California Personal Injury Law: A Quick Overview
California has one of the most plaintiff-friendly personal injury frameworks in the United States, but it also comes with several ...
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According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), California recorded 3,630 traffic fatalities in 2025, marking a 4.6% drop from 2024 (3,807 deaths) and continuing a downward trend to reach its lowest annual total since 2019.
DJC Law represents people hurt in those wrecks — and in workplace, premises, and wrongful-death cases — from offices in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Fresno, Sacramento, Bakersfield, and the surrounding regions.
You pay nothing unless we recover. Call for a free case review. Hablamos español.
If your case is in another part of California, call us anyway. We handle cases statewide and work with local counsel where it makes sense.
California recorded 3,807 traffic fatalities in 2024, the lowest annual total since 2019 and a 6.3% drop from 2023, according to the Even with that improvement, California continues to record one of the highest traffic death totals in the country. California’s Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS) recorded 164,123 total crashes in 2024, an average of about 1,370 every day. Pedestrians accounted for roughly 24% of all California traffic fatalities, with about 928 pedestrian deaths and more than 12,000 pedestrians injured or killed across the state.
California is the most populous state in the United States, with about 39 million residents spread across 58 counties and 482 incorporated cities. The state stretches more than 800 miles from the Oregon border to the Mexican border, with seven major regional economies (the Bay Area, Greater Sacramento, the Central Coast, the Central Valley, Greater Los Angeles, the Inland Empire, and Greater San Diego), all four major Pacific seaports (the Port of Los Angeles, the Port of Long Beach, the Port of Oakland, and the Port of San Diego), and the largest commercial freight network on the West Coast. The state economy combines technology and finance (Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Los Angeles), entertainment (Hollywood and the broader Los Angeles studio economy), agriculture (the Central Valley is the most productive agricultural region in the United States), oil and gas (Kern County is the #1 oil-producing county in California), aerospace and defense (Edwards Air Force Base, Vandenberg Space Force Base, Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, Naval Base San Diego), tourism (Yosemite, Disneyland, Hollywood, San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, the wine country, the beaches), and the largest state and federal government workforce in the western United States.
That mix produces a personal injury caseload unlike any other state. Wrecks on the Interstate 5 corridor running from the Mexican border to Oregon, on Interstate 10 across the Inland Empire to the Arizona border, on Interstate 80 from the Bay Bridge to the Nevada line at Lake Tahoe, and on State Route 99 down the spine of the Central Valley. Pedestrian deaths concentrated on the wide arterials of Los Angeles, San Diego, Bakersfield, and Fresno. Truck crashes on the Pacific freight corridors connecting the Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Oakland to the inland warehouse network. Workplace injuries on Central Valley farms and packing plants, in Kern County oil fields and pipelines, on Bay Area technology campus build-outs, on the freeway-megaproject construction across Greater Los Angeles, and at military and federal contractor facilities across the state. Plus the everyday volume of car wrecks, slip-and-falls, dog bites, defective product injuries, and medical malpractice cases that every state generates.
You shouldn’t have to take an insurance company’s first offer just because medical bills are piling up. You deserve an attorney who knows California, knows the local courts, and isn’t afraid to push back when an insurer won’t pay what your case is worth.
At DJC Law, our California personal injury lawyers help accident victims and their families recover after serious injuries. We serve clients throughout California, including Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Fresno, Sacramento, Bakersfield, and the surrounding regions. If you were hurt in a wreck on a California freeway or surface street, struck while walking or cycling, injured at work, harmed by a defective product, or hurt in any other accident caused by someone else’s negligence, we can help.
We work on contingency. You pay nothing unless we win. Call us today for a free, no-obligation consultation. Hablamos español.
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Nothing upfront. We work on contingency, which means we only get paid if we recover compensation for you. Our fee comes as a percentage of your settlement or verdict. If we don’t win, you don’t pay. The consultation is free.
Generally two years from the date of injury under California Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1. But several exceptions matter. Claims against any California public entity have six-month claim filing deadlines under the California Government Claims Act. Medical malpractice claims have a special three-year / one-year framework under CCP § 340.5. Claims involving incidents on federal property may have a separate two-year administrative claim process under the Federal Tort Claims Act. Don’t assume your deadline based on the general rule. Have an attorney confirm it.
