For the Personal Lines exam, Virginia's auto material is built around the standard personal auto policy (PAP) plus two state features that set the Commonwealth apart: a strict contributory negligence fault rule and a 2024–2025 overhaul that made coverage mandatory and pushed minimum limits higher. Understanding how those two ideas change everyday claims is what earns the points. This guide starts with the PAP contract and then layers Virginia's rules on top.

How the personal auto policy is organized

The PAP groups coverage into six lettered parts:

• Part A – Liability for bodily injury and property damage you cause to other people (third-party protection).
• Part B – Medical Payments for the insured's and passengers' medical costs, paid without regard to fault.
• Part C – Uninsured/Underinsured Motorists for injuries caused by drivers who have no or inadequate coverage.
• Part D – Coverage for Damage to Your Auto, split into collision and comprehensive (other than collision).
• Part E – Duties After an Accident or Loss, the insured's reporting and cooperation obligations.
• Part F – General Provisions, including territory and termination rules.

Virginia adds its own mandatory limits and fault standard to this national framework.

The Virginia fault rule: contributory negligence

The defining feature of Virginia injury claims is pure contributory negligence. If an injured party is found to share any of the blame—as little as 1%—that party is barred from collecting damages from the other driver. Most states soften this with comparative negligence, which only reduces a recovery by the claimant's percentage of fault, but Virginia keeps the older all-or-nothing approach.

For a Personal Lines producer, the practical takeaways are:

• A small slice of shared fault can wipe out an entire third-party (Part A) claim.
• First-party coverages that pay regardless of fault—Med Pay, UM/UIM, and collision—carry extra weight because a partly-at-fault Virginia client may otherwise collect nothing.

What changed: mandatory coverage and higher limits

Virginia long stood out for allowing people to register a car without insurance by paying an annual Uninsured Motor Vehicle (UMV) fee. That loophole ended on July 1, 2024: carrying auto liability insurance is now mandatory, and there is no longer a fee that lets a motorist legally drive uninsured.

The Commonwealth also stepped up its minimum liability limits. The figures are generally cited as:

• 30/60/20 for policies effective from Jan. 1, 2022 through Dec. 31, 2024.
• 50/100/25 for policies effective on or after Jan. 1, 2025 (the current minimum—verify against the most recent guidance).

In plain numbers, the current minimum is about $50,000 per injured person, $100,000 per accident for injuries, and $25,000 for property damage.

UM/UIM coverage

Uninsured motorist (UM) responds when the at-fault driver has no policy; underinsured motorist (UIM) responds when that driver's limits are too low to cover the harm. Virginia requires UM/UIM, and it is generally written to match the insured's liability limits—so a bare-minimum policy includes 50/100/25 of UM/UIM. Because of contributory negligence, this protection is one of the most valuable parts of a Virginia auto policy.

Med Pay and physical-damage choices

Beyond liability, a Virginia auto buyer typically layers on first-party coverages. Medical Payments (Part B) reimburses the insured's and passengers' injury costs no matter who was at fault—a meaningful safety net in a contributory-negligence state where a third-party claim can fail entirely. Collision repairs the insured's own car after an impact, and comprehensive (other than collision) handles non-crash losses like theft, fire, vandalism, glass breakage, flood, and hitting an animal. Both physical-damage coverages are optional under state law, usually carry a deductible, and are generally required only when a lender holds a loan or lease on the vehicle.

High-risk drivers and proof of coverage

Now that coverage is compulsory, registering a vehicle without it can trigger DMV penalties, suspension of the driver's license and registration, and reinstatement fees. Drivers turned down in the standard market obtain coverage through the Virginia Automobile Insurance Plan (VAIP), the assigned-risk market of last resort.

Ending a policy: cancellation and nonrenewal

Virginia restricts how insurers drop an auto policy once it has been in force past the initial underwriting period. Mid-term cancellation is generally limited to defined grounds—nonpayment of premium, suspension or revocation of the driver's license/registration, or fraud or material misrepresentation—and the company must send written notice stating the specific reason. The required notice period differs depending on the reason (nonpayment notices are typically shorter than other cancellation or nonrenewal notices), so confirm the current day counts instead of relying on one figure.

Key Virginia numbers to memorize

Common exam traps

• Reducing instead of barring a claim. Virginia is contributory negligence, so a client 1% at fault recovers nothing—not a reduced amount.
• Believing the UMV fee still exists. The pay-to-drive-uninsured option ended July 1, 2024; insurance is now mandatory.
• Using outdated minimums. The current minimum is commonly 50/100/25 (effective on/after Jan. 1, 2025), up from 30/60/20.
• Treating UM/UIM as optional. It is required and typically matches liability limits.
• Confusing Med Pay (the insured's injuries, no-fault) with liability (other people's injuries).
• Calling Virginia "no-fault." It is an at-fault state with a strict contributory-negligence rule.

Quick recap

Virginia's personal auto coverage rides on the standard PAP (Parts A–F), but two state features drive the questions. First, pure contributory negligence means any shared fault—even 1%—bars a third-party recovery, which makes first-party and UM/UIM coverage especially important. Second, the Commonwealth made auto insurance mandatory on July 1, 2024, ending the old Uninsured Motor Vehicle (UMV) fee option, and raised minimum limits to a commonly cited 50/100/25 for policies effective on or after Jan. 1, 2025 (previously 30/60/20). UM/UIM is required and generally matches liability limits, and high-risk drivers buy through the VAIP. Nail the fault rule and the recent changes, and Personal Lines auto in Virginia is straightforward.