Maryland PIP: The No-Fault Coverage Most Crash Victims Forget to Use
After a car crash, the bills arrive faster than the insurance checks: the ambulance, the ER, the follow-up visits, the paychecks missed while you recover. Most Marylanders don't realize they may already own coverage designed for exactly this moment — and that it pays regardless of who caused the crash. It's called personal injury protection, or PIP, and in our experience it is the most commonly forgotten benefit in Maryland auto insurance.
What PIP is
Under Md. Code, Insurance § 19-505, Maryland auto insurers must offer PIP coverage with minimum benefits of $2,500 per person. PIP is "no-fault" coverage: it pays whether the crash was the other driver's fault, your fault, or nobody's fault. It covers:
- Medical expenses — reasonable and necessary hospital, medical, surgical, dental, nursing, ambulance, prosthetic, X-ray, and funeral expenses arising from the crash and incurred within three years of it;
- Lost income — 85% of income lost because of the injury, within the coverage limit.
And it covers more people than most policyholders realize: the named insured, resident family members, permissive drivers, passengers in the insured vehicle, and even pedestrians struck by it.
| PIP quick facts (Maryland, 2014) | |
|---|---|
| Minimum benefit | $2,500 per person |
| Fault requirement | None — pays regardless of fault |
| What it pays | Medical bills + 85% of lost income (+ funeral expenses) |
| Claim deadline | Application to the insurer within 12 months of the crash (Ins. § 19-508) |
| Payment timing | Within 30 days of satisfactory proof; overdue payments accrue 1.5%/month interest |
| Effect on your injury claim | Generally none — PIP is separate from, and in addition to, your claim against the at-fault driver |
The two traps: waiver and the 12-month deadline
The waiver. Maryland lets a policyholder waive PIP — but only in writing, on a form prescribed by the Insurance Commissioner. Insurers and agents sometimes present the waiver as a money-saver at the point of sale. For a modest premium reduction, the household gives up guaranteed first-dollar coverage — a trade that looks very different from a hospital bed. If you don't know whether you waived PIP, check your policy documents now, before you need the answer.
The deadline. Under Md. Code, Insurance § 19-508, the PIP application generally must be submitted to the insurer within 12 months of the accident. Courts enforce this strictly. Twelve months evaporates quickly when someone is focused on surgeries and physical therapy — and unlike the three-year statute of limitations on the liability claim, this deadline arrives while many people are still treating.
PIP stacks on top of your injury claim
Here is the feature that makes PIP genuinely valuable: using it does not reduce your claim against the at-fault driver. PIP benefits are payable in addition to any liability recovery, and Maryland law flatly bars the PIP insurer from clawing the money back out of your settlement — Md. Code, Insurance § 19-507(d) prohibits PIP subrogation — unlike health insurers, which frequently assert liens. Nor may an insurer raise your rates merely for making a PIP claim on a crash that wasn't your fault.
Practically, that means PIP is often the fastest money available after a crash — paying the ER bill or replacing lost wages within weeks — while the liability claim against the other driver's insurer (with its investigations, negotiations, and Maryland's harsh contributory negligence fights) plays out over months or years.
PIP also coordinates with health insurance in a way that rewards planning. Medical providers can often be directed to bill PIP first — sparing you copays and deductibles — or PIP can be applied to lost wages while health insurance absorbs the medical bills, whichever leaves more in your pocket. The right allocation depends on your coverages, your out-of-pocket exposure, and whether your health insurer will assert a lien on your eventual settlement. It is a small optimization that routinely puts hundreds or thousands of extra dollars in an injured client's recovery.
What this means for injured people in Maryland
Every Maryland crash checklist should include three insurance questions, answered early: What are the at-fault driver's liability limits (Maryland's required minimums are $30,000 per person / $60,000 per crash)? Do I have uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage? And do I have PIP — and has the 12-month clock started running on it? A complete recovery usually means pursuing every coverage, in the right order, without letting the short deadlines lapse while the long ones get the attention.
We handle crash cases across Maryland, Virginia, and the District, and coordinating PIP with the liability claim is part of every case we take. If you or a loved one has been hurt, call Posey Lebowitz at (202) 524-0123 or send us a message for a free consultation.
Part of our DMV case law archive, compiled in 2026 to reflect the archive of some of the most important decisions in injury law.