirements: What Drivers Should Know

Arizona requires every driver to carry liability insurance of at least $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident for bodily injury, plus $15,000 for property damage. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is not mandatory, but your insurer must offer it to you in writing and you can only decline it in writing.

That last detail is worth more than it sounds, and most of this page explains why. Everything below reflects the Arizona car insurance requirements currently set by statute.

What Arizona Actually Requires

Liability coverage, at minimum limits set by statute. The Arizona auto insurance requirements sit in A.R.S. § 28-4009, which provides that a motor vehicle liability policy issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2020 must carry at least:

Commonly written as 25/50/15. These are Arizona minimum car insurance figures, not recommendations they are the floor below which a policy cannot legally be written.

Note what liability coverage does: it pays people you injure. It does nothing for your own injuries or your own vehicle.

Is Uninsured Motorist Coverage Required in Arizona?

No but the offer is, and the rejection has to be in writing. This is the single most useful thing on this page.

A.R.S. § 20-259.01 requires every insurer writing auto liability coverage in Arizona to offer, by written notice, both uninsured motorist (UM) and underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage. The limits offered must be at least equal to the bodily injury liability limits you selected so a 25/50 policy comes with a UM offer anchored at 25/50.

You may decline. Arizona law doesn’t require a separately signed ‘rejection’ form instead, the insurer sends you a written offer, and the policy’s declarations page itself ‘constitutes the final expression’ of whether you purchased or rejected the coverage.

What that means in practice: if you’re told after a crash that you have no UM coverage, the right response is to pull your declarations page from the time the policy was first written (not necessarily the current renewal) and see what it actually shows for UM/UIM. If the insurer can’t produce a written offer at all, or the declarations page doesn’t clearly reflect a rejection, that’s worth raising with an attorney but the law doesn’t entitle you to demand a separate ‘signed rejection’ document, because the statute doesn’t require one to exist.

One limitation worth knowing: the statute provides that the offer need not be repeated on reinstatement of a lapsed policy, or on transfer, substitution, modification or renewal of an existing one. So a fresh written offer at every renewal is not required, and the relevant document may date back to when the policy was first written.

For what the coverage actually does once you have it, how uninsured motorist coverage works covers the mechanics, and our dedicated page examines whether UM coverage is required in Arizona in more depth.

What Arizona Does Not Require

More than people assume. Arizona is an at-fault state, which means several coverages common elsewhere are entirely optional here:

• No Personal Injury Protection. Arizona has no PIP requirement, so there is no no-fault pot of money for your own early medical bills, a gap explained further in personal injury protection in Arizona.
• No medical payments coverage. MedPay is optional, pays regardless of fault, and follows the person rather than the vehicle. It is usually inexpensive and is the fastest source of money while a liability claim is pending.
• No collision or comprehensive coverage, unless a lender or lessor requires it. Neither is mandated by the state.

The practical consequence: if you carry only the state minimum and someone hits you, your own policy contributes nothing to your medical treatment.

What Happens If You Drive Without Insurance

Civil penalties and a suspension, under A.R.S. § 28-4135. Driving uninsured in Arizona is a civil traffic matter rather than a crime, but the consequences escalate quickly:

Reinstatement requires fees and, typically, an SR-22 filing demonstrating continuous coverage for an extended period. Vehicle impoundment is also possible. And none of this touches civil liability; an uninsured at-fault driver remains personally responsible for every dollar of damage they cause.

Why the Minimums Are Not Enough

Run the arithmetic once and the problem is obvious. A single ambulance transport, an emergency department workup, imaging and one orthopedic surgery routinely exceeds $25,000 before anyone discusses lost wages or pain and suffering.

The $50,000 per accident figure is worse than it looks, because it is a shared pot. If a minimally insured driver injures four people, all four are competing for $50,000 in total not $25,000 each. In a freeway chain reaction that happens routinely.

And $15,000 of property damage does not replace a late-model vehicle, which is separate again from the market value a repaired car permanently loses.

