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Losing a family member in an accident in Maryland changes everything. The practical demands of life don’t stop because you’re grieving. Funeral costs come due, an estate might need to be opened, and an insurance adjuster is calling to ask for a recorded statement. A settlement figure is rarely what a family thinks about first, and for good reason. You need time to grieve, to process your loss, and to cope with the emotional hardships with which you’re faced.

When you’re ready, WGK Personal Injury Lawyers can help you understand your legal rights, discuss the legal process of pursuing a wrongful death case, and explain what actually shapes the value of a claim.

Call our Maryland wrongful death lawyers at (410) 837-2144 for a free, confidential conversation.

What WGK Does for Maryland Wrongful Death Families

Under Maryland law, a wrongful death claim is a civil action brought under Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 3-904 by a deceased person’s spouse, parent, or child to recover the losses caused by another party’s negligence or intentionally harmful actions.1 However, you don’t (and shouldn’t) pursue a wrongful death claim on your own. Wrongful death cases are subject to different rules and procedures than other types of personal injury cases, and they can present unique evidentiary and liability issues. You have the right to hire a personal injury attorney in Maryland to handle your claim, and it’s important to take advantage of that.

Since 1977, WGK Personal Injury Lawyers has served injured victims and grieving families across the state. Backed by nearly 100 years of combined attorney experience, we’ve helped our clients take on powerful insurance companies and win over $100 million in settlements and jury awards. Those results include numerous six-and-seven-figure recoveries. Hundreds of injured Marylanders turn to us for help every year because of our compassionate, aggressive, winning legal representation.2

Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Every case is different. These figures represent aggregated data from cases handled by our firm and are provided for informational purposes only.

Wrongful death is one of the most demanding types of cases we handle. Insurance adjusters review these claims aggressively, search for reasons to shift blame, and try to get families to provide recorded statements that can be used to tank a claim before it even starts. We match their intensity and fight tirelessly to protect your family’s rights at every turn.

When you hire our personal injury law firm in Maryland to handle your wrongful death claim, we:

  • Open the estate with the Register of Wills when needed
  • Gather the police and accident reconstruction records
  • Identify every insurance layer that might respond
  • Build the demand around what the law actually allows your family to recover, and
  • File suit and try the case when the carrier will not pay fair value.

Our wrongful death attorneys in Maryland bring insight, knowledge, and strategy that comes from handling these cases often. In our experience, the most common categories of Maryland wrongful death damages are funeral and pre-death medical costs, loss of consortium and companionship, the replacement value of the services your loved one provided, and pain and suffering subject to the non-economic damages cap. When you are ready to talk through your situation, call (410) 837-2144.

This content is marketing material and is not legal advice. Every case is unique and laws change frequently. Please contact our office to speak with an attorney about your specific situation before making any legal decisions.

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When to Call a Maryland Wrongful Death Lawyer

We don’t want to rush you to pick up the phone and call for help when you’re grieving, but it’s important to acknowledge that Maryland law sets a clock on your wrongful death claim. The general statute of limitations for wrongful death cases is three years from the date of a victim’s passing under Md. Code CJ § 3-904(g)(1). 1

There are situations when you can face accelerated timetables, especially when a government agency is involved.

Local-government claims (e.g., those involving accidents with police vehicles, ambulances, state-owned vehicles) and those involving the State of Maryland are subject to one-year notice deadlines.

Federal vehicle claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act require a six-month waiting period from the date the federal agency is properly placed on notice before suit may be filed.

Beyond the deadlines, there is a practical timeline reason to call early. Maryland wrongful death cases typically require setting up an estate with the Register of Wills, followed by roughly a six-month public-notice period so any other potential beneficiaries can be put on notice of the claim before suit proceeds. Evidence also degrades over time. Skid marks fade, dash-cam footage gets overwritten, vehicles are repaired or sold, and witness memories become less reliable.3

Calling our wrongful death attorneys in Maryland soon after the loss gives your case its best foundation.

Types of Maryland Wrongful Death Cases We Handle

The legal framework is the same across case types, but the evidence challenges differ. We handle the categories most likely to produce a viable wrongful death recovery under Maryland law.

