California Car Accident Lawyer

What to do in the first week

Two of these are legal obligations in California, not suggestions.

1. Get examined, even if you think you are fine. Adrenaline masks injuries for a day or two, and soft tissue injuries and concussions commonly present later. An examination on day one also removes the defense argument that something else caused your symptoms.
2. Report it. Vehicle Code section 20008 requires a written report to the CHP or the local police department within 24 hours when anyone is injured, however slightly.
3. File an SR-1 with the DMV within 10 days. This is required whenever a crash involves injury or death, or more than $1,000 in property damage, and it applies even if the police already took a report. Failing to file can put your license at risk.
4. Photograph everything while it still exists. All four corners of both vehicles, the interior, the debris field, the position of the cars before they are moved, the intersection, the signals and sight lines, and your visible injuries. Repeat the injury photos as bruising develops.
5. Get names and numbers from witnesses yourself. Police reports often list only one or two, and that list gets shorter by the time anyone goes looking.
6. Notify your own insurer, and keep it factual. Your policy requires cooperation with your own company. That is different from giving a statement to the other driver's company.

The coverage math, and why it decides a lot of cases

California is an at-fault state. There is no no-fault or PIP system here, which means the at-fault driver's liability insurance is the primary source of payment and your own medical bills are not automatically covered by anyone.

On January 1, 2025, the state minimum liability limits went up for the first time since 1967, under Senate Bill 1107, the Protect California Drivers Act. The minimums are now $30,000 for injury to one person, $60,000 for all injuries in one crash, and $15,000 for property damage, commonly written 30/60/15. They replaced the old 15/30/5 limits, and they are scheduled to rise again to 50/100/25 in 2035.

That is better than it was, and it is still frequently not enough. A single ambulance ride, emergency room workup, CT scan and a few weeks of physical therapy can approach $30,000 on its own. If the at-fault driver carries the minimum and your injury requires surgery, their policy runs out long before your damages do.

Which is why the first thing we do on a serious case is look for every other policy that might apply:

• Your own underinsured motorist coverage, which sits on top of the at-fault driver's limits.
• An umbrella policy on the at-fault driver or the vehicle's owner.
• The employer of the at-fault driver, if they were working at the time. A delivery driver in their own car is still often covered by the company.
• The vehicle owner, where someone lent a car to a driver they should not have.
• Medical payments coverage on your own policy, which pays your treatment regardless of fault and is often only a few dollars a month to carry.
• A commercial policy, where a rideshare, a fleet vehicle or a company truck is involved.

How fault gets decided in common collision types

Rear-end collisions

The following driver is usually at fault, because Vehicle Code section 21703 requires keeping a reasonable distance. Usually is not always: a defense that you stopped abruptly without reason, reversed, or drove with non-functioning brake lights will appear. In a chain-reaction pileup, apportioning fault among three or four drivers takes real investigation.

Left turns

Under Vehicle Code section 21801, a driver turning left must yield to oncoming traffic close enough to be a hazard. These cases turn on the color of the light and the speed of the oncoming car, which is exactly where independent witnesses and intersection video matter most.

Lane changes and merges

Section 22107 prohibits moving out of a lane until it can be done with reasonable safety. On Orange County freeways, where traffic goes from 70 to stopped without warning, these collisions usually come down to physical evidence: which panel hit which panel, and at what angle.

Intersections and right of way

Unmarked intersections, obstructed stop signs and malfunctioning signals all shift the analysis, and can bring a public entity into the case. If a city or Caltrans created a dangerous condition, that claim carries a six-month notice deadline rather than two years.

What the insurer is doing while you heal

• Calling early for a recorded statement, while you are medicated and before you know your diagnosis. You can decline.
• Offering a few hundred dollars to close the injury claim quickly. Signing that release ends the claim permanently, including for an injury diagnosed next month.
• Running your statement against medical records looking for inconsistencies in how you described the impact.
• Using software to benchmark your treatment, then arguing anything beyond the benchmark was unnecessary.
• Treating a low repair estimate as proof of a low injury, which is a correlation research has repeatedly failed to establish.
• Waiting. Delay pressures people with rent due into accepting less.

Handling the property damage side separately is usually fine and often necessary; you need your car back. Just keep the injury claim open while you are still treating, and get the release language reviewed before you sign anything that resolves bodily injury.

The car itself

Property damage follows its own track and its own three-year deadline under CCP 338. A few things worth knowing: you are entitled to be made whole, which includes a comparable rental while yours is repaired; you generally get to choose your own repair shop rather than the insurer's preferred shop; and if your vehicle is repairable but worth less afterward, a diminished value claim may exist against the at-fault driver's insurer. If the car is totaled, the actual cash value offer is negotiable, and comparable local listings are the way to move it.

How we work up a collision case

1. Pull the traffic collision report and any 911 audio and dispatch logs.
2. Send preservation letters the same week for intersection, business and residential camera footage, which is commonly overwritten within 7 to 30 days.
3. Identify and tender to every applicable policy, including your own UM/UIM carrier, so no coverage is left unexamined.
4. Photograph and, where liability is contested, download vehicle event data before repairs.
5. Coordinate treatment so there are no unexplained gaps, and make sure specialist referrals actually happen.
6. Document the income side with employer records, not estimates.
7. Build the demand around the medical narrative and the specific daily losses, then negotiate. File suit when the number does not match the case.