Liability Insurance

Texas liability insurance pays for the bodily injury and property damage you cause to other people in an at-fault accident, up to the state-required minimum limits of 30/60/25 under Tex. Transp. Code §601.072. It does not cover your own car or your own injuries — those need collision, comprehensive, PIP, or MedPay. At A-LA, Texas liability coverage starts from $28/month at 14 DFW offices.

Liability Insurance refers to the portion of an auto policy that pays for bodily injuries and property damage the insured driver causes to other people in an accident. It is the only coverage Texas law requires, under Tex. Transp. Code §601.072, and it is written at minimum limits of 30/60/25. Liability coverage does not pay for the insured's own vehicle, medical bills, or injuries — those losses require collision, comprehensive, PIP, or MedPay coverage. Liability insurance also typically pays for the insured's legal defense if the other party sues after an accident. Most DFW drivers are advised to carry liability limits well above the Texas minimum — commonly 100/300/100 — because a serious accident involving hospital bills and a totaled vehicle can easily exceed 30/60/25. Anything above the policy limit becomes the insured driver's personal financial responsibility.

Tex. Transp. Code §601.072 sets the statutory minimum at $30,000 for bodily injury per person, $60,000 for bodily injury per accident (covering all injured parties combined), and $25,000 for property damage per accident. That is what 30/60/25 means in dollars. Those three caps are not lifetime aggregates — they reset per accident. The §601.072 limits have not been raised since 2011, while Dallas-Fort Worth hospital costs, new-vehicle transaction prices, and jury verdict averages have all roughly doubled, leaving the state minimum increasingly underpowered for any serious crash.

Liability insurance explicitly EXCLUDES damage to the insured's own vehicle, the insured's own bodily injuries, the insured's own medical bills, theft of the insured's car, hail or weather damage, fire, vandalism, and mechanical breakdown. Repairing your own car after an at-fault collision requires collision coverage. Hail, theft, and vandalism require comprehensive coverage. Your own medical bills require Personal Injury Protection (PIP) or Medical Payments (MedPay) coverage. Without those endorsements, a liability-only policy leaves the insured paying out of pocket for every loss to their own person or vehicle.

DFW drivers typically need higher limits than the §601.072 minimum for three reasons specific to this metro. First, hospital costs in Dallas County and Tarrant County trauma centers routinely exceed $30,000 per patient after a major collision once emergency transport, surgery, and rehabilitation are billed — instantly exhausting the per-person bodily injury cap. Second, the average new-vehicle transaction price in Texas now sits above $48,000, so striking a single late-model Ford F-150, Tesla, or Toyota SUV can blow through the $25,000 property damage cap. Third, drivers with home equity, retirement accounts, or wage-earning potential are personally on the hook for anything above their policy limit if the injured party sues — and Texas civil judgments can pursue future earnings.

Texas liability premiums are calculated from four primary inputs: ZIP code (urban DFW ZIP codes like 75217, 76104, and 75061 price higher than rural ZIPs due to claim frequency), driving record (each at-fault accident, speeding ticket, DWI, or lapse in coverage raises the rate), vehicle (older vehicles with cheaper repair costs price lower for liability), and the chosen limits (raising from 30/60/25 to 100/300/100 typically adds only $15-$30 per month but multiplies asset protection).

Liability insurance is also the underlying policy that an SR-22 filing attaches to. Drivers ordered by the court or Texas DPS to file an SR-22 — after a DWI, driving uninsured, or repeated violations — must maintain at least the §601.072 minimum 30/60/25 liability coverage continuously for two years. Any lapse triggers an SR-26 cancellation notice and restarts the compliance clock.

At A-LA, liability coverage that meets every Texas §601.072 requirement starts at $28/month based on bound quotes at our 14 DFW offices. Coverage can bind the same day in-office or over the phone at (866) 252-6116, with proof-of-insurance card issued before you leave. A-LA accepts matrícula consular, foreign driver's licenses, and offers bilingual service in English and Spanish — no credit check required to quote or bind.