Motor Vehicle Accidents

Most of the Maryland wrongful death cases we see come from preventable highway crashes. This includes car accident deaths, fatal truck accident cases involving commercial-vehicle defendants, fatal motorcycle and pedestrian crashes, and fatal rideshare collisions.

State-level numbers reflect how often fatal wrecks happen. In a recent reporting year, Maryland recorded roughly 621 traffic fatalities, alongside 110,401 total crashes and 41,538 people injured.4 Preliminary data for the following year show 572 people died on Maryland roadways, a year-over-year decrease of 49 deaths.5

Two factors tend to be front and center in many of our fatal auto accident cases:

  • Alcohol-impaired driving contributes to roughly 35% of all fatal crashes statewide. Maryland averages more than 8,000 impaired-driving crashes a year.6
  • Speeding has been a factor in approximately 30% of recent Maryland fatal crashes and is gaining ground on impaired driving as the leading primary contributing factor per MDOT analysis.

Pedestrians are a disproportionate and rising share of traffic fatalities in Maryland, accounting for 31% of recent-year Maryland traffic deaths, up from a 29% share the prior year.5

Each carries its own evidence work. Truck cases involve federal motor carrier records, electronic logging data, and multiple insurance layers. Pedestrian cases turn on right-of-way analysis under Maryland’s Boulevard Rule and often involve disputed contributory negligence defenses.7

Workplace Accidents

In a recent reporting year, Maryland recorded 69 fatal work injuries. Construction and extraction occupations accounted for 15 of the state’s worker deaths.

Construction fatalities, fatal falls from height, fatal industrial machinery cases, and fatal exposures may produce both a workers’ compensation claim for the family and a separate third-party wrongful death claim against a non-employer defendant (a subcontractor, equipment manufacturer, or property owner). The two tracks interact, and the order in which they are pursued affects the final family recovery.

Premises Liability and Product Liability

Our wrongful death attorneys in Maryland also handle cases involving fatal slip-and-fall incidents with documented prior notice to the owner, fatal dog attacks where landlord foreseeability arguments apply, and fatalities caused by defective products. Each requires a different liability theory, but each can support a Maryland wrongful death and survival action when negligence is provable.

Who Can Be Held Liable for a Maryland Wrongful Death

Liability runs to whoever caused the death through negligent, reckless, or intentional conduct.

  • In a fatal car accident case, that is typically the at-fault driver and, where applicable, their employer if the driver was working at the time.
  • In commercial vehicle cases, the trucking company, the broker, the maintenance contractor, and the cargo loader may each be defendants.
  • In a fatal workplace case, the third-party defendant is usually not the employer (workers’ comp generally bars that claim) but a subcontractor, a building owner, or an equipment maker.

There’s one party who generally won’t be on the hook for damages related to a fatal drunk driving accident in Maryland, and it comes as a surprise to most families: bars and restaurants. Maryland does not recognize dram-shop liability against bars or restaurants that serve intoxicated patrons.

The Maryland Court of Appeals reaffirmed this in Warr v. JMGM Group, 433 Md. 170 (2013), declining to impose liability on a tavern that served roughly 20 drinks to a patron who then killed a 10-year-old in a 100-mph crash. The court held that establishing dram-shop liability is a legislative, not judicial, matter.8 In practice, families of someone killed by a drunk driver in Maryland generally cannot sue the bar that over-served the driver. The recovery comes from the driver, the driver’s insurance, any commercial-vehicle defendant, and the family’s own UIM coverage.

Beneficiary eligibility is also narrower than most families expect. Md. Code CJ § 3-904(a) limits the people who can recover to the deceased’s surviving spouse, parents, and children. Siblings, grandparents, fiances, and unmarried partners are not primary beneficiaries. A sibling can recover only by qualifying as a secondary beneficiary substantially dependent on the decedent under § 3-904(b).1

Damages You Can Recover in a Maryland Wrongful Death Case

Maryland law gives a family two parallel claims, each with its own damages categories: a wrongful death claim and a survival action. Often, families can pursue both of these claims because the categories don’t overlap and there’s no room to leave money on the table.

Damages Under § 3-904

The wrongful death claim under § 3-904 belongs to the surviving spouse, parents, and children and recovers their losses.

