Most people injured in a California car accident discover the same thing about six weeks in: the other driver’s insurance is not big enough.
California’s minimum is $30,000 for one person’s injuries. One ambulance ride, one night in a hospital and one surgery clears that before anybody has thought about lost wages. When the at-fault driver carries the minimum, the claim against them is capped there no matter how badly you were hurt or how obviously it was their fault.
The coverage that actually pays is frequently your own. California requires every auto bodily injury liability policy issued in this state to include uninsured motorist coverage, and a great many people are carrying it without knowing. Culver Legal has recovered $200 Million and counting for injured people in California. We work on contingency, we advance the costs of the case, and there is no fee unless we win. Call (310) 600-7881 at any hour.
How Much Insurance Does the Other Driver Actually Have?
Usually the legal minimum, and in California that is lower than most people assume.
Under Vehicle Code 16056, a policy issued or renewed on or after 1 January 2025 must carry at least:
| Coverage | Minimum |
|---|---|
| Injury or death, one person | $30,000 |
| Injury or death, more than one person | $60,000 |
| Property damage | $15,000 |
Both regimes are still live. A policy written before 1 January 2025 and not yet renewed may still carry the old minimums of $15,000, $30,000 and $5,000. So the answer to “how much is there” depends on when that driver last renewed, which is not something you can see from the roadside.
Those are floors. Plenty of drivers carry more, and a driver in a company vehicle usually has a commercial policy behind them that is far larger. Establishing which applies is one of the first things worth doing, because it changes what the case is.
What Is Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Coverage, and Do I Have It?
It is coverage on your own policy that pays when the at-fault driver has no insurance or not enough of it, and in California it is included unless it was specifically removed.
Insurance Code 11580.2 provides that a bodily injury liability policy may not be issued or delivered in this state unless it contains, or has added by endorsement, uninsured motorist coverage at limits at least equal to the state’s financial responsibility requirements.
Look at your declarations page. Not the policy booklet, the one or two page summary your insurer sends at renewal. It will list UM or UMBI, and frequently UIM alongside it. People routinely tell us they have no coverage for this and are looking at a page that says otherwise.
Why it matters so much. Where the at-fault driver carries $30,000 and your own underinsured motorist limit is $100,000, the practical ceiling on the claim is not $30,000. Using it is a claim against your own insurer, which people are reluctant to make, and it is a contractual right you have already paid for rather than a favor.
Hit and run counts. A driver who leaves the scene and is never identified is treated as an uninsured motorist, which is the single most useful thing to know after a hit and run.
Was the driver who hit you uninsured, or carrying the minimum?
Your own policy may cover the gap, and most people do not know they have it. We can read your declarations page with you.
Who Is at Fault in a California Car Accident?
Fault is decided by who failed to use reasonable care, and it is frequently shared rather than assigned to one driver.
California is a pure comparative fault state, settled in Li v. Yellow Cab Co. (1975) 13 Cal.3d 804. If you are found partly responsible, your recovery is reduced by your share and the claim is not barred. There is no percentage at which the right to recover disappears.
A police report’s conclusion about fault is evidence, not a ruling, and reports are frequently written from a partial account taken at a chaotic scene. Where the report is wrong, it is answered with the physical evidence, the vehicle data and the witnesses, which is why preserving those early matters more than arguing with an officer at the roadside.
Do I Have to Report a California Car Accident?
Yes, in two ways, and both are the driver’s legal duty rather than an option.
Within 24 hours, under Vehicle Code 20008, a driver involved in an accident causing injury or death must make a written report to the CHP, or if it happened inside a city, to the CHP or that city’s police.
Within 10 days, under Vehicle Code 16000, a driver involved in an accident causing injury, death or more than $1,000 of property damage must report to the DMV, and that form requires them to name anybody who complained of bodily injury.
Say you are in pain at the scene, even if you think you are fine. That single sentence is what puts your name on the DMV form and moves the collision out of the damage-only category. Adrenaline routinely convinces people they are uninjured for about six hours.
What Should I Not Do After a Car Accident?
Do not give a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurer before taking advice, and do not accept an early offer.
An adjuster calling in the first week is working from a file opened before you left the hospital. The questions are designed around the defenses in this article: how fast you were going, whether you saw them, whether you had any of this pain before. Answering them without advice is the most common unforced error in these cases.
Do not delay treatment either. A gap between the crash and the first medical visit is the first thing raised to argue you were not really hurt, and it is far easier to avoid than to explain.
What Is My Car Accident Claim Worth?
It depends on the injury, the available insurance and the share of fault, and any page giving you a number is guessing.
What a claim can cover: medical treatment already received and the care still ahead; wages lost while you could not work; reduced earning capacity where an injury changes what you can do for a living; pain, suffering and loss of enjoyment of life; property damage; and where injuries are permanent, the future cost of care rather than this year’s cost.
The two things that most often make a real difference are whether all available policies were found, including your own uninsured motorist coverage, and whether the claim was valued after the medical picture settled rather than before.
How Long Does a Car Accident Claim Take in California?
Longer than most people expect, and the reason is that a claim should not be valued until the medical picture is stable.
A claim where injuries resolve fully and fault is clear is often settled with an insurer in a matter of months. Surgery, a permanent limitation or a fault dispute pushes it considerably further, because nobody can say what a case is worth until a doctor can say what the lasting effect will be. Filing a lawsuit adds the court’s own timetable on top.
Settling early is almost always cheaper for the insurer and more expensive for you. That is the entire tension in the timeline, and it is why the first offer arrives so quickly.
What Does It Cost to Hire a Lawyer, and What Comes Out of a Settlement?
Nothing up front. California personal injury work is done on contingency: the fee is a percentage of the recovery and there is no fee at all if there is no recovery.
