Connecticut Casualty Study Guide

Two bodies of Connecticut law carry the casualty exam, and both differ from the national baseline in ways that punish a candidate who studied generically. Connecticut is a fault state that used to be a no-fault state, with an uninsured-motorist regime more protective than most. And its workers’ compensation system computes benefits on a wage basis almost no other state uses.

Connecticut is a fault state — and the date matters

Connecticut repealed its no-fault system effective 1 January 1994 (Public Act 93-297). There is no mandatory personal injury protection in Connecticut. Liability follows fault, and a claimant recovers from the at-fault driver’s insurer.

This is the first thing to check in any study material you did not write yourself: anything describing Connecticut PIP is describing law that has been gone for more than thirty years.

The minimum limits are 25/50/25 — $25,000 bodily injury per person, $50,000 per accident, $25,000 property damage — under CGS § 14-112(a), the financial responsibility statute.

Negligence is modified comparative with a 51% bar under CGS § 52-572h(b): a claimant recovers only if their negligence was not greater than the combined negligence of the defendants. Read that phrasing carefully — at exactly 50% the claimant still recovers, reduced by half.

Uninsured motorist — three rules, and most candidates learn one

UM and UIM are mandatory in Connecticut under CGS § 38a-336(a), provided at limits equal to the bodily injury liability limits on the policy unless the named insured requests less in writing — and never below the § 14-112 minimums. That much is the common knowledge.

Here are the two pieces that are actually Connecticut-specific:

The 2× offer. Insurers must offer uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage “with limits that are twice the limits of the bodily injury coverage.” Not merely matching limits — double them, as an option that must be put in front of the insured.

The 12-point-type consent. Reducing UM/UIM below the liability limits requires a signed informed consent form that explains the coverage, lists the available options, and discloses the premium for each — with the statutory warning language in 12-point type. Connecticut legislated the typeface.

When no insurer will write a driver voluntarily, the residual mechanism is the Connecticut Automobile Insurance Assigned Risk Plan (CGS § 38a-329 et seq.), which the exam outline names directly along with its eligibility, participation and placement-fee rules.

Workers’ compensation — the after-tax rule

This is the fact that looks like a typographical error and is not.

Nearly every state pays temporary total disability at roughly 66⅔% of the GROSS average weekly wage. Connecticut pays 75% of the employee’s AFTER-TAX average weekly wage under CGS § 31-307 — net of federal income tax, Connecticut income tax, Social Security and Medicare. The Workers’ Compensation Commission publishes tables that do the netting by filing status.

The two approaches land in a broadly similar place, which is precisely the trap: a candidate who answers “66⅔% of gross” produces a plausible number and loses the mark. Learn the words after-tax as part of the number.

Coverage starts at the first employee. There is no minimum headcount in CGS § 31-284 — the Commission’s own materials put it in capitals, that all employees, part-time or full-time, are covered from the first day of employment. The notable exclusion is a domestic worker in or about a private dwelling employed 26 or fewer hours per week (§ 31-275(9)).

The deadlines: a claim must be filed within 1 year of the date of accident, or within 3 years of the first manifestation of a symptom of an occupational disease (§ 31-294c). Connecticut’s Second Injury Fund is named directly in the exam outline.