Under § 3-904(d), recoverable damages for wrongful death include:

  • Mental anguish
  • Emotional pain and suffering, and
  • Loss of society, companionship, comfort, protection, marital care, parental care, filial care, attention, advice, counsel, training, guidance, and/or education.1

The statutory language is broad, but the categories that come up most often in our cases are loss of consortium and companionship, the value of replacement services your loved one provided to the household (childcare, financial contributions, day-to-day work), and the family’s mental anguish.

Maryland also recognizes pre-impact fright as a damages category, which our wrongful death attorneys actively pursue when the facts support it. It captures the moments of awareness before an unavoidable collision when your loved one knew the impact was coming and could not prevent it.

Damages Under § 6-401

A survival action under § 6-401 belongs to the decedent’s estate and seeks to recover what your loved one could have claimed if they had lived.19

The survival action sits alongside the wrongful death claim and recovers a different category of losses:

  • Pre-death pain and suffering
  • Lost wages between the injury and death
  • The decedent’s own medical bills, and
  • Funeral expenses.

Funeral expenses are governed by Md. Code Estates & Trusts § 8-106, which caps the funeral allowance at $15,000 unless the estate is solvent and a special court order is obtained. The National Funeral Directors Association reports median U.S. funeral costs in a recent reporting year of approximately $8,300 for a funeral with viewing and burial and $6,280 for a funeral with cremation, so the $15,000 cap sits well above typical costs and families usually recover their actual funeral expenses in full.1011

Maryland Law: Statute of Limitations, Damages Cap, and Negligence

Three Maryland legal rules shape every wrongful death settlement: the statute of limitations, the non-economic damages cap, and pure contributory negligence. Each is worth understanding before you sit across from an insurance adjuster.

Statute of Limitations

Maryland’s wrongful death statute of limitations is three years from the date of death under Md. Code CJ § 3-904(g)(1).1 Occupational-disease deaths follow a shorter-of-10-years-from-death or 3-years-from-discovery rule.

The Maryland Court of Appeals held in Mummert v. Alizadeh, 437 Md. 257 (2013), that a wrongful death action is a new cause of action, separate and independent largely from the decedent’s own claim, and that the SOL runs from the date of death rather than from the underlying wrongful act.12

Beneficiaries can file even when the decedent’s own personal injury claim would have been time-barred. The Court of Appeals also held in Spangler v. McQuitty, 449 Md. 33 (2016), that a judgment on the merits in a decedent’s personal injury action during their lifetime does not bar a later wrongful death action by the beneficiaries.13

Cap on Non-Economic Damages

For causes of action arising on or after October 1, 2025, Maryland’s non-economic damages cap is $965,000 per injured person, rising to $1,447,500 in wrongful death cases with two or more beneficiaries.14 The cap applies in every personal injury case, including auto and premises claims, not just medical malpractice cases. The cap that governs is set by the date of the accident, not the date the lawsuit is filed. The cap increases by $15,000 every year on October 1st.

There are two things families need to know. First, the 150% multi-beneficiary multiplier is a total ceiling, not per beneficiary. If there are seven beneficiaries, they’ll share $1,447,500. They won’t receive $965,000 each. Second, juries aren’t told about the cap. Md. Code CJ § 11-108(d) expressly forbids informing the jury during a jury trial. If the verdict exceeds the cap, the trial court reduces the award after the verdict. Insurance carriers use that knowledge to anchor settlement offers below the cap.

The cap on non-economic damages can be particularly harmful in wrongful death cases. Economic damages aren’t capped, but they’re often limited because there is no extended hospital stay and no long lost-wage period. This makes the non-economic cap the binding constraint on recovery.

Our attorneys respond by closely examining categories that can be economically valued (replacement childcare, replacement household management, projected financial contributions to dependents) rather than letting the entire valuation rest on capped non-economic damages.

Pure Contributory Negligence

Maryland, alongside the District of Columbia and Virginia, follows a pure contributory negligence rule. A plaintiff who is even 1% responsible for an accident is generally barred from any recovery. In a wrongful death case, the decedent’s own contributory negligence can bar the beneficiaries’ recovery.