California is a pure comparative fault state under Li v. Yellow Cab Co. (1975). That means you can recover compensation even if you are mostly at fault. Your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault, but there is no threshold that bars recovery. If you are 30% at fault and your damages are $100,000, you’d recover $70,000. If you are 75% at fault and your damages are $100,000, you’d still recover $25,000. Pure comparative fault is more plaintiff-friendly than the modified comparative fault rules used in most other states.
No. California is an at-fault (or “tort”) state. The driver who caused the wreck, and that driver’s insurance company, is responsible for the damages. That’s different from no-fault states, where each driver typically files with their own insurer regardless of who caused the wreck. In California, fault investigation and the police or CHP crash report often shape the outcome of your case.
California raised its minimum auto insurance requirements on January 1, 2025, under Senate Bill 1107 (the Protect California Drivers Act). The new minimums are 30/60/15, meaning $30,000 per injured person, $60,000 per accident, and $15,000 for property damage. The previous limits, set in 1967, were 15/30/5. The new minimums also apply to uninsured motorist coverage. The 30/60/15 limits will increase again in 2035 to 50/100/25. Even at the new higher minimums, the limits often aren’t enough to cover serious injuries from a freeway wreck, which is why purchasing higher UM/UIM coverage matters so much.
Mostly no. Under California Business and Professions Code § 25602, sellers and furnishers of alcohol are generally not liable for injuries caused by intoxicated patrons. The major exception is liability for serving an obviously intoxicated minor under Business and Professions Code § 25602.1, which still allows a civil claim against a licensee. Social hosts also cannot generally be held liable for injuries caused by intoxicated guests under Civil Code § 1714(c), again with a narrow minor exception. So while drunk-driving crashes are common across California, the path to recovery generally runs through the drunk driver and that driver’s insurance, not the bar that served them, except in cases involving minors.
Following AB 35 (signed in 2022, effective January 1, 2023), the cap on non-economic damages in California medical malpractice cases was raised from the original $250,000 to $350,000 for non-death cases and $500,000 for wrongful death cases, with annual increases of $40,000 per year (non-death) and $50,000 per year (wrongful death) until reaching $750,000 (non-death) and $1,000,000 (wrongful death) by 2033. Economic damages are not capped.
Generally either the county where the wreck happened or the county where the at-fault driver lives is a proper venue under California’s general venue statute (CCP § 395). For corporate defendants, the county of the corporation’s principal place of business is also generally proper. Cases against the State of California are subject to additional venue rules. We talk through venue strategy early in the case.
Most California personal injury cases are filed in California Superior Court under California state law. Some cases qualify for federal court, including cases involving federal defendants (such as Federal Tort Claims Act cases against the United States), cases involving federal property (incidents in national parks or on military bases), and diversity-jurisdiction cases (where the plaintiff and the at-fault defendant are citizens of different states and the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000). Each option has strategic implications. We talk through the choice early in the case.
It depends. Some cases settle within months. Others take a year or more, especially if litigation is needed. Cases with disputed liability, severe injuries, governmental defendants, autonomous vehicle technology, oil-and-gas operator defendants, federal property issues, or commercial parties generally take longer. California Superior Court civil dockets vary considerably from county to county, with the largest courts (LA, San Diego, Orange, Santa Clara, Alameda) generally having the heaviest backlogs. We work to resolve your case as quickly as we reasonably can without rushing it past a fair result.
Not without talking to an attorney first. Initial offers are almost always far below what your case is worth. Once you sign a release, you can’t reopen the claim, even if your injuries turn out to be more serious than you thought. Have a lawyer review any offer before you sign anything.
Every case is different. Value depends on the severity of your injuries, your past and future medical expenses, lost income, physical pain and mental anguish, disfigurement, physical impairment, the strength of the evidence, and the available insurance coverage. We can give you a more accurate range after we review the specifics of your case in a free consultation.
According to IRS Publication 4345, the part of a personal injury settlement that compensates you for physical injuries or physical sickness is generally not taxable. Portions allocated to lost wages, interest, or punitive damages can be taxable. California state income tax follows the federal rule for most categories of injury settlement proceeds, but you should always confirm tax treatment with a CPA.
You may still have options. Your own uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage may apply. As of January 1, 2025, California’s minimum UM coverage matches the new 30/60 liability minimums. Other parties, like an employer if the at-fault driver was on the job, may also share liability. We look at every angle for compensation.
