Bodily Injury Per Person

Overview

Bodily Injury Per Person is the per-individual liability cap within a split-limits Auto Liability policy. It represents the maximum the insurer will pay to any one person injured in a covered auto accident, regardless of how severe that person's injuries are.

When an Auto Liability policy is written on a split-limits basis, coverage is expressed as three numbers: BI per person / BI per accident / PD per accident (commonly "100/300/100" meaning $100K/$300K/$100K). The per-person limit is the first figure in that triplet and constrains every individual claimant independently.

This limit structure contrasts with a Combined Single Limit (CSL), which provides a single pool applicable to all injuries and damages from one accident without per-person segmentation.

How It Works

Suppose a company truck with 100/300/100 coverage strikes a pedestrian who sustains $250,000 in medical expenses, lost wages, and pain-and-suffering damages. The Auto Liability policy will pay a maximum of $100,000 toward that person's claim — the per-person cap — even though:

• The per-accident BI limit ($300,000) has not been reached.
• The pedestrian's proven damages exceed the per-person cap.
• Only one claimant exists.

The remaining $150,000 of unpaid damages becomes the insured's direct exposure (or is passed to an Umbrella Liability layer if one is in place).

Example with multiple claimants: Same 100/300/100 policy, an accident injures three passengers with damages of $80K, $120K, and $150K. The policy pays $80K + $100K + $100K = $280K — well under the $300K per-accident cap, but two claimants were capped at their individual limits.

Common Split-Limit Configurations

Split limits are expressed as three numbers in thousands of dollars:

Most modern commercial auto policies are written as CSL at $1M, because contract requirements typically demand a $1M combined figure. Split limits are more common on smaller policies and personal-lines auto.

On the COI / Where it appears on ACORD 25

BI per person appears in the Automobile Liability coverage row of the ACORD 25, labeled BODILY INJURY (Per person). It is the second limit listed in the AL row (after Combined Single Limit, if present).

On a policy written as CSL, the BI-per-person field is typically blank or shows "Included" — because CSL replaces the three split limits with one pool. Seeing both CSL and split-limit values populated is a red flag for extraction error or a misprepared certificate.

Why It Matters for Compliance

• Contract matching: Many commercial contracts specify "$1M CSL or equivalent split limits." Inori's compliance engine must normalize 250/500/100 against a $1M CSL requirement — the per-accident cap governs the comparison, not the per-person figure.
• Underinsured vendor detection: A vendor showing 25/50/25 on a high-risk delivery contract is materially underinsured; Inori flags when the BI-per-accident limit is below the per-occurrence requirement.
• Extraction guard: Inori's Zod schema captures bodily_injury_per_person as a nullable number; phantom-coverage detection fires when AL is marked present but all four limits (CSL + BI/person + BI/accident + PD) are null.

Related Concepts

BI per person pairs with Bodily Injury Per Accident to complete the split-limits trio with Property Damage. It is an alternative structure to Combined Single Limit and applies specifically to Commercial Auto Liability policies.