Is California a No-Fault State for Car Accidents?

After a car accident someone else caused, the first practical question is usually whose insurance pays. In California, the answer starts with fault.

California is not a no-fault state for car accidents. A driver who fails to use ordinary care is responsible for the injury that results (Civil Code § 1714(a)), and the insurance California requires is liability coverage, which pays for accidents that are the policyholder’s fault. The coverage that pays limited medical expenses for people in the policyholder’s car whatever the fault, medical payments coverage, is optional.

Is California a no-fault state for car accidents?

No. California law makes fault the starting point. Civil Code § 1714(a) makes everyone responsible for an injury caused to another by their “want of ordinary care or skill in the management of his or her property or person.” After a car accident, the driver who failed to use ordinary care is responsible for the harm, and that driver’s insurance is usually where a claim begins.

The insurance rules follow the same line. Vehicle Code § 16020(a) says every driver and every owner of a motor vehicle “shall at all times be able to establish financial responsibility.” Insurance is the usual form, though section 16021 recognizes others. The California Department of Insurance’s consumer guide to auto insurance describes the required coverage in one line: “Liability Coverage is for accidents that are your fault.”

Coverage that pays medical costs whatever the fault is a different matter. The same guide describes medical payments coverage, which pays limited medical expenses for people hurt in the car the policyholder is driving “whether or not you are at fault,” as coverage a driver “can choose not to buy.” The firm’s page on car accident claims in California covers how fault and insurance fit together in a case.

Who pays for injuries after a car accident in California?

Usually the driver who was at fault, through their liability insurance, which pays for bodily injury the driver causes someone else.

The limits matter. Vehicle Code § 16056 sets the minimum limits a policy must carry to count as proof of financial responsibility, and an at-fault driver’s policy might carry only that minimum. The Department of Insurance’s guide says a driver who causes an accident that costs more than their liability limit is responsible for the damage beyond the limits they bought. That is one reason the injured person’s own policy can matter too.

Civil Code § 1431.2(b), for the purposes of that section, defines two kinds of loss. Economic damages are objectively verifiable monetary losses, such as medical expenses, loss of earnings and the cost of repair or replacement. Non-economic damages are subjective, non-monetary losses, such as pain, suffering, inconvenience and emotional distress. Which of these a claim includes depends on its facts and its records.

What if the driver who hit you had no insurance, or not enough?

Then the injured person’s own policy, or another policy that covers them, may pay. Insurance Code § 11580.2(a)(1) requires an auto bodily injury liability policy issued or delivered in California, with narrow exceptions such as excess or umbrella coverage, to include uninsured motorist coverage unless the insurer and the named insured agree in writing to delete it or lower it. The Department’s guide puts it from the buyer’s side: the insurer must offer the coverage, and a driver who turns it down signs a waiver.

“Uninsured” covers more than it sounds. Under § 11580.2(b), an uninsured motor vehicle includes one with no applicable liability insurance, one whose insurer denies coverage, an underinsured vehicle, and one whose owner or operator is unknown, as in a hit-and-run. A hit-and-run claim carries conditions the statute sets. The first is physical contact between the unknown vehicle and the insured person, or a vehicle they were in; we go over the others in the first conversation.

“Not enough” is the underinsured case. Under § 11580.2(p), an underinsured motor vehicle is one insured for less than the uninsured motorist limits carried on the injured person’s vehicle. The coverage applies only after the liability limits of all the insured vehicles that caused the injury have been exhausted by payment of judgments or settlements, and it pays at most the underinsured limit less what has been paid by or for those who may be held legally liable.

Walking or cycling. Where the named insured is an individual, the statute’s definition of who is insured reaches the named insured, the spouse and, while residents of the same household, relatives of either, “while occupants of a motor vehicle or otherwise.” So uninsured motorist coverage on a policy issued to the person, their spouse or a relative in the same household can apply to someone hurt by an uninsured driver while walking or riding a bicycle, depending on the policy’s terms and the statute’s exclusions. The pedestrian accidents and bicycle accidents pages cover those cases.

This claim is made to the insurer that wrote the uninsured motorist coverage, not to the other driver’s insurer. Whether the person is entitled to recover, and how much, is settled by agreement between the insured and that insurer or, if they disagree, by arbitration before a single neutral arbitrator (§ 11580.2(f)).

