After a Crash in North Dakota — Official Resources
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This is general information, not legal advice.
North Dakota has the highest crash reporting threshold in the country. Per NDDOT, N.D.C.C. 39-08-09 defines a reportable crash as one resulting in injury, fatality, or at least $4,000 in total property damage — and crashes involving undomesticated animals are not reportable at all where there was no injury or fatality, regardless of the damage amount. North Dakota is also a no-fault state: your own PIP pays medical bills, wage loss, and rehabilitation regardless of fault, with a statutory minimum of $30,000 per person, and it pays nothing toward vehicle damage. Crash reports come from NDDOT, not the Highway Patrol — $7, generally available about 10 days after the crash. Note that under N.D.C.C. 39-08-13(8), copies of crash reports are not admissible as evidence in any action for damages or criminal proceeding arising out of the crash. North Dakota’s deadline to sue is six years, among the longest anywhere.
Two things about North Dakota work in opposite directions. Its reporting bar is the highest in the nation — four thousand dollars, with a carve-out for deer that no other state on this site has — so a great many real collisions never enter the state record at all. But once you are in the system, the state gives you six years to sue, more time than almost anywhere. Knowing which side of that line your crash falls on is the first useful thing. The first-steps checklist covers saving your dashcam clip before the camera loops.
Report the crash
Per the North Dakota Department of Transportation, a reportable crash is a motor vehicle traffic crash resulting in injury, fatality, or at least $4,000 in total property damage. Report to the nearest available law enforcement officer — calling 911 and waiting for police satisfies the duty. North Dakota also requires you to render reasonable aid to anyone injured, including arranging transportation to a medical facility.
The exclusion nobody expects: NDDOT states that crashes involving undomesticated animals where there was no injury or fatality are not reportable, regardless of the property damage amount. Hit a deer on US-83 and do six thousand dollars of damage with nobody hurt, and it is not a state-reportable crash — which also means there will be no report in the system for you to buy later. Photograph everything at the scene, because your own documentation may be all there is.
One more duty worth knowing: drivers must supply their insurance details to law enforcement, and a driver who does not have their insurance information at the time of the crash is required to submit it to the Driver and Vehicle Services Division within five days.
Your own PIP pays first
North Dakota runs a no-fault system. Every policy must carry Basic No-Fault coverage — Personal Injury Protection — with a statutory minimum of $30,000 per person, covering medical expenses, wage loss, and rehabilitation without regard to who caused the crash. There is no separate MedPay requirement; PIP does that job. Open the claim with your own insurer immediately rather than waiting for fault to be sorted out.
Two limits that matter. PIP pays nothing toward vehicle damage — that runs through collision coverage or a claim against the at-fault driver. And to step outside no-fault and pursue the at-fault driver for pain and suffering you must cross a serious-injury threshold, at which point the burden is on you to prove they caused the crash. That is the point at which evidence stops being a formality: a report you cannot put in front of a jury, no witnesses on an empty highway, and a claim that turns entirely on what you can show.
Get the crash report
Start in the right place: the North Dakota Highway Patrol states plainly that crash reports are available from the NDDOT, not from the NDHP. Order online through the state crash report portal for $7, with an instant PDF download once the report has been accepted into the North Dakota Crash Record Database — usually about 10 days after the crash.
The request form asks you to declare your relationship to the crash: a party (drivers, passengers, vehicle owners, property owners, pedestrians, bicyclists), a party’s legal representative, an insurer to a party, or not a party. Making a false statement on that request is a Class A misdemeanor, so answer it accurately.
Two provisions of N.D.C.C. 39-08-13 worth knowing. Subsection (8): copies of crash reports are not admissible as evidence in any action for damages or criminal proceeding arising out of the crash — North Dakota joins Minnesota, Nebraska, and Iowa there, and it is the strongest argument for keeping your own footage. Subsection (9): the director may send a copy of the crash report to the registered owner of each vehicle involved without any request — so one may simply arrive.
If your crash fell below the $4,000 threshold, it may never have reached NDDOT. Ask the local agency that responded instead.
Hit-and-run
Call police immediately, and do not let the high threshold talk you out of it — with a fled driver you need an officer at the scene regardless of what the damage estimate looks like, because there will be no other record and no lead otherwise.
Save your clip and note the time and location while they’re exact. On US-2 across the northern tier or a section-line road in the Badlands, a second witness is often not a realistic hope, and the plate your camera caught is the whole investigation. The good news is structural: your PIP pays medical bills, wage loss, and rehab whether or not the driver is ever identified, so open that claim now rather than waiting on the search. Uninsured-motorist coverage handles what PIP does not — check its hit-and-run notice window, which will be far shorter than North Dakota’s six-year limit on suing.
Find a lawyer
The State Bar Association of North Dakota is the state’s integrated bar — membership is mandatory for practising attorneys, which means its directory covers everyone licensed here rather than a self-selected subset. SBAND is based in Bismarck and provides consumer-facing services alongside its regulatory role. Confirm any attorney’s standing there before you hire.
Most crash-injury work in North Dakota is handled on contingency — no fee up front and a percentage only if you recover — so ask about that rather than assuming you need a retainer. Given the six-year limitation period, you have unusual breathing room to interview more than one lawyer, but do not let that become a reason to delay: evidence and memories go stale long before the deadline does.
Free legal help
Legal Services of North Dakota is the state’s civil legal aid provider for low-income North Dakotans. To reach it and check eligibility, start at LawHelp.org, which routes to North Dakota’s programs.
The North Dakota Bar Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the state bar, administers the Interest on Lawyer Trust Account program, which provides grant funding to organisations delivering civil legal services to people who cannot afford them — so the free-help network here is funded through the bar itself.
Be realistic about distance and fit. North Dakota is large and thinly populated, offices are few, and legal aid programs generally prioritise basic-needs civil matters over injury claims. For the crash claim itself, a contingency-fee attorney is usually the practical route; use legal aid for the housing, benefits, or debt problems a serious crash can set off.
Insurance problems
The North Dakota Insurance Department regulates insurers in the state and takes consumer complaints about how claims are handled. You can reach its current complaint channels through the national directory of state insurance departments.
In a no-fault state the most common complaint is your own insurer slow-walking PIP benefits, which is exactly what the department exists to press on. Because North Dakota’s PIP covers wage loss and rehabilitation as well as medical costs, a partial denial can quietly cost you more than it looks like on paper — read what was actually approved.
Uninsured when it happened? That means no PIP, which in a no-fault state removes the first payer for your medical bills entirely. The reporting duties above do not depend on coverage, and the five-day insurance-information requirement is where the gap surfaces. Report the crash, get treatment documented, and get advice early — six years is a long limitation period, but nothing about it helps if there is no record of the crash.
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Dashwatcher is a dashcam company, not a law firm, and nothing here is legal advice or a substitute for a licensed attorney. Reporting rules, deadlines, and programs differ by state and change over time; verify everything with the official source before you rely on it. Links go to government agencies, bar associations, and nonprofits. Dashwatcher receives no payment from any organization listed.
From the team at Dashwatcher.
Last verified: August 4, 2026