Full Tort v. Limited Tort: One Choice Can Change Everything
Full Tort: when Full Tort is selected the insured person can recover for all recoverable damages including pain and suffering.
Limited Tort: when Limited Tort is selected the insured is unable to recover for pain and suffering unless a statutory exception applies.
Pain and Suffering: compensation for how an injury affects daily life, i.e. the pain, the inconvenience, the loss of sleep, the inability to exercise, walk the dog, lift a toddler and other ways in which the injured party no longer enjoys life as they did prior to the injury.
Most people buy auto insurance while trying to answer one question: How much is this going to cost me each month?
I get it. Insurance is expensive. The policy is long. The language is miserable. And when an agent or website offers a way to lower the premium, it is easy to click the cheaper option and move on.
It is a small tick box on an insurance form. It is a small tick box that can determine whether you are allowed to recover money for the part of an injury that directly affects your actual life.
The best time to understand your auto insurance is before you need it.
What full tort gives you:
Full tort preserves your right to seek both economic and noneconomic damages when another person causes a motor vehicle accident.
Economic damages are the losses that can usually be counted: medical expenses, lost wages and other out-of-pocket costs.
Noneconomic damages are harder to place on a receipt, but they are no less real. They include pain and suffering, embarrassment, loss of life’s pleasures and the disruption an injury causes in your everyday life.
Full tort doesn't guarantee that you will recover money. Far from it. You still have to prove that someone else was legally responsible, that the accident caused your injuries and that the amount you are seeking is appropriate compensation for your losses.
What full tort does is preserve your right to make the claim.
What limited tort takes away:
Limited tort generally allows you to pursue economic losses but restricts your ability to recover noneconomic damages. In plain English, you may still be able to recover lost income, unreimbursed medical expenses and certain costs, but you will likely be barred from recovering anything for the pain and disruption the injury caused unless an exception to the limited tort election applies
That is a remarkable trade. Some might call it a remarkably bad trade. I do.
The other driver may have been entirely at fault. You may have followed every rule. You may have gone to treatment, missed work, stopped sleeping normally, given up activities you enjoyed and spent months living around an injury.
Yet the limited tort selection made on your own insurance policy may allow the other driver’s insurance company to argue that none of that is compensable.
This is why the full-tort-versus-limited-tort decision is not simply a pricing choice. It is a decision about which rights you will have after an accident you did not cause.
“But I heard there are exceptions”
There are exceptions. The most discussed is the serious injury exception.
Pennsylvania law defines a serious injury as one resulting in death, a serious impairment of a body function or permanent serious disfigurement. Courts may consider the extent of the impairment, how long it lasted, the treatment required and how the injury affected that particular person’s ability to function. An impairment does not necessarily have to be permanent to qualify as serious.
That sounds helpful, and sometimes it is. But it is not a clean or automatic escape hatch.
There is no simple list saying that a particular diagnosis always qualifies. A broken bone may matter differently depending on which bone was broken, how it healed, what treatment was required and what limitations remained. A spinal injury may significantly affect one person’s work and daily life while producing a different result for someone else.
That uncertainty creates a fight that a person with full tort usually does not have to have. Before the insurance company even discusses the value of the pain and suffering, the injured person may first have to prove the right to seek it at all.
Other exceptions can also restore full tort rights in particular circumstances. They include accidents caused by a driver who:
Is convicted of, or accepts ARD for, driving under the influence.
Was operating a vehicle registered in another state.
Did not have the insurance required by Pennsylvania law.
Intentionally caused the injury.
The statute also contains exceptions involving certain vehicle defects and injuries suffered while occupying something other than a private passenger motor vehicle.
Those exceptions are important, but they should not be treated as a reason to casually choose limited tort. You do not know in advance who may hit you, where that vehicle will be registered, whether your injuries will satisfy a disputed legal standard or whether any exception will apply.
The choice may affect more than the person signing the form
Another frequently overlooked point is that the tort selection can affect other insured people in the household, including a spouse, relatives and minor children, depending on the policies involved.
That means someone may be bound by a limited tort choice they did not personally make and may not even know exists until after an accident.
So this is not a box to check without a family conversation. Everyone affected by the policy should understand what is being purchased and what is being surrendered.
Can you change from limited tort to full tort?
Yes. You can contact your insurance company or agent and ask to change your policy.
But the change protects you going forward. It does not normally rewrite the coverage that applied to an accident that already happened. Once the crash occurs, you generally cannot repair the problem by calling the next morning and upgrading the policy.
That is what makes this choice so unforgiving. The value of full tort is easiest to see after the accident, when it is too late to buy it for that accident.
My view:
I understand why people look for ways to reduce insurance premiums. Family budgets are real, and sometimes every monthly expense matters.
But limited tort should never be selected merely because it is cheaper or because an agent moved quickly through the explanation. Ask exactly how much money it saves. Compare that amount with the rights being surrendered. Then make a deliberate decision.
Me? Full tort is one of the last places I would look to save money on an automobile insurance policy. There may be other deductibles, discounts or policy choices worth discussing first.
Pull out your declarations page. Look for the words “full tort” or “limited tort.” If you cannot find them, call your insurer and ask. While you are at it, review your uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage too. Those choices may matter just as much.
It bears repeating, now, "The best time to understand your auto insurance is before you need it."
Full tort does not prevent an accident, and it does not promise a particular result. It simply keeps an insurance choice made today from unnecessarily limiting your rights after someone else changes your life tomorrow.
General information—not legal advice. Paul’s Guide is not a law firm. This article provides general educational information and may not address every fact, exception, jurisdiction, or change in the law. Legal rights and deadlines vary based on the circumstances and applicable law. Reading this article, by itself, does not create an attorney-client relationship with Paul’s Guide or Paul Zimmerman. For advice about a specific claim, promptly consult a lawyer licensed in the appropriate jurisdiction.