The percentage is set out in a written fee agreement before any work starts, and California requires contingency fee agreements to be in writing and given to the client. That document is what governs, not a number on a website.
What comes out of a settlement, in order. The attorney’s fee under that agreement. The case costs, which are the expenses advanced to build the claim: records, filing fees, expert reports, depositions. Then any medical liens, meaning bills a provider or health plan has a right to be repaid out of the recovery. The remainder goes to you.
This is why the headline number and the amount you receive are different, and it is the question people are most reluctant to ask. Ask it at the first meeting.
How Is Pain and Suffering Calculated in California?
There is no formula. California law sets no multiplier and no table, and in an ordinary injury claim there is no cap on it either.
What it comes down to is what a jury would consider reasonable compensation for the pain, the restrictions on what you can do and the things you have lost the ability to enjoy. In practice it is argued from evidence rather than arithmetic: medical records, the length and difficulty of treatment, what you can no longer do, and the accounts of people who knew you before.
Psychological injury counts and is routinely left out. Anxiety about driving, intrusive memories, disrupted sleep and a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress are compensable on the same footing as a physical injury, provided they are documented by somebody treating you rather than mentioned in passing at the end of the case.
Case Results
- $4,000,000Auto Accident
- $3,550,000Auto Accident
- $3,550,000Personal Injury
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every case turns on its own facts.
How Long Do I Have to File a Car Accident Claim in California?
Two years from the date of injury, under Code of Civil Procedure 335.1.
Six months to present a written claim to a public entity, under Government Code 911.2, where a city or county vehicle, a transit vehicle or a road defect was involved.
Injured children. Code of Civil Procedure 352 pauses the ordinary period while an injured person is under 18. The six-month government claim rule is not paused the same way.
Your own uninsured motorist claim runs on your policy’s terms, which are contractual and can be shorter than the statute. That is a reason to look at the declarations page early rather than at month twenty-two.
Have you read your own declarations page yet?
The coverage that pays for a minimum-limits crash is usually on your policy, not theirs.
When a Car Accident Becomes a Different Kind of Claim
The vehicle that hit you decides which rules apply, and several of them are far more favorable than an ordinary car claim.
A commercial truck brings a federal insurance floor of $750,000 for most interstate freight and federally regulated records that expire in six months. An Uber or Lyft vehicle brings up to $1,000,000 depending on what the driver’s app was doing. Where the person hurt was on foot, on a bicycle or on a motorcycle, the right-of-way rules differ and the injuries are worse. A head injury raises a traumatic brain injury question that a clear emergency scan does not answer, the most severe outcomes fall under catastrophic injury, and where somebody is killed the family is bringing a wrongful death claim.
Where We Handle Car Accident Cases
We take car accident cases across California: Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Fresno, San Diego, Gardena, San Francisco, Huntington Park and Long Beach.
Why Clients Choose Culver Legal
We come to you. If you are in the hospital, at home and unable to drive, or without a working car because of the crash, we will meet you where you are.
Our team speaks Spanish, Farsi, Filipino, Hindi, Mandarin and Korean. Explaining your own accident in your own words is not a convenience.
The economics are simple. The firm works on contingency and advances the costs of the case, so there is nothing to pay up front and no fee unless we win, and somebody answers the phone 24 hours a day.
California Car Accident FAQs
The driver who hit me had no insurance. What now?
Your own uninsured motorist coverage is the route, and California requires it to be included in auto bodily injury liability policies issued in the state. Check your declarations page for UM or UMBI. A hit and run driver who is never identified is treated as uninsured for this purpose.
The other driver only had the state minimum. Is that all I can get?
Not necessarily. Beyond their policy there may be underinsured motorist coverage on yours, a commercial policy if they were working, an employer’s liability, or another vehicle’s policy where more than one was involved. The first job is finding every policy, not accepting the first one.
Will making an uninsured motorist claim raise my premium?
That is the most common reason people avoid it. It is a claim under coverage you already pay for, arising from someone else’s fault, and it is not the same as an at-fault claim on your record. It is worth asking the question rather than assuming the answer and giving up the coverage.
Do I have to give the other insurer a recorded statement?
No. You have obligations to your own insurer under your policy. You have no obligation to give a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurer, and doing it early and unadvised is a common way to damage a good claim.
No police came to the scene. Does that ruin my claim?
No. Two written reports are required by statute regardless: a 24-hour report under Vehicle Code 20008 and a DMV report within 10 days under Vehicle Code 16000. Those exist whether or not an officer attended, and they can be obtained.
How long do I have to file in California?
Generally two years from the date of injury. Six months if a public entity is involved. Your own uninsured motorist claim may run on shorter contractual deadlines set by your policy.
They are saying it was partly my fault. Does that end my claim?
No. California uses pure comparative fault, so a share of responsibility reduces recovery in proportion and does not bar the claim. There is no cut-off percentage.
What if I was a passenger?
A passenger is almost never at fault, and may have claims against both drivers as well as access to uninsured motorist coverage under their own policy or a household member’s policy.
How much does it cost to hire you?
Nothing up front. The firm works on contingency and advances the costs of the case, so there is no fee unless we win.
I am undocumented. Can I bring a claim safely?
Yes. Under Evidence Code 351.2, added by AB 2159, evidence of immigration status is not admissible in a civil action for personal injury or wrongful death, and discovery into it is not permitted either.
Contact a Culver Legal Car Accident Lawyer
The question that decides most California car accident claims is not who was at fault. It is how much insurance can be reached, and the answer is frequently larger than the other driver’s policy once somebody has looked properly. If you were injured in a crash anywhere in California, reach us at (310) 600-7881, at any hour. The review costs nothing.
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Culver Legal, LLP is a California law firm. The information on this page is for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice.
