Auto Accidents

Not for every one. If you were hurt, if fault is disputed, or if the insurer is already calling, it is worth a free conversation before you sign or say anything.

Your own policy may carry uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage. It is one of the first things Aryan Aliakbarzadeh, Esq. checks.

Most car accident claims must be filed within two years of the crash. There are exceptions: a government vehicle, an injury discovered later, a minor. A short call confirms your date.

Usually, yes. In California the driver who hits a car from behind is nearly always the one found at fault, because the Vehicle Code requires every driver to keep a safe distance from the car ahead, so the claim starts from a strong position. The exceptions are narrow: a car that reversed, stopped without reason, or had no working brake lights can share the fault. Even then California’s comparative fault rule reduces the claim by your share rather than ending it.

Yes. California uses pure comparative negligence (Civil Code §1714, from Li v. Yellow Cab), which means your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault but not eliminated, whatever that percentage is. The other driver’s insurer will try to raise your share, so how fault is documented matters from the first day. Aryan Aliakbarzadeh, Esq. looks at that question in the free consultation before anything else.

No. You have no duty to give the other driver’s insurer a recorded statement, and the California Department of Insurance’s own guidance is to save your account for the police and your own insurer. Your own policy does require you to cooperate with your own insurer. If you are represented, the adjuster deals with your lawyer instead of you.

Yes. A police report helps, but a California claim does not depend on one; photographs, the other driver’s details, witnesses, camera footage and your medical records can establish what happened. If anyone was hurt, California still requires a report to the police or CHP within 24 hours and the DMV’s SR-1 within ten days, and both can be filed after the fact. The sooner the rest of the evidence is gathered, the less the missing report matters.

It depends on when the injury is understood, not on the paperwork. A claim with clear fault and an injury that heals is usually resolved within months of the treatment ending; disputed fault, a serious injury, or an insurer that will not move can take a year or more and may mean filing suit. California’s Fair Claims Settlement Practices Regulations require insurers to acknowledge a claim within 15 days and accept or deny it within 40 days once the proof is in, which sets the pace once a demand is made.