Defenses include the last-clear-chance doctrine, the Boulevard Rule per Owens v. Creaser, and the Myers v. Bright causation requirement. Under Myers v. Bright, being negligent isn’t enough to be contributorily negligent; the plaintiff’s negligence has to have caused the collision.7

How Insurance Works in a Maryland Wrongful Death Case

The dollar value of a wrongful death claim is shaped by what your loved one meant to your family. The dollar value you can actually recover is shaped by what insurance is available. The two are not the same.

For example, in a case where a negligent driver carries a state-minimum auto insurance policy, recovery is limited by that policy. Maryland’s minimum required auto liability policy is $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident.15 When a fatal crash is caused by a driver with only minimum coverage and no recoverable personal assets, the recovery is often the $30,000 policy limit unless your family had its own underinsured motorist coverage. Underinsured motorist coverage stacks on top of the at-fault driver’s policy once it is exhausted and is the single most important coverage Maryland families can carry to protect against this scenario.

Fatal truck accident cases look different. Commercial auto and trucking policies typically carry $750,000 to $5 million in primary liability coverage, with the federal minimum at $750,000 for non-hazardous interstate freight.18 Multiple layers may apply (e.g., primary, excess, umbrella, broker, shipper) and the practical settlement ceiling is significantly higher than in a traditional car accident case.

Which carrier is on the other side also matters when negotiating a wrongful death settlement in Maryland. In our experience, some of the largest auto insurers routinely deny liability even on clear-fault claims, dispute the value of billed medical care, and force a lawsuit before they will pay fair value. Our Maryland wrongful death attorneys adjust the demand and litigation strategy to the carrier across the table, because the settlement value you can actually collect depends in part on who is paying it and how they handle these claims.

Maryland Wrongful Death Settlement Value: What Actually Moves the Number

There is no honest "average Maryland wrongful death settlement" figure to publish. Settlement values are case-specific, and any single-firm average lumps together state-minimum cases at $30,000 with seven-figure commercial-vehicle cases in a way that misleads more than it informs.

There are six factors that drive a wrongful death claim’s value.

  • Available insurance coverage, which is often the practical ceiling regardless of liability strength.
  • The strength of the liability evidence given Maryland’s pure contributory negligence rule (a clear-fault rear-end is structurally worth more than a contested left-turn case)
  • The decedent’s economic profile. Maryland’s recent median household income is approximately $102,900 and recent median full-time worker earnings are approximately $75,407, so a working-age Maryland decedent’s projected lifetime earnings are usually substantial economic damages.16
  • The number of statutory beneficiaries, which determines whether the cap is $965,000 or $1,447,500.
  • Whether categories like pre-impact fright apply, which can potentially increase a claim’s value.
  • The case structure itself: a survival action filed alongside a wrongful death case captures pre-death pain and suffering and funeral expenses that the wrongful death claim alone cannot.

The federal Department of Transportation uses a Value of Statistical Life of approximately $14.2 million in current economic analysis.17 That figure shows up in news coverage and confuses families into expecting it as a settlement number. It is not. VSL is a regulatory tool for benefit-cost analysis (deciding whether to install a guardrail or a stoplight), not a litigation valuation framework. Maryland wrongful death settlements depend on the specific decedent’s earnings and dependents, the statutory cap, and the available insurance.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who can file a wrongful death claim in Maryland?

Maryland law limits primary beneficiaries to the deceased’s surviving spouse, parents, and children. Siblings, grandparents, fiancés, and unmarried partners are not primary beneficiaries. A sibling can recover only by qualifying as a "secondary beneficiary" substantially dependent on the decedent under § 3-904(b).1 If your relationship doesn’t qualify on the surface, don’t give up hope. Call us and we can talk through whether the dependence pathway might apply.

What is the difference between a wrongful death claim and a survival action?

A wrongful death claim under § 3-904 belongs to the deceased’s surviving spouse, parents, and children; a survival action under § 6-401 belongs to the estate.19 Most fatal-accident cases involve both claims filed together, which is why we routinely open the estate alongside building the wrongful death demand.

Are wrongful death damages capped in Maryland?

The full mechanics of the cap, including the $965,000 / $1,447,500 figures and the accident-date binding rule, are in the Maryland Law section above.

