Car insurance claims in Maine

Maine leaves the ordinary negligence action wholly intact and sets the highest compulsory insurance floor on any US row in this dataset. A policy accepted as proof of financial responsibility must carry at least $25,000 for damage to property, $50,000 for injury to or death of any one person, $100,000 where one accident injures or kills more than one, $2,000 of medical payments and $500 of towing and storage charges (29-A M.R.S. § 1605(1)(C)) — five minimum amounts, not three. THE CLASSIFICATION OF THIS ROW IS A REVIEWER DECISION AND IS RECORDED RATHER THAN ABSORBED, because the fourth limb is a first-party benefit payable without regard to fault: «A motor vehicle liability policy issued for a motor vehicle registered or principally garaged in this State must provide coverage in an amount equal to or greater than $2,000 per person for medical costs incurred as a result of injuries sustained in an accident involving the insured vehicle BY THE DRIVER AND PASSENGERS IN THAT VEHICLE. The coverage required by this section ONLY APPLIES TO MEDICAL COSTS INCURRED DURING ONE YEAR following the date the injuries are sustained. This section DOES NOT APPLY TO A POLICY INSURING MORE THAN 4 MOTOR VEHICLES, nor to any policy covering a garage, automobile sales agency, repair shop, service station or public parking place» (§ 1605-A). A small compulsory first-party benefit beside an unrestricted tort action is the textbook «add-on» shape, and «add-on» is defensible on the face of these statutes. The row publishes «at-fault» instead, for a reason of construction rather than of evidence: Maine’s benefit is neither called no-fault by its own statute nor built as a scheme — it is one coverage in a list of five minimum amounts, capped at $2,000 per person, confined to the driver and passengers of the insured vehicle with no pedestrian limb, limited to medical costs, and extinguished one year after the injury. The $2,000 figure and its one-year window are published here in either case, so nothing turns on the label that is not visible on the row. Every qualifying policy must also promise to satisfy a judgment within thirty days of its rendition, anywhere in the United States or Canada, and operating without the required proof is a Class D crime.

Shared fault is where Maine departs from every other state in this dataset, and the departure is in the mechanics rather than in the threshold. A claim is not defeated by the claimant’s own fault, but the damages «must be reduced to such extent as the jury thinks just and equitable having regard to the claimant’s share in the responsibility for the damage» — and the jury is instructed to make that reduction «BY DOLLARS AND CENTS, AND NOT BY PERCENTAGE», returning both the gross figure and the reduced one with the lesser as the verdict (14 M.R.S. § 156). A claimant found EQUALLY at fault recovers nothing, so a fifty-fifty crash in Maine recovers nothing; but between zero and equal fault THERE IS NO STATUTORY PROMISE OF PROPORTIONAL ARITHMETIC, which is why the shared-fault note on this row carries the statute’s own words rather than an arithmetic example. Where more than one defendant is sued, each is jointly and severally liable for the full amount of the plaintiff’s damages, and percentages between defendants are found only if a defendant asks for them by special interrogatory — the opposite of the several-only rule in Idaho, Vermont, North Dakota and Wyoming, and it matters when one defendant cannot pay.

Maine’s limitation period is a single sentence and the longest tort clock in this dataset: «All civil actions shall be commenced within 6 years after the cause of action accrues and not afterwards … except as otherwise specially provided» (14 M.R.S. § 752). That one period covers the injury claim, the vehicle-damage claim and the action on the policy, and Maine names no personal-injury period of its own. The closing saving was not tested and no search for a special motor-vehicle period was run, so the six years are published with that limit on their face. ONE HARD TWO-YEAR TRAP SITS INSIDE THEM: where the other driver’s insurer becomes insolvent and you want to reach your own uninsured-vehicle coverage, «written notice of such occurrence shall have been given to the insurer within 2 years thereof» (24-A M.R.S. § 2902(3)). Publish that beside the six years or a reader will assume six years for everything. Uninsured vehicle coverage itself is compulsory and folds uninsured, underinsured AND hit-and-run vehicles into one coverage Maine calls «uninsured vehicle coverage», so a reader looking for a separate UIM line on a Maine policy will not find one; and the definition of underinsured is the claimant-relative kind — a vehicle is underinsured if its cover is «in amounts less than the minimum limits for bodily injury liability insurance provided for under the motorist’s financial responsibility laws of this State OR LESS THAN THE LIMITS OF THE INJURED PARTY’S UNINSURED VEHICLE COVERAGE» (§ 2902(1)), the more generous of the two formulations in use.

The default is that your uninsured-vehicle limits EQUAL your liability limits, and stepping down requires a signed form carrying the Legislature’s own words — quoted here because a reader can check their own file for that exact paragraph. The amount «may not be less than the amount of coverage for liability for bodily injury or death in the policy offered or sold to a purchaser unless the purchaser expressly rejects such an amount», never below the § 1605 minimum, and a rejection «must be in writing on a form provided by the insurer», signed and dated, and must include: «I understand that Maine law requires uninsured motor vehicle coverage limits to equal the limits I have selected for liability coverage for bodily injury or death in this policy unless I expressly reject such an amount of coverage. Pursuant to the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 24-A, section 2902, subsection 2, I have elected to purchase uninsured motor vehicle coverage with lesser limits.» TWO TRAPS FOLLOW: «if an insured has maintained the same uninsured vehicle coverage limits for 2 consecutive years with the same insurer, then the insured will be CONCLUSIVELY PRESUMED to have accepted that amount», and reinstatement or renewal «within 30 days of expiration» counts as continuous coverage, so no fresh rejection is needed (§ 2902(2)). The underinsured half is an OFFSET coverage by statute and must not be expected to stack: where the tortfeasor’s policy has both a per-person and a per-accident limit, the amount available to each injured person is found «by subtracting any payments actually made to that person from any bodily injury liability insurance coverage applicable to the particular owner or operator» from that person’s own underinsured limits; where it has only a single per-accident limit the subtraction is from that limit, and «in no event may the maximum amount payable by the insurer to all injured persons exceed the single per accident limit» (§ 2902(6)).

