Pennsylvania Casualty Study Guide

One topic dominates Pennsylvania casualty above all others: the full tort / limited tort election every Pennsylvania driver makes. Get that cold — including the part almost nobody learns — and you have banked the most-tested points on this exam. Then add stacking, a 51% negligence bar and workers’ compensation from the first employee, and the state-law core is done.

The tort election — and the default nobody teaches

Under the Motor Vehicle Financial Responsibility Law, every Pennsylvania driver chooses between two worlds:

• Full tort keeps the unrestricted right to sue for pain and suffering after a crash, at any level of injury. Higher premium.
• Limited tort gives that right up for minor injuries in exchange for a lower premium. Economic losses — medical bills, lost wages — are recoverable either way, and the right to sue for pain and suffering survives where the injury is serious or another statutory exception applies.

Now the part that separates prepared candidates. What happens if the insured never returns the election form?

The numbers on a Pennsylvania auto policy

Minimum liability limits are 15/30/5 — $15,000 bodily injury per person, $30,000 per accident, $5,000 property damage. Some insurers offer a combined single limit of $35,000 that satisfies both minimums.

Every policy also carries a mandatory first-party medical benefit with a $5,000 minimum, paid regardless of fault — Pennsylvania’s PIP analogue. Optional first-party benefits include income loss, an accidental death benefit, funeral benefits, and extraordinary medical benefits of up to $1.1 million for expenses exceeding $100,000.

UM and UIM must be offered, and may be rejected only in writing — a signed, dated waiver on a separate form (75 Pa.C.S. § 1731).

Stacking — the coverage you have to sign away

Pennsylvania lets UM and UIM limits stack across insured vehicles by default. Three cars at $50,000 each combine to $150,000 of protection. To get a lower premium the named insured must sign an anti-stacking waiver.

Comparative negligence — stated precisely

Pennsylvania uses modified comparative negligence with a 51% bar (42 Pa.C.S. § 7102). A claimant recovers only if their negligence is not greater than the defendant’s, and the award is reduced by the claimant’s share.

Read that carefully: “51% bar” is shorthand for a comparison, not a number. A claimant at exactly 50% still recovers — half the damages. At 51% they recover nothing.

Workers’ compensation — from employee number one

Pennsylvania requires workers’ compensation of nearly every employer, from the first employee — including seasonal and part-time workers, nonprofits, unincorporated businesses and single-employee firms. There is no numeric threshold, where most states set a floor of three, four or five.

The waiting period is 7 days: benefits begin on the eighth day after injury — and the first seven become payable retroactively only once the worker has been off work 14 days. That second number is the tested half and most summaries omit it. Wage-loss benefits run at about two-thirds of the average weekly wage, subject to a statewide maximum that resets annually.

An employer complies in one of three ways: a private carrier, the State Workers’ Insurance Fund (SWIF) — Pennsylvania’s competitive state fund — or approved self-insurance. Pennsylvania is not a monopolistic state.

When the carrier fails

The Pennsylvania Property and Casualty Insurance Guaranty Association (PPCIGA) pays covered claims up to $300,000 per claimant, with unearned premium returns capped separately at $10,000 per policy. One limit is easy to miss: the association can never pay more than the insolvent insurer owed under the policy — so a $100,000 policy limit caps recovery at $100,000 regardless of the loss.