No. A California insurer can only hold the accident itself against your premium if it determines you were “principally at-fault” under a specific legal test, not simply because you were involved in a crash.
Can an Insurer Raise Your Rate for an Accident You Didn’t Cause in California?
California ties the answer to a specific finding, not to the fact that you were in an accident. Two statutes do the work: Insurance Code section 1861.025 lists a bodily injury or death accident where you were found principally at-fault as a disqualifier from the Good Driver Discount, decided under the commissioner’s own regulations. A property-damage-only accident where you were found principally at-fault is treated differently: it counts as a single violation point, the same weight as one DMV point, rather than an outright disqualifier.
Either way, the trigger is the same word: principally at-fault. If your insurer never makes that finding against you, because the other driver caused the crash, neither mechanism applies to you for that accident. The accident itself does not raise your rate. The finding does. If the police report on your crash says the other driver caused it, keep a copy, because it supports your side.
California’s Test: What “Principally At-Fault” Actually Means
Title 10 of the California Code of Regulations, section 2632.13, defines the test insurers must use. Under subdivision (b), an insurer cannot determine that you were principally at-fault unless your actions or omissions were at least 51 percent of the legal cause of the accident. That is a majority standard: an insurer that assigns you, say, 40 percent of the fault has not met the test, by definition, and cannot code the accident as principally your fault under this regulation.
The same regulation names situations in which you are presumed not to be principally at-fault, including when your car was lawfully parked, when you were hit from behind and were not convicted of a moving violation in the crash, when the other driver was convicted of a moving violation and you were not, when you were hit by a hit-and-run driver and reported it within a reasonable time, and when the crash came from contact with an animal, a bird or a falling object. The insurer can rebut those presumptions, so they are a starting point and not the end of it, but if your crash fits one, say so in writing. Either way, you can ask to see how your insurer applied this test to you, in writing.
Did your insurer already call you principally at-fault?
That finding has to clear a specific 51 percent test, and insurers do not always get it right.
If a Surcharge Shows Up Anyway: Request the Fault Determination in Writing and Dispute It
California’s Department of Insurance has told insurers, in Bulletin 2002-06, what an at-fault notification letter should contain: the determination that you were principally at-fault, the percentage of fault assigned to you, the percentage assigned to the other driver or cause, the basis for that determination, and a statement of your right to seek reconsideration. If a surcharge or an at-fault notice shows up after an accident you did not cause, ask your insurer for that letter, in writing, if you have not already received one.
If the percentages or the stated basis do not match what actually happened, use the reconsideration right the letter is required to disclose, and move quickly: under the same regulation you have 30 days from receiving that notice to ask for reconsideration, and the insurer then has 30 days to answer you in writing, through someone other than the person who made the original decision. If the 30 days has already passed, the regulation says that right does not affect your other rights, so ask anyway. Put your account of the accident in writing, reference what the other driver did, and ask the insurer to revisit the determination against the 51 percent legal-cause standard. An insurer that will not produce a compliant letter, or will not explain its basis, may itself not be meeting what the regulation requires.
Don’t Let This Worry Keep You From Filing Against the At-Fault Driver’s Insurer
Worrying about your own premium is a different question from whether you have a claim against the driver who hit you, and the two should not be allowed to collide. Filing a claim against the at-fault driver’s insurer does not, by itself, trigger a principally-at-fault finding or a surcharge on your own policy. Your insurer can only hold the accident itself against you if it makes that 51 percent finding, under the test above, for this accident. A traffic ticket from the crash is a separate matter that can affect your driving record on its own, so take a citation seriously rather than just paying it.
How fault actually gets decided for purposes of your injury claim, as opposed to your own rating, is its own question with its own evidence and its own process. What matters here is that pursuing the driver who caused the crash and protecting your own rating are not in tension. One does not cost you the other.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does your insurance go up if the accident wasn’t your fault? Not under California’s rule. Your insurer can only raise your rate for an accident if it determines you were principally at-fault, meaning your actions were at least 51 percent of the legal cause under 10 CCR section 2632.13. If the other driver caused the crash, that finding should not be entered against you, and if a surcharge appears anyway, request the insurer’s written determination and dispute it.
How long does a not-at-fault accident affect your rates? Under California’s rule, an accident you were not principally at-fault for should not be held against your rate at all. How long an at-fault finding can count is a separate question, so ask your insurer in writing how your policy treats a specific accident.
Does California offer accident forgiveness? That is a question about a specific policy feature insurers may or may not offer, and it is not addressed by the regulation discussed on this page. Ask your own insurer directly, in writing, whether your policy includes it and on what terms.
Will filing a claim against the other driver’s insurance raise my own rates? Filing a claim against the driver who hit you does not by itself cause your own insurer to raise your rate. Your insurer can only do that if it determines you were principally at-fault under the 51 percent legal-cause test described above, for this accident specifically, so pursuing the at-fault driver’s insurer and protecting your own rating are separate tracks.
Talking to an attorney about what happened costs you nothing to find out where you stand. We take these cases on the basis of no fee unless we win, and no case costs charged if there is no recovery. Call 310-600-7881 for a free case review, or send us the details and we will call you back.
