Riders start every claim a step behind everybody else, and it is not because of the crash.
The blame arrives before the facts do. An adjuster who has never met you already has a story about speed, about filtering through traffic, about how you must have come out of nowhere. It is applied to riders as a default, and it is applied hardest to the two things riders are most often told wrong about: lane splitting and helmets.
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.
Is Lane Splitting Legal in California?
Lane splitting is not unlawful in California, which is not quite the same as saying it is legal, and the difference matters when an insurer tries to use it against you.
Vehicle Code 21658.1 defines lane splitting as riding “between rows of stopped or moving vehicles in the same lane”, and directs the CHP to develop educational guidelines for doing it safely, in consultation with the DMV, Caltrans and the Office of Traffic Safety. What the section does not do is prohibit it, and no other section does either. California is the only state that addresses the practice by statute at all.
What that means in a claim. A rider who was lane splitting has not broken a traffic law by doing so, and an insurer saying “you were splitting, so you were at fault” is asserting something the Vehicle Code does not support. Fault still turns on whether each party used reasonable care, which covers the speed the rider was traveling relative to traffic and equally covers whether the driver checked a mirror and signaled before changing lanes.
The driver’s duties do not vanish because a motorcycle was filtering. A lane change without looking is a lane change without looking.
Do I Have to Wear a Helmet in California, and What If I Was Not Wearing One?
Yes, every rider and every passenger at every age must wear one, and no, not wearing one does not bar your claim.
Vehicle Code 27803 requires a driver and any passenger to wear a safety helmet meeting the standards in Section 27802 when riding on a motorcycle. California’s rule is universal. There is no exception for riders over a certain age, which is the case in many other states and is the source of most of the confusion.
Riding without one is a violation, and it is not a bar to recovery. California’s pure comparative fault rule, settled in Li v. Yellow Cab Co. (1975) 13 Cal.3d 804, means a share of responsibility reduces the recovery in proportion and does not end the claim. In practice the argument only bites where a helmet would have prevented the specific injury being claimed, so it reaches a head injury and it does not reach a broken femur.
Being blamed for splitting lanes or for your gear?
Neither one ends a claim in California, and one of them is not even a violation. Worth knowing before you answer an adjuster.
What Causes Most Motorcycle Accidents?
The most common serious motorcycle collision is a driver turning left across a rider’s path, and the rider is usually going straight with the right of way.
The pattern behind it is a driver looking for a car-sized gap and not registering a motorcycle-sized one. It repeats in the other common scenarios: a lane change into a rider in the adjacent lane, a vehicle pulling out of a side street or driveway, and a rear-end at a light where the driver did not judge the stopping distance of something narrow in front of them.
Road surface is a bigger factor for riders than for drivers. Gravel, a poorly reinstated trench across a lane, an unmarked ridge between resurfaced sections, standing water or a metal plate over roadworks are all survivable annoyances in a car and are capable of putting a bike down. Where the surface contributed and the road is publicly maintained, that brings a public entity into the case and a six-month deadline with it.
Why Are Motorcycle Injuries Different?
There is nothing between the rider and the impact, so the same collision that bruises a driver produces fractures, road rash requiring grafts, and head injuries.
That difference runs through the whole claim. Recovery is longer, more of the cost sits in the future than in the bills already received, and reduced earning capacity is more often in play because the injuries interfere with physical work. 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 a rider is killed the family is bringing a wrongful death claim under a statute that limits who may file.
It also means the at-fault driver’s policy runs out faster. California’s minimum is $30,000 for one person’s injuries under Vehicle Code 16056, and a serious motorcycle injury passes that before the first surgery is finished, which is why uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage on the rider’s own policy is worth checking on day one in exactly the way it is in any car accident claim.
Case Results
- $2,250,000Motorcycle Accident
- $3,550,000Personal Injury
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every case turns on its own facts.
What Should I Do After a Motorcycle Accident?
Get assessed medically even if you walked away, and say at the scene that you are in pain if you are.
Riders decline ambulances more often than any other group of injured people, partly because the adrenaline is stronger and partly because the bike is the first thing on their mind. That decision creates a gap in the record that an insurer will use later to argue the injuries came from something else.
Preserve the gear. The helmet, the jacket, the gloves and the boots in the condition they came off in. A scraped helmet is physical proof of a head impact and it is frequently the answer to an argument that no head injury occurred. Do not clean it, repair it or throw it away.
Do not have the bike repaired yet. Its damage pattern is evidence about the direction and force of the impact, and once it is straightened that record is gone.
What Is a Motorcycle Accident Case Worth in California?
