What Louisiana requires
The Louisiana floor is liability alone - 15/30/25, with nothing stacked above it. Everything past that floor - UM, MedPay, collision - is left to the driver, and plenty of Louisiana drivers skip it. PIP, collision and comprehensive enter the picture only through a lender or your own choice.
| Coverage | Louisiana minimum | Required? |
|---|---|---|
| Bodily injury liability | $15,000 / $30,000 | Yes |
| Property damage liability | $25,000 | Yes |
| Uninsured motorist | None | No - optional, buy it anyway |
| Personal injury protection | None | No |
| Medical payments | None | No - optional add-on |
After a stop you will show an insurance card, digital or plastic, while Louisiana's electronic checks confirm the policy directly with your carrier. Louisiana pairs the lowest bodily-injury floor in our set with the only state average above the national figure.
Hurricane season reframes Louisiana insurance: wind-driven rain and flood-adjacent totals push comprehensive severity, while New Orleans' drainage reality parks cars under water twice a summer. The I-10 corridor from Slidell to Baton Rouge stacks freight traffic onto an already-saturated claim calendar.
Louisiana fault rules: no cutoff percentage
Louisiana has no percentage cliff: a plaintiff 90 percent to blame still collects the remaining 10 percent of proven damages. Every share of fault is priced, none is disqualifying.
In an at-fault state the file turns on evidence - the police narrative, the photos, the witness statements - and the at-fault driver's insurer pays what its policy allows once that evidence lands. UM on your own policy answers the drivers who arrived with no limits at all.
DWI filings and Louisiana insurance costs
After an DWI case, Louisiana expects proof of future coverage - the SR-22 keeps that promise on file with the state while the conviction still drives the premium. Lapse mid-term and the license is the first casualty.
- Bundle auto with renters or home through one carrier - multi-policy credits are the easiest discount on the table.
- Raise collision and comprehensive deductibles to $1,000 before paying for extras you rarely use.
- Add an umbrella once assets grow - a million dollars of excess liability usually beats raising limits everywhere.
- Drop collision and comprehensive when the annual premium passes half the car's value - past that point the payout math works against you.
- Quote independent and direct carriers in the same week: the same risk lands in different books, and the spread between quotes is often hundreds.
Car insurance costs in Louisiana
At roughly $2176 a year, Louisiana is the one state average that tops the national line: storm exposure and claim costs load onto every policy, then territory pricing splits the rest. Metro zips around New Orleans carry the highest tables in the state; Shreveport and the smaller counties undercut them.
The figure blends every driver in the state: teens and tickets pull it up, clean records and higher deductibles pull it down. The same driver can still see carriers land thousands apart on one profile.
Louisiana pairs the country's steepest average premium with its lowest bodily-injury floor - a mismatch legislators revisit while litigation frequency keeps carriers cautious. UM is optional, leaving uninsured-driver exposure sitting directly on the policyholders who bought only what the law demanded.
Cheaper premiums in Louisiana
- Ask about claims-free and loyalty credits at renewal: long-standing customers keep discounts they never re-applied for.
- Take a defensive-driving course: many carriers apply the course credit on top of your record.
- Pay the term up front when installment fees stack - six monthly payments often cost more than one.
- Move liability up from the floor before anything else: higher limits rarely cost what people fear.
- Open the declarations page at every renewal - deductibles, discount eligibility and fees all live there, and they move between terms.
Everything a carrier does in Louisiana sits on a public record somewhere: rate filings with Louisiana Department of Insurance, complaint outcomes, cancellation rules. Pull them before you sign - the published history shows how a company behaves when a claim gets hard.
Louisiana shopping happens through agents who know the storm calendar: wind and flood exposure drive comprehensive pricing even when the driver's record is spotless. New Orleans and Baton Rouge repair capacity absorbs the summer claim load, and drivers who bundle home coverage alongside auto usually find that conversation easier to have.
After a Louisiana crash: who pays, in order
File against the at-fault driver in Louisiana, keep your own collision deductible in play, and let the two insurers settle who owes what: your carrier advances, then subrogation pulls the deductible back if the liability case lands.
If the at-fault driver carries nothing in Louisiana and you skipped UM, the math turns harsh fast: direct lawsuit against an uninsured driver, or your own collision deductible and medical coverage doing the work UM would have done.
What the Louisiana floor quietly leaves you holding
Run the numbers on one injury: a $90k medical case versus a 15k per-person limit is a $75k hole in Louisiana, and the cap does not care how the bills were split. Louisiana's pure rule never zeroes the claim for fault alone, but it slices one: a plaintiff 60 percent responsible collects 40 percent of whatever the limits allow.
Umbrella coverage stacks above the policy - million-dollar increments priced off the same base risks - for drivers with assets or a mortgage to protect. Louisiana's $2176 average premium leaves room in the budget for it.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What are Louisiana's car insurance minimums?
15/30/25 - $15,000 for each injured person, $30,000 per crash, and $25,000 for damage you do to others. The required package adds what the state mandates on top: the state layers nothing else on top.
Is Louisiana a no-fault state?
No - Louisiana is at-fault (tort): the driver who caused the crash carries the liability, and your own insurer pays only for the parts of the policy you chose to add.
Does fault bar claims in Louisiana?
No cutoff exists in Louisiana: pure comparative negligence reduces your award by your share of blame, but never to zero for fault alone - a plaintiff 90 percent responsible still collects the final 10 percent.
How much does full coverage cost in Louisiana?
The Louisiana state average lands near $2176 annually for full coverage: above the national line, the only state in our table there. Minimum-only liability costs far less, but it is a different product - the collision and comprehensive pieces are what carry the premium.
How much car insurance should I carry in Louisiana?
Treat 15/30/25 as a legal floor, not a plan: step liability to 100/300 when the budget allows, keep UM at matching limits, and let collision and comprehensive follow the car's value - the state sets the minimum that keeps you legal, not the one that keeps you whole.
Last updated: 2026-10-20