When an insurer has already said the other driver’s policy does not apply, or does not reach far enough, the question becomes which other policy does. A consultation with SoCo Law Firm is free and confidential.

Can you recover if you were driving without insurance?

Not for non-economic losses, if at the time of the accident the injured person owned an uninsured vehicle involved in it, or was driving a vehicle involved and cannot establish financial responsibility, with one exception. Civil Code § 3333.4, added by Proposition 213, bars a person in a motor vehicle case from recovering non-economic losses (pain, suffering, inconvenience, physical impairment, disfigurement and other nonpecuniary damages) if, at the time of the accident:

• they were driving in violation of Vehicle Code § 23152 or § 23153 (driving under the influence) and were convicted of that offense;
• they owned a vehicle involved in the accident that was not insured as California’s financial responsibility laws require; or
• they were driving a vehicle involved and cannot establish their financial responsibility.

Nor is a liability or uninsured motorist insurer liable for those losses (§ 3333.4(b)).

The exception (§ 3333.4(c)): an uninsured owner, the second case above, who was injured by a driver who was under the influence at the time and was convicted of that offense is not barred. It does not reach the uninsured driver in the third case, or the convicted driver in the first. The section speaks only to non-economic losses, and whether it applies is one of the first things the firm checks.

Who pays when the other driver was driving for Uber or Lyft?

It depends on where the driver was in the app. Public Utilities Code § 5433 sets the insurance a rideshare company (a “transportation network company” in the statute) and its drivers must maintain, for two periods:

• From accepting a ride until it is complete, the rideshare insurance is primary. While a passenger is in the car, the company must also provide uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, primary over any other such coverage.
• With the app on and no ride accepted, the rideshare insurance is primary at lower limits than during a trip, and the company must also keep excess coverage insuring itself and the driver.

Rideshare coverage does not depend on the driver’s personal auto policy first denying the claim (§ 5433(d)). The trip record is what places an accident in one period or the other.

What if you were partly at fault?

A share of fault reduces a recovery; it does not bar one. The civil jury instruction on a plaintiff’s comparative fault, CACI No. 405, puts the question on the defendant, who must prove that the injured person was negligent and that this negligence was a substantial factor in causing the harm. If the defendant proves both, the person’s damages are reduced by their share of responsibility.

That rule replaced the “all-or-nothing” doctrine of contributory negligence. Among the sources the instruction quotes are Li v. Yellow Cab Co. and a later decision that put the result this way: a person’s own negligence counts “not as a bar to his recovery, but merely as a factor to be considered in measuring the amount thereof.”

When more than one party is at fault, Civil Code § 1431.2(a), added by Proposition 51, makes each defendant liable for non-economic damages only in direct proportion to its own share of fault. Fault is usually argued in shares, not as a yes-or-no question.

How do you get a copy of the collision report?

From the agency that took it. Collision reports are confidential, but Vehicle Code § 20012 requires the California Highway Patrol, or the law enforcement agency the collision was reported to, to disclose the entire report to anyone with a proper interest in it, including the drivers, any person named in it as injured, and an attorney who declares under penalty of perjury that they represent one of them. The fee may not exceed the actual cost of the copy.

The report records what the officer found and what people said at the time. It is one part of the record, which usually comes in three sets:

• How it happened: the report, photographs, the damage to each vehicle, what witnesses saw, video where it exists and, in a rideshare case, the trip record.
• Which policies apply: every policy that may reach the accident, read for its limits and its terms.
• What was lost: medical records and bills, and records of lost earnings.

Is it different when a road condition played a part?

It can be. Government Code § 835 provides that, except as a statute provides otherwise, a public entity is liable for an injury caused by a dangerous condition of its property, on conditions the section sets out. Claims against a city, county or other public entity have their own requirements (Government Code § 945.4), which we go over in the first conversation.

What does a car accident claim come down to?

Fault decides who pays, the policies decide how far the payment reaches, and the record decides both. Car accident cases are part of the firm’s personal injury practice, which runs alongside its employment law work, and the page on how SoCo Law Firm handles car accident cases describes how a case is built from that record.

To talk about an accident, contact SoCo Law Firm. Consultations are free and confidential, by phone or video.