Liability Insurance — South Carolina
Liability insurance pays for injuries and property damage you cause to others in an accident — it does not cover your own vehicle or medical bills.
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What Is Liability Insurance Insurance?
Liability insurance is the foundation of every South Carolina auto policy. It pays when you cause an accident and someone else gets hurt or their property is damaged. The coverage has two parts: bodily injury liability, which pays medical bills, lost wages, and legal costs for people you injure, and property damage liability, which pays to repair or replace vehicles and other property you damage. Your policy pays up to the limits you choose, and anything beyond those limits comes out of your pocket.
- You swerve off the road and hit a tree, totaling your car and breaking your wrist. Liability insurance pays nothing in this scenario because you did not injure another person or damage someone else's property. You would need collision coverage to repair your vehicle and medical payments or personal injury protection coverage to pay your own medical bills.
Who Needs Liability Insurance Insurance?
Liability insurance is legally required for every driver in South Carolina, so the question is not whether to carry it but how much to carry. State minimums are appropriate if you have minimal assets to protect, drive an older vehicle with no loan, and cannot afford higher premiums.
Choose your liability limits based on what you could lose in a lawsuit, not what the state requires. Add up your savings, home equity, and retirement accounts. Your liability limits should equal or exceed that total.
How Much Does Liability Insurance Insurance Cost?
- Your at-fault accident history — one at-fault claim in the past three years can raise liability premiums by 30–50 percent.
- Your credit-based insurance score — South Carolina allows insurers to use credit as a rating factor, and lower scores increase liability rates.
- Your ZIP code — urban areas with higher accident rates and more expensive medical costs produce higher liability premiums than rural counties.
- Your annual mileage — drivers who commute 30 miles daily pay more for liability coverage than those who drive 5,000 miles per year.
- Your vehicle type — liability costs are lower for sedans than for high-performance vehicles, because the latter are statistically more likely to cause severe accidents.
