South Dakota Car Accident Settlement Calculator
Estimate a car accident settlement under South Dakota law. The calculator applies this jurisdiction's own comparative fault rule and damages ceilings, and every figure below is the one our verified data holds, with the statute behind it and the date we checked it.
What South Dakota law does to your claim
Three things in state law open a gap between two identical injuries in two different states: how long you have to file, what happens if you were partly at fault, and whether the state puts a ceiling on what a jury can award. Here is what we hold for this one.
South Dakota weighs whether the claimant's negligence was slight compared with the defendant's gross negligence under SDCL 20-9-2. There is no percentage threshold, so none of our four rule values describes it, and the rule is more restrictive than a 50% or 51% bar. We apply the most restrictive treatment available so the estimate is never overstated, which means it can understate what a claimant with slight fault recovers. A South Dakota attorney can tell you where your case falls.
None on record means our verified data holds no figure of this kind for this state. It is not a finding that no limit could apply to your claim.
South Dakota car insurance law: minimums, PIP and uninsured motorist coverage
What South Dakota's provisions say about the insurance behind a car accident claim, in their own words, with the copy read named under each.
South Dakota: Minimum liability coverage
“Every driver or owner of a motor vehicle shall at all times maintain in force one of the forms of financial responsibility on the motor vehicle by one of the following methods: (1) Having in force on the motor vehicle an owner's policy of liability insurance as provided in § 32-35-70; […]”
The provision continues past the end of this quote, and the rest is not quoted here.
“[…] subject to limits exclusive of interests and costs, with respect to each insured vehicle, as follows: twenty-five thousand dollars because of bodily injury to or death of one person in any one accident and, subject to the limit for one person, fifty thousand dollars because of bodily injury to or death of two or more persons in any one accident, and twenty-five thousand dollars because of injury to or destruction of property of others in any one accident.”
The provision begins before this quote, and the part before it is not quoted here.
A minimum is a floor on what a policy must carry. It is not a limit on what a claim is worth, and it does not tell you what the at-fault driver carries.
South Dakota: No-fault, personal injury protection and the right to sue
No personal injury protection requirement, and no limit on a suit for pain and suffering, was found in the provisions read for this page (SDCL §§ 32-35-70, 32-35-113, 58-11-9, 58-11-9.4 and 58-11-9.5).
South Dakota: Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage
“No policy insuring against loss resulting from liability imposed by law for bodily injury or death suffered by any person arising out of the ownership, maintenance, or use of a motor vehicle may be delivered or issued for delivery in this state with respect to any motor vehicle registered or principally garaged in this state, except for snowmobiles, unless coverage is provided therein or supplemental thereto in limits for bodily injury or death equal to the coverage provided by such policy for bodily injury and death, for the protection of persons insured thereunder who are legally entitled to recover damages from owners or operators of uninsured motor vehicles and hit-and-run motor vehicles because of bodily injury, sickness, or disease, including death, resulting therefrom. However, the coverage required by this section may not exceed the limits of one hundred thousand dollars because of bodily injury to or death of one person in any one accident and, subject to the limit for one person, three hundred thousand dollars because of bodily injury to or death of two or more persons in any one accident, unless additional coverage is requested by the insured.”
“No motor vehicle liability policy of insurance may be issued or delivered in this state with respect to any motor vehicle registered or principally garaged in this state, except for snowmobiles, unless underinsured motorist coverage is provided therein at a face amount equal to the bodily injury limits of the policy. However, the coverage required by this section may not exceed the limits of one hundred thousand dollars because of bodily injury to or death of one person in any one accident and, subject to the limit for one person, three hundred thousand dollars because of bodily injury to or death of two or more persons in any one accident, unless additional coverage is requested by the insured.”
How underinsured coverage pays:
“[…] limited to the underinsured motorist coverage limits on the vehicle of the party recovering less the amount paid by the liability insurer of the party recovered against.”
The provision begins before this quote, and the part before it is not quoted here.
South Dakota: Medical payments coverage
No medical payments coverage requirement was found in the provisions read for this page (SDCL §§ 32-35-70, 32-35-113, 58-11-9, 58-11-9.4 and 58-11-9.5).
What partial fault costs you in South Dakota
The same claim, fracture with surgery, several months of recovery, run through the calculator above four times, with nothing changed but the share of fault assigned to the claimant. The numbers are the engine's output, not an editorial claim about what these cases are worth.
One case, run through the calculator above four times with only the claimant's share of fault changed, under South Dakota law. No coverage ceiling is applied, because we would be inventing the at-fault party's policy. These shares illustrate the rule; they are not an estimate of your own fault.
Every South Dakota deadline we hold
A claim can be more than one kind of case, and the clock is different for each. These are the South Dakota periods in our verified data, with the statute behind each one. A deadline is the outside limit, never a target, and other rules can shorten it.
S.D. Codified Laws § 15-2-14(3)·Source retrieved 2026-07-27
Open the personal injury calculatorS.D. Codified Laws § 15-2-14.1·Source retrieved 2026-07-27
Open the medical malpractice calculatorS.D. Codified Laws § 21-5-3·Source retrieved 2026-07-27
Open the wrongful death calculatorSDCL 62-7-35 generally gives a worker 2 years to petition after a written denial of benefits. Separate notice and claim rules run on their own, much shorter clocks, so report your injury to your employer right away rather than relying on this figure.
S.D. Codified Laws 62-7-35·Last reviewed 2026-07-28
Open the workers compensation calculatorS.D. Codified Laws § 15-2-14(3)·Source retrieved 2026-07-27
Open the slip and fall calculatorS.D. Codified Laws § 15-2-14(3)·Source retrieved 2026-07-27
Open the dog bite calculatorSouth Dakota against the rest of the country
Every count below is read from our state-law data across all 51 jurisdictions, so it moves when the data does. What you will not find here is an average settlement figure: the only one we could compute is a model, and a model presented as a measurement is not a fact.
- 6 of the 51 jurisdictions we track apply the contributory negligence rule, and South Dakota is one of them.
- Its 3 years to file is longer than the 2 years that 25 jurisdictions use. Across the 51 jurisdictions the deadline for this case type runs from 1 year to 6 years.
- 7 of the 51 jurisdictions limit non-economic damages (pain and suffering) in our data and South Dakota is not among them, so an estimate here is not held down by a ceiling we hold.
Comparisons are drawn from the legal levers that actually move a case value, not from closed-case data, which we do not hold. See the full methodology