Alaska Casualty Study Guide

The Alaska casualty exam has one question type that exists in no other state, and two systems that carry everything else. The unique item is coverage for attorney fees taxable against an insured under Alaska Civil Rule 82. The two systems are motor-vehicle liability — where Alaska’s limits are high and its fault rule forgiving — and workers’ compensation, where the threshold is one employee and the wage formula is not the one you learned nationally.

Auto — high limits, tort liability, written rejections

Alaska’s mandatory minimum limits are 50/100/25: $50,000 for bodily injury to or death of one person in one accident, $100,000 for two or more persons, and $25,000 for property damage (AS 28.22.101(d)). Those are double the common 25/50/25 floor, and coverage must extend throughout the United States or Canada.

Alaska is a fault-based (tort) state. There is no PIP statute anywhere in Title 21 or Title 28, and medical payments coverage is optional. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage must be offered at those same 50/100/25 minimums, and may be rejected by the insured in writing — once rejected, it stays out of supplemental, renewal and replacement policies unless the insured asks for it back in writing (AS 28.20.445(e)(3)).

On fault allocation Alaska applies pure comparative negligence: contributory fault diminishes the claimant’s recovery proportionately, with no percentage bar — a claimant 99% at fault still recovers 1%. Drivers the voluntary market will not write go to the Alaska Automobile Insurance Plan, the AIPSO-administered assigned-risk mechanism.

Civil Rule 82 — the coverage question no other state asks

Alaska is a partial loser-pays jurisdiction: under Alaska Civil Rule 82 a portion of the prevailing party’s attorney fees is taxable as costs against the losing party. That creates a real liability exposure with no analog in most states, and Alaska regulates how policies address it — 3 AAC 26, Article 4 is titled Coverage for Attorney Fees Taxable as Costs Against an Insured, and Pearson VUE’s content outline names Civil Rule 82 procedural requirements per Order 96.03 and 3 AAC 26.500–.550 as tested content.

Workers’ compensation — one employee, spendable wages, two years

Alaska requires every employer with one or more employees to carry workers’ compensation or to satisfy the Division of Workers’ Compensation as a self-insurer (AS 23.30.075). There is no small-employer exemption at all — no three-employee threshold, no headcount grace. The system sits in the Division of Workers’ Compensation, Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

The benefit formula is the exam’s favorite Alaska nuance. Temporary total disability pays 80% of the injured employee’s spendable weekly wage — gross weekly earnings less payroll tax withholding (AS 23.30.185). Not two-thirds, and not gross. A claim is barred unless filed within two years after the employee has knowledge of the nature of the disability and its relation to the employment; death claims run one year.

Alaska’s maritime and fishing economy adds one more layer the outline names explicitly: the federal Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act is tested alongside state comp, because a meaningful share of Alaskan work happens on or beside the water where federal jurisdiction attaches.