They can be, yes. All non-economic damages are capped in Maryland personal injury cases, including those awarded in wrongful death cases. It can be important to reframe damages whenever possible, turning non-economic losses into verifiable economic ones. The defense will likely argue that any non-economic verdict above the cap reduces post-verdict, so the negotiation turns on how much of your loved one’s value can be captured as uncapped economic damages (lost future earnings, replacement services, financial contributions to dependents) rather than letting the entire claim rest on capped categories.

Do I have to open an estate to file a wrongful death claim?

The wrongful death claim itself does not technically require opening an estate. However, the family typically opens an estate with the Register of Wills so a personal representative can pursue a related survival action. The Register publishes a notice for three consecutive weeks, and creditors generally have six months from the date of death (or two months from the date of mailed notice) to file claims.3 We handle the estate-opening logistics as part of building the wrongful death case.

What if my loved one was partly at fault?

It can prevent you from recovering compensation through a wrongful death lawsuit. Maryland’s contributory negligence rule bars a recovery whenever a plaintiff shares responsibility for their accident. The narrow application in a wrongful death case is that the contributory negligence at issue is your loved one’s, not yours. This means the proof is one-sided because the only person who could have explained the conduct cannot testify. Don’t accept a no-case answer from a carrier before talking to a Maryland personal injury lawyer who tries these defenses regularly.

What does a wrongful death lawyer cost in Maryland?

WGK Personal Injury Lawyers handles wrongful death cases on a contingency-fee basis with no upfront cost to the family. The fee is 33.3% of the gross settlement before a lawsuit is filed, and 40% if a lawsuit is filed (regardless of whether the case ultimately goes to trial). The firm advances standard expenses, including medical record copies, police reports, and any necessary private investigator costs. Those are deducted from the gross settlement at the end. There is no out-of-pocket cost to start.

Where is a Maryland wrongful death case filed?

Maryland law gives you two options for venue: the county where the fatal accident occurred or the county where the defendant resides. You don’t get to pick freely. For cases with damages exceeding $30,000 (which most wrongful death cases will), the case is filed in the Circuit Court for that county. Cases under $30,000 may be filed in District Court.

Can we recover funeral expenses?

Yes, but funeral expenses are recovered through the survival action filed by the estate, not the wrongful death claim itself. Because the survival action runs through the estate, families who wait to open one with the Register of Wills can delay the funeral expense recovery. This is why we open the estate at the same time we work up the demand.

What is pre-impact fright?

Pre-impact fright is a Maryland-recognized category of damages for the awareness, in the moments before an unavoidable collision, that the impact is imminent and there is no chance to prevent it. Evidence supporting it typically includes skid marks, dash-cam footage, witness statements, or vehicle-damage patterns indicating the decedent had time to perceive the impending impact. We actively value this category in wrongful death demand packages when the facts support it, as it is often missing from competitor evaluations.

What if the at-fault vehicle was a government vehicle?

Government-vehicle claims are governed by different deadlines and caps than standard personal injury claims. Claims against Maryland municipalities under the Local Government Tort Claims Act are subject to statutory damage limits and special notice rules. The notice deadline is much shorter than the standard three-year deadline. Federal vehicle claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act require a six-month waiting period from the date the federal agency is properly placed on notice before suit can be filed.

How long do Maryland wrongful death cases take to resolve?

The six-month Register of Wills publication period is built in before suit can proceed, and the litigation itself adds time. Most cases resolve within 12 to 24 months of estate formation. However, contested liability or limited-policy bad-faith claims can extend that. Our experienced wrongful death attorney can help you understand how long it takes to receive settlement money in Maryland.

Schedule a Free Consultation With a Maryland Wrongful Death Lawyer

A Maryland wrongful death case asks a family to do legal and financial work at the exact moment they’re struggling the most. WGK Personal Injury Lawyers tries to take as much of this burden off you as possible. Our Maryland wrongful death attorneys open the estate, line up the experts, identify every insurance layer, and build a demand around what Maryland law actually allows your family to recover.