This is why underinsured motorist coverage matters more in Arizona than almost any other optional coverage. It fills the gap between the at-fault driver’s limits and what your claim is actually worth, and it is the realistic source of recovery in most serious crashes.

The Exclusion That Can Cut Your Coverage to the Minimum

Buying more does not always mean having more. Many Arizona auto policies contain a household, family or intra-family exclusion, and the Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions confirms that state law permits it.

The effect: where a family member or resident of the same household is injured by the negligence of another insured on the policy, bodily injury liability coverage can be limited to Arizona’s minimum financial responsibility limits $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident regardless of how much coverage was purchased.

A driver carrying $250,000 who injures their spouse, partner or housemate may find $25,000 available. The exclusion cannot cut below the state minimum, it does not appear in every policy, and it has been contested successfully in some circumstances but it is worth asking your own insurer whether your policy contains one.

Special Situations Worth Checking

Driving for a rideshare or delivery app. A personal policy is generally not required to cover a driver while logged in to a transportation network app, and most contain a livery exclusion. The tiered requirements in A.R.S. § 28-4038 apply instead, and an endorsement may be needed set out in Arizona’s rideshare insurance laws.

Driving into Mexico. An Arizona policy does not satisfy Mexican legal requirements, and the Department of Insurance notes that coverage near the border may be limited. Separate Mexican liability coverage is required.

Motorcycles. The same § 28-4009 minimums apply, and insurers must offer UM and UIM in writing under the same statute.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the minimum car insurance requirements in Arizona? Liability coverage of at least $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident for bodily injury, plus $15,000 for property damage commonly written as 25/50/15. These limits are set by A.R.S. § 28-4009 and apply to policies issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2020.

Is uninsured motorist coverage required in Arizona? No, but the offer is. A.R.S. § 20-259.01 requires every insurer writing auto liability coverage to offer UM and UIM by written notice, at limits at least equal to your bodily injury liability limits. Declining the coverage requires a written rejection that the insurer must be able to produce.

What if my insurer says I don’t have UM coverage? Ask them to produce the signed written rejection. Arizona law requires the offer to be made in writing and the rejection to be in writing, so where no signed rejection exists the question of whether the coverage applies is worth examining rather than accepting.

Does Arizona require personal injury protection? No. Arizona is an at-fault state with no PIP requirement, so there is no mandatory no-fault coverage for your own early medical bills. Medical payments coverage is available but optional, and it pays regardless of fault.

What is the penalty for driving without insurance in Arizona? Under A.R.S. § 28-4135 a first violation carries a minimum civil penalty of $500 and a three-month suspension or restriction of driving privileges. A third or later violation within 36 months carries a $1,000 penalty and a one-year suspension of license, registration and plates, plus a future proof of financial responsibility filing.

Are Arizona’s minimum limits enough coverage? Rarely for a serious crash. A single surgery can exhaust the $25,000 per-person limit, and the $50,000 per-accident figure is shared among everyone injured rather than applying to each person. Underinsured motorist coverage on your own policy fills the gap, which is why declining it carries real risk.

If Someone Else’s Minimum Policy Is Not Enough

Arizona’s requirements are a floor for the person who hits you, not a measure of what your claim is worth. When the available liability coverage runs out, the question becomes which other policies respond to your own underinsured motorist coverage, a commercial policy, or rideshare coverage.

A phoenix auto accident attorney can identify every layer before a carrier closes the file at its policy limit.

Harris Injury Law, PLLC 1136 E Campbell Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85014 (480) 800-4878

Consultations are free and cases run on a contingency fee, meaning no attorney fee unless compensation is recovered. Request a consultation, meet our attorneys, or read what to do if a claim is denied. Every case depends on its own facts; no outcome can be promised or predicted.

This page provides general information about Arizona law and is not legal or insurance advice. Reading it creates no attorney-client relationship. Arizona statutes and insurance requirements change, and coverage depends on the specific policy. Consult a licensed Arizona attorney about your situation and your insurer about your policy.

Reviewed by Jason A. Harris, Attorney, Harris Injury Law, PLLC.