There is no formula, and any page quoting you an average is describing other people’s cases rather than yours.
California law sets no multiplier and no table for pain and suffering, and no cap on it in an ordinary injury claim. What a claim is worth is built from the parts: the medical treatment already received and the care still ahead, wages lost, reduced earning capacity, property damage, and the non-economic loss, which is what a jury would consider reasonable for the pain, the limits on what you can do and the things you have stopped being able to enjoy.
Three things move that number more than anything else. How much insurance can be reached, which in serious motorcycle claims frequently means your own uninsured and underinsured coverage rather than the driver’s minimum policy. Whether the medical picture had settled before the claim was valued. And your share of fault, which reduces the recovery proportionally under California’s pure comparative fault rule.
Psychological injury is claimable and routinely left out. Anxiety about riding, intrusive memories, sleep disruption and a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress are compensable in the same way as a physical injury, and they need to be documented by a treating professional rather than mentioned in passing at the end.
How Long Does a Motorcycle Accident Claim Take?
Longer than people expect and for a reason worth understanding: the claim should not be valued until the medical picture is stable.
A straightforward claim resolved with an insurer, where injuries recover fully, is often a matter of months. A claim involving surgery, permanent limitation or disputed fault takes considerably longer, because the honest answer to “what is this worth” does not exist until treatment has reached the point where a doctor can say what the lasting effect will be. Where a lawsuit has to be filed, the court’s own timetable adds to it.
Settling early is nearly always the cheaper option for the insurer and the more expensive one for you. That is the whole tension in the timeline.
What Does It Cost to Hire a Lawyer, and What Comes Out of a Settlement?
Nothing up front. Personal injury work in California is done on a contingency basis, meaning the fee is a percentage of the recovery and there is no fee at all if there is no recovery.
The specific percentage is set out in a written fee agreement before anybody starts work, and it is the document to read rather than a number quoted on a website. California requires contingency fee agreements to be in writing and to be given to the client.
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 from the recovery. What remains goes to you.
That last part is why the headline figure and the amount you receive are different, and it is the question people are most reluctant to ask. Ask it early. A firm that will not explain the structure before you sign is telling you something.
How Long Do I Have to File?
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. That is the one to watch where a road surface or a road design contributed, which is more common in motorcycle cases than in any other kind.
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 in the same way.
Did the road surface put you down?
A publicly maintained road puts you on a six-month written deadline, not two years.
Where We Handle Motorcycle Cases
We take motorcycle cases across California: Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Fresno, Gardena and Long Beach.
Why Riders Choose Culver Legal
We come to you. If you are in the hospital, at home and unable to get about, or without transport because your bike is in pieces, 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 Motorcycle Accident FAQs
Is lane splitting legal in California?
It is not unlawful. Vehicle Code 21658.1 defines lane splitting and directs the CHP to publish safety guidelines for it, and no section of the Vehicle Code prohibits it. California is the only state that addresses the practice by statute.
I was lane splitting when I was hit. Am I automatically at fault?
No. Lane splitting is not a violation, so it does not establish fault on its own. Fault still depends on whether each person used reasonable care, which includes whether the driver checked mirrors and signaled before moving across.
Do all riders have to wear a helmet in California?
Yes. Vehicle Code 27803 requires a helmet for the driver and any passenger, with no age exception. California’s law is universal, unlike many other states, which is where most of the confusion comes from.
I was not wearing a helmet. Do I still have a claim?
Yes. Under California’s pure comparative fault rule, not wearing one reduces recovery in proportion to the share of responsibility it carries rather than barring the claim. In practice it is only argued against head injuries, since a helmet would not have prevented a broken leg.
The driver says they never saw me. Is that a defense?
No, it is closer to an admission. A driver has a duty to look, and failing to see a vehicle that was there to be seen is the failure rather than the excuse.
Gravel or a pothole put me down and no other vehicle was involved. Do I have a claim?
Possibly, against whoever maintained the road. Where that is a public entity the deadline is six months rather than two years, so this is the version of the question that most needs asking early.
The other driver had minimum insurance. Is that all I can recover?
Not necessarily. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage on your own policy is frequently the larger source in serious motorcycle claims, because $30,000 does not go far against these injuries.
Should I get the bike repaired before the claim is resolved?
Not if it can be avoided. The damage pattern is evidence about how the collision happened, and repairing it destroys that record. Photograph it thoroughly at minimum.
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 Motorcycle Accident Lawyer
Most motorcycle claims are fought over an assumption rather than a fact, and the two assumptions that do the most damage are both answerable from the Vehicle Code. If you were injured riding 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.
