Car insurance claims in Wisconsin

Wisconsin runs on fault and compels a liability policy, not a benefits scheme. No person may operate a motor vehicle on a highway in the state unless the owner or operator «has in effect a motor vehicle liability policy with respect to the vehicle being operated», and must carry proof while driving (§ 344.62(1)–(2)); if that proof is shown on a phone, producing it «is not considered consent for the traffic officer to view any content on the telephone or other device except the proof required». The compulsory limits are 25/50/10, and that property-damage figure deserves a second look: it is a tenth of the per-person injury limit. The only first-party benefit any policy must contain is medical payments coverage of at least $1,000 per person, and a named insured may reject even that (§ 632.32(4)(a)2., (bc)) — far too small and too optional to describe as a no-fault layer.

Sharing the blame reduces the award, and Wisconsin measures it in a way that quietly favours a claimant facing several defendants: the claimant’s negligence is «measured separately against the negligence of each person found to be causally negligent», one to one rather than against the defendants added together (§ 895.045(1)). A claimant 30 percent at fault suing two defendants at 35 percent each recovers from both. The 51 percent in the same subsection does different work: a defendant below it pays only its own share, while one at 51 percent or more is jointly and severally liable for the whole award.

The court deadlines are where Wisconsin rewards precision, because 2015 Wisconsin Act 133 pulled every motor-vehicle period down and left the general ones alone. Injury is three years, damage to the car is three years and not the general six, a wrongful-death claim from a crash is two years, and an action on the policy itself is three years and not six — with the uninsured and underinsured motorist clock not starting until the case against the at-fault driver is finally resolved. Better still, the policy cannot shorten any of it (§ 631.83(3)(a)), which is the question several neighbouring states leave open.

On the insurer’s side Wisconsin has an acknowledgement clock and a payment clock and no decision clock, and it is worth knowing which is which. The administrative rule defines «prompt» as ten consecutive days from receipt of a communication about a claim. The statutory payment rule provides that a claim «shall be overdue if not paid within 30 days after the insurer is furnished written notice of the fact of a covered loss and of the amount of the loss», that any partial amount supported by written notice is separately overdue on the same thirty days, and that «all overdue payments shall bear simple interest at the rate of 7.5 percent per year» (§ 628.46(1)–(2)) — but that section confines itself by its own subsection (3) to the classes of claims enumerated in s. 646.31(2), and whether a private passenger motor vehicle claim is within those classes has not yet been verified against a primary text, so no payment period is stated as a field on this page. On cover, uninsured motorist protection is compulsory at $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident — the statute says every policy «shall contain» it and gives no right to reject — and Wisconsin defines in statute the case that usually goes unnamed: a «phantom motor vehicle» is one that makes no physical contact with you and whose driver and owner cannot be identified (§ 632.32(2)(bh), (4)(a)1.). Underinsured motorist coverage is a different animal: the insurer must offer it once in writing, acceptance or rejection «need not be in writing», and «the absence of a premium payment for underinsured motorist coverage is conclusive proof that the person has rejected such coverage» — so it is lost by not buying it, and a rejection binds everyone on the policy and rides every renewal unless someone asks in writing; bought, it must be written at $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident (§ 632.32(4m)). Finally, reporting: notice to police is required immediately, by the quickest means, where anyone is injured or killed, where government property is damaged to an apparent extent of $200 or more, or where total damage to property owned by any one person reaches an apparent extent of $1,000 or more — and «injury» means needing first aid or a doctor’s attention, «whether or not first aid or medical or surgical treatment was actually received» (§ 346.70(1)). Unless a law enforcement agency reports it, the driver must also forward a written report to the department within ten days (§ 346.70(2)).