Who Pays If Both Drivers Are at Fault in California?

TL;DR

Who pays if both drivers are at fault in California comes down to percentages, not a simple yes or no. In California, you can still get money for your damages, even if you were mostly at fault. Your own share of blame cuts the amount you get. But there’s a catch that surprises most people, and it has to do with your own insurance, not just the accident itself.

You pulled out a little late. The other driver was going too fast. No one was totally wrong, and no one was totally right.

Who pays if both drivers are at fault in California isn’t a black-and-white answer. It’s all about the numbers. California’s rules are actually more forgiving than most people think. But there’s one tricky part that catches a lot of people off guard.

Yes, and California is actually pretty generous about this. Thanks to a rule called pure comparative negligence, which came from a 1975 Supreme Court case called Li v. Yellow Cab Co., you can still collect money even if most of the accident was your fault. This applies as long as you weren’t 100% to blame.

Let’s say you have a $30,000 claim and you’re found to be 60% at fault. You can still get $12,000 from the other driver’s insurance. In most other states, you’d get nothing if you were even a little bit more than half at fault. California doesn’t do that. Here, the math always leaves you with something, unless the whole thing was completely your fault.

Here’s the twist. The police report doesn’t actually decide who was at fault. Sure, it can be strong evidence, but it doesn’t set the final numbers. The percentage is usually worked out between the insurance companies’ adjusters. If things get complicated, a jury might have the final say. Even the DMV’s own accident report form is mostly there to prove you have insurance, not to say who caused what.

At Blair & Ramirez LLP, when a shared-fault claim lands on our desk, we investigate for ourselves. We look at photos, talk to witnesses, and study how the cars were damaged. We don’t just take the other driver’s insurance company’s first number as fact. That first number is only a starting point, not the final answer.

Once everyone agrees on who’s at fault and by how much, the insurance companies get to work. Let’s say you’re found to be 30 percent responsible for the crash. In that case, the other driver’s insurance usually pays for 70 percent of your damages. Your own insurance might step in to help cover their driver’s costs too, depending on the details.

Both drivers can end up making claims against each other at the same time. It’s common for two insurance companies to be negotiating back and forth while each one also deals with a claim from their own customer.

California has a law called Civil Code Section 3333.4. This rule says if you didn’t have car insurance when the crash happened, you usually can’t get money for pain and suffering. It doesn’t matter if the other driver was completely at fault.

You can still ask for money to cover things like doctor bills or lost pay. But you can’t collect extra money just because the accident made your life harder or left you in pain. This all comes down to whether you had insurance, not who caused the crash. This California car accident law catches a lot of people off guard.

Sometimes, insurance companies get stuck arguing over disputed fault percentages. When that happens, they often turn to a private process called arbitration. This is something that takes place behind closed doors, and you don’t have to step in or get involved.

But what if things keep dragging on? Or maybe the offer you get just doesn’t match what really happened. If that’s the case, you can always file a lawsuit. Most of the time, these cases settle before ever reaching a courtroom, but sometimes, taking legal action is what finally gets those stalled negotiations moving.

Some car accidents are simple. If the damage is small and fault is clear, you might not need a lawyer at all. But once both drivers share some of the blame, things get complicated quickly. That’s because your fault percentage decides exactly how much money you walk away with.

A car accident lawyer for shared-fault cases challenges those early fault percentages. Unfair fault percentages can be challenged based on the facts of your case.

You never have to go along with the first number an insurance adjuster gives you. Learning about your legal rights doesn’t cost anything.

We can review your case for free and tell you if that percentage is actually fair.

Remember, the first number you hear from an adjuster is not set in stone.

Curious where you stand? Get a free case review and find out.

• You can still get money for your losses in California, even if most of the blame lands on you. The amount just drops by your share of the fault.
• The police report isn’t the final word on who caused the crash. Insurance adjusters make that call first. Sometimes, it even goes to a jury.
• Each insurance company usually pays out based on how much their own driver was to blame.
• If you didn’t have insurance, you might lose out on pain and suffering money, even if you weren’t the one who caused the accident.
• When insurance companies can’t agree on fault, they sometimes settle the fight in private arbitration, not in court.