The insurance card tucked in a Canyon Crest Drive or Central Avenue glove box may still show older numbers, even after California raised the required auto floors. Vehicle Code section 16056 is the official section. It still states a 15/30/5 floor in subdivision (a)(1), measured exclusive of interest and costs. Subdivision (a)(2) then requires a 30/60/15 floor, also exclusive of interest and costs, for a policy first written or renewed on January 1, 2025 or later. The card in the car is a starting point. The declarations page and the issue or renewal date are what tell you which floor applies to that policy.
In plain words, the older floor is $15,000 when a single person is hurt or killed, $30,000 for injury or death of more than one person in one crash, and $5,000 for property damage. The 2025 floor is $30,000 for one person, $60,000 for more than one person in one crash, and $15,000 for property damage. Those figures are statutory minimums, not a measure of what a serious wreck actually costs, and not a cap on every kind of claim. A driver can carry more. A driver can also be uninsured, or carry only the older floor until the policy renews.
The official DMV insurance-requirements page currently publishes the 30/60/15 figures and points to Insurance Code section 11580.1b. If you are checking a policy after a wreck in Canyon Crest, compare the issue or renewal date with January 1, 2025, and then read the limits on the declarations page. A policy issued in late 2024 may still show 15/30/5 until it renews. A policy issued or renewed in 2025 should show at least 30/60/15. Do not assume every vehicle in a multi-car wreck on the I-215 is on the same generation of limits.
Section 16056 also looks ahead. Subdivision (d) raises the required figures again for policies first written or renewed on January 1, 2035 or later, by an additional $20,000, $40,000, and $10,000. That later step is not yet the floor that applies to an ordinary 2026 renewal, but it is part of the same official section. If you are reading a summary that still talks only about 15/30/5, go back to the current text of section 16056 and to the declarations page in front of you.
These floors are not the same thing as uninsured-motorist coverage, and they are not the same thing as the several-liability rule for non-economic damages in Civil Code section 1431.2. They also do not pause the two-year period in Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. A low policy limit can change what is practically available from that driver. It does not move the courthouse, and it does not extend a six-month public-entity claim window if a municipal or county vehicle was part of the wreck.
Proposition 213, in Civil Code section 3333.4, can still affect non-economic damages when the injured person was a convicted DUI operator, or was an uninsured owner, or was an operator who cannot establish financial responsibility. There is a stated exception for an uninsured owner injured by a motorist who was convicted of DUI. That section is about what may be recovered, not about what the other driver’s policy was required to carry. Read it beside the declarations page, not in place of it.
If a wreck involves more than one vehicle, write down each policy number, each insurer, and each issue or renewal date you can obtain. Ask whether the policy in force on the date of the collision had already renewed under the 2025 floor. A later letter that quotes 15/30/5 may be describing an older policy that had not yet renewed, or it may be a mistake. Ask for the declarations page. The statutory floor is a minimum for the policy that was issued or renewed on a particular date, not a number that every adjuster is free to pick.
A multi-car wreck on the I-215 or the 91 can put several declarations pages on the table at once. One driver may have already renewed under the 2025 floor. Another may still be inside an older policy year. A rideshare driver, a commercial truck, or a public vehicle can also be in the mix, each with a different coverage scheme. The statutory auto floor is only the minimum for an ordinary private auto policy on a particular issue or renewal date. It does not describe truck coverage, TNC coverage, or a public-entity claim.
If an insurer later offers a settlement at the policy limit, ask whether that limit is the older 15/30/5 figure or the 30/60/15 figure, and ask for the declarations page that supports the number. A serious injury, a death, or a wreck with several hurt people can exceed either floor. Comparative fault can still reduce what is owed, and a several-liability rule can still change how non-economic damages are divided, but those rules do not rewrite the minimum the policy was required to carry.
Property damage has its own dollar line in section 16056, and a property-only civil claim can also implicate the longer window in Code of Civil Procedure section 338. Injury and death claims still generally follow the two-year clock. Getting a copy of the crash report, and sending an SR-1 when Vehicle Code section 16000 requires it, helps identify the other driver and the insurer. Those steps do not replace a later civil filing, and they do not raise a policy limit. Treat this as a local briefing. Get advice on your own facts rather than relying on this briefing alone.