On timing, a claim is payable within thirty days after the insurer receives proof of loss AND the loss is ascertained, and a claim «neither disputed nor paid within 30 days is overdue»; the clock restarts on receipt of additional information only where the insurer asked IN WRITING within the original thirty days (24-A M.R.S. § 2436(1)). Where several carriers may be liable, payment or denial must be made «within 30 CALENDAR days» after a carrier has all the information it needs, whether or not another carrier has acted (§ 2436(1-A), as amended by PL 2025, c. 300) — and that word «calendar» is how we know Maine’s other thirty-day clocks are calendar days too. Overdue amounts carry interest at one and a half per cent a month, and the insurer must pay the claimant’s reasonable attorney’s fee both where overdue benefits are recovered in an action and where they are simply paid after the insurer learns a lawyer is involved (§ 2436(3)–(4)). NO ACKNOWLEDGEMENT DEADLINE IS PUBLISHED FOR MAINE, AND THE REASON IS THAT THE ONLY SECTION THAT IMPOSES AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT DUTY FIXES NO NUMBER: Maine gives an insured a statutory civil action against their own insurer — damages, costs, reasonable attorney’s fees and interest at 1.5 % a month — for «failing to acknowledge and review claims, which may include payment or denial of a claim, WITHIN A REASONABLE TIME following receipt of written notice», for «failing to affirm or deny coverage, reserving any appropriate defenses, WITHIN A REASONABLE TIME after having completed its investigation», and for «without just cause, failing to effectuate prompt, fair and equitable settlement of claims submitted in which liability has become reasonably clear», with «without just cause» defined as refusing to settle «without a reasonable basis to contest liability, the amount of any damages or the extent of any injuries claimed» (§ 2436-A(1)–(2)). That first-party action is the mirror image of West Virginia’s § 33-11-4a, where a third-party claimant has no private action at all. Whether a Maine insurance RULE adds a shorter acknowledgement clock is not established: the Bureau does not publish its rule chapters — its own rules page says they «are available from the Secretary of State» — and the Secretary’s index was not opened, so this row’s statutory reading is not presented as a complete negative.

What gives a Maine complaint its teeth is a separate statutory clock, and it is the only Maine period counted in BUSINESS days: «All insurers and other persons required to be licensed pursuant to this Title and Title 24 shall respond to all lawful inquiries of the superintendent within 10 business days of receipt of the inquiry and to all follow-up inquiries of the superintendent within 5 business days of receipt», and where a substantive response cannot in good faith be given in time the licensee «shall so advise the superintendent and provide the reason for the inability to respond» (24-A M.R.S. § 220(2), as amended by PL 2023, c. 59). This is an insurer-to-regulator duty and not an insurer-to-claimant one, and is published as such. After a crash, a «reportable accident» — one «on a public way or a place where public traffic may reasonably be anticipated, resulting in bodily injury or death to a person or apparent property damage of $2,000 or more» — «must be reported immediately by the quickest means of communication» to a state police officer or field office, the sheriff’s office or the municipal police, by the operator, a person acting for the operator, or the owner where the operator is unknown (29-A M.R.S. § 2251(1)–(2)). TWO THINGS NO SUMMARY STATES. The threshold was raised by PL 2023, c. 27, so any earlier description of Maine gives a stale figure. And the statute DEFINES HOW TO MEASURE THE DAMAGE: «apparent property damage under this subsection must be based upon the MARKET VALUE OF THE NECESSARY REPAIRS AND MAY NOT BE LIMITED TO THE CURRENT VALUE OF THE VEHICLE or property» — the only measurement rule of its kind in this dataset, and one that cuts directly against the argument that a total loss can only be worth what the car was worth. The investigating officer must interview participants and witnesses and, «within 5 days from the time of notification of the accident», transmit the report to the Chief of the State Police, and a crash causing serious bodily injury or death must be investigated by an officer meeting full-time training standards (§ 2251(4)). BUT THE REPORT WILL NOT CARRY YOUR CASE IN COURT: an accident report by an investigating officer or by an operator «is for the purposes of statistical analysis and accident prevention» and «may not be admitted in evidence in any trial, civil or criminal, arising out of the accident», being «admissible in evidence SOLELY to prove compliance with this section» — though the Chief «may disclose the date, time and location of the accident and the names and addresses of operators, owners, injured persons, witnesses and the investigating officer», and «may furnish a photocopy of the investigating officer’s report at the expense of the person making the request» (§ 2251(7)). Complaints go to the Maine Bureau of Insurance, on its OWN host with its OWN property-casualty and life-health forms rather than through an NAIC redirect, and its own page says of the § 220(2) clock: «By law, any person or company we license must respond to us within 10 business days. We allow the company an additional three days for mailing time.» WHETHER INHERENT DIMINISHED VALUE IS RECOVERABLE IN MAINE HAS NOT YET BEEN VERIFIED AGAINST A PRIMARY TEXT AND IS NOT STATED HERE, and one temptation must be resisted by name: § 2251(1)’s market-value-of-necessary-repairs rule is a REPORTING threshold’s measuring stick, in a section whose own subsection 7 makes the resulting report inadmissible in any civil trial, and it must not be pressed into service as a measure of recoverable damages.