At WGK Personal Injury Lawyers, three generations of trial attorneys have served injured Marylanders for nearly 50 years. Backed by nearly a century of combined legal experience, we’ve helped clients across the state recover over $100 million in meaningful financial recoveries. We can help you in the wake of a devastating loss, too.

Our Baltimore office is at 14 W. Madison Street, Baltimore, MD, and we also meet by appointment at our Dundalk office (7329 Holabird Avenue, Suite 3, Dundalk, MD) and our Largo office (1401 Mercantile Lane, Suite 500-M, Largo, MD) for families in the Baltimore County and Prince George’s County areas.

Call (410) 837-2144 for a free, confidential consultation, or contact us through our website.

Sources

  1. Maryland General Assembly, Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 3-904 (wrongful death statute: beneficiary eligibility, damages categories, statute of limitations). https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/laws/StatuteText?article=gcj&section=3-904
  2. WGK Personal Injury Lawyers first-party firm data, 2026.
  3. Maryland Register of Wills, Administration of Estates (three-week publication, six-month creditor deadline). https://registers.maryland.gov/main/admin.html
  4. Zero Deaths Maryland (MDOT MVA Highway Safety Office), 2023 crash data: 621 traffic fatalities, 110,401 total crashes, 41,538 injuries. https://zerodeathsmd.gov/resources/crashdata/
  5. The Baltimore Banner (citing MDOT and Zero Deaths Maryland data), 2024 preliminary Maryland traffic fatalities, pedestrian share, and speeding share. https://www.thebanner.com/community/transportation/road-fatalties-fatal-crash-death-UCLW7XMKEJBBVG46CIH5B3PFLE/
  6. Zero Deaths Maryland, Impaired Driving Prevention (\~35% impairment share of fatal crashes; \~8,000 impaired-driving crashes annually). https://zerodeathsmd.gov/road-safety/impaired-driving/
  7. Maryland Court of Special Appeals, Owens v. Creaser, 14 Md. App. 593, 288 A.2d 174 (1972), via University of Baltimore Law Review survey (Boulevard Rule). https://scholarworks.law.ubalt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1153&context=ublr
  8. Maryland Court of Appeals, Warr v. JMGM Group LLC, 433 Md. 170 (2013) (no dram-shop liability in Maryland). https://www.mdcourts.gov/data/opinions/coa/2013/57a12.pdf
  9. Maryland General Assembly, Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 6-401 (survival of tort cause of action). https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/laws/StatuteText?article=gcj&section=6-401
  10. Maryland General Assembly, Md. Code Estates & Trusts § 8-106 ($15,000 funeral allowance cap). https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/laws/StatuteText?article=get&section=8-106
  11. National Funeral Directors Association, 2023 General Price List Study (median U.S. funeral costs: \~$8,300 burial / \~$6,280 cremation). https://www.nfda.org/media-center/
  12. Maryland Court of Appeals, Mummert v. Alizadeh, 437 Md. 257 (2013) (wrongful death SOL runs from date of death, not underlying act). https://www.mdcourts.gov/data/opinions/coa/2013/5a13.pdf
  13. Maryland Court of Appeals, Spangler v. McQuitty, 449 Md. 33 (2016) (decedent’s lifetime PI judgment does not bar later wrongful death action). https://www.mdcourts.gov/data/opinions/coa/2016/69a15.pdf
  14. Maryland General Assembly, Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 11-108 (non-economic damages cap formula, 150% multi-beneficiary multiplier, jury-non-disclosure subsection (d)). https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/laws/StatuteText?article=gcj&section=11-108
  15. WGK Personal Injury Lawyers first-party firm data, 2026.
  16. Maryland State Archives, Maryland Economy: Income, citing U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2024 5-year dataset (Maryland median household income \~$102,900 in 2024; median full-time worker earnings \~$75,407). https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/01glance/economy/html/income.html
  17. U.S. Department of Transportation, Revised Departmental Guidance on Valuation of a Statistical Life in Economic Analysis (VSL \~$14.2M for 2025). https://www.transportation.gov/office-policy/transportation-policy/revised-departmental-guidance-on-valuation-of-a-statistical-life-in-economic-analysis
  18. Cornell Legal Information Institute, 49 CFR section 387.9. Federal minimum levels of financial responsibility for motor carriers. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/49/387.9