What to do after a car accident that was not your fault Fault is theirs. The proof is yours.
The other driver caused it, and you still have to prove it. What to collect at the scene, which policy pays for what, the deadlines California sets, and the Proposition 213 rule that catches uninsured drivers all follow from that.
On this page
Call 911, collect the other driver’s license, plate, and insurance at the scene, photograph everything, and see a doctor the same day. Then report the crash to your own insurer, file the SR-1 with the DMV within 10 days, and let the other driver’s adjuster wait until you know what is wrong with you.
The burden of proving fault
Civil Code section 1714 makes everyone responsible for injuries caused by a want of ordinary care. That is the rule you are relying on, and you are the one who has to establish it. The other driver’s insurer does not investigate on your behalf. It investigates on its own, and it starts from the position that the loss is smaller than you say and the fault is more shared than you think.
California divides fault by percentage rather than treating it as all or nothing. A jury can put ten percent on you and reduce your damages by ten percent, and under Civil Code section 1431.2, adopted by Proposition 51, each defendant pays only its own share of the non-economic damages, meaning pain and suffering. That is why an adjuster in a clear liability case still asks whether you were speeding, whether you were looking at your phone, and whether you could have avoided it. Every point they move onto you is a point off the bill.
Two words will keep coming up. A first-party claim is a claim against your own policy, under a contract you paid for. A third-party claim is a claim against the other driver’s liability policy, where you are a stranger to the contract and that carrier, the other driver’s insurer, owes its duty of good faith to its own policyholder, not to you. Almost everything that feels unfair in the weeks after a crash comes from that second sentence.
Evidence at the scene
Vehicle Code section 16025 already requires both drivers to exchange a specific list: name and current residence address, driver’s license number, vehicle identification number, the registered owner’s address, and evidence of insurance. Take a photograph of each document rather than writing it down. Then add what the statute does not require:
- Both cars where they came to rest, before anyone moves them, with the plates readable.
- A wide shot showing the lane lines, the signal or the stop sign, and which direction each car was traveling.
- The other driver’s insurance card and license, photographed, not transcribed.
- One witness name and phone number. Ask before they drive away, because they will.
- The responding officer’s name and the report number, so you can request the report later.
- Any camera you can see: a business doorbell, a bus, a parking structure. Footage is overwritten in days.
Do not apologize and do not narrate. “I’m sorry” is a courtesy in a parking lot and an admission in a claim file. Give the facts to the officer, give the required information to the other driver, and keep your assessment of what happened to yourself.
One thing is worth knowing about the report itself: the officer’s conclusion about who was at fault is an opinion, not a verdict, and Vehicle Code section 20013 says an accident report shall not be used as evidence in a trial arising out of the accident. Adjusters still lean on it heavily, and the factual observations in it, the measurements, the statements, the point of impact, do the real work. A report that gets the facts wrong is worth correcting early, in writing.
Policies by type of loss
The most common mistake after a crash you did not cause is waiting for the at-fault insurer to make you whole. It will not do that quickly, because it does not have to. Your own policy exists to move first.
| What you need paid | Which policy usually pays it | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Ambulance and early medical bills | Your MedPay, or your health insurance | MedPay pays without waiting for a fault decision. Health plans and hospitals may later assert a lien against your settlement. |
| Repair or total loss of your car | The at-fault driver’s property damage liability, or your collision coverage | Collision pays faster. Your insurer then pursues the at-fault carrier and returns your deductible if it recovers. |
| A rental while your car is out | The at-fault carrier, or your rental reimbursement coverage | The at-fault carrier pays for a reasonable repair period, not for the months a disputed claim takes. |
| Injuries worth more than the at-fault driver carries | Your underinsured motorist coverage | Governed by Insurance Code 11580.2. It only helps if you bought it. |
| Everything, when the other driver has no policy | Your uninsured motorist coverage | Same coverage, triggered by no insurance instead of not enough. |
| Lost income, pain, and suffering | The at-fault driver’s bodily injury liability | Paid once, at the end, in a lump sum against a signed release. |
Using your own collision coverage for a crash you did not cause is not an admission of anything, and it should not raise your rates. Your insurer pays, then pursues the other carrier through a process called subrogation, which is one insurer recovering from another what it paid on your behalf. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is governed by Insurance Code section 11580.2. Look at your declarations page tonight and find out whether you have it.
Deadlines already running
Four clocks start at the crash. Vehicle Code section 20008 requires a written report to the CHP or the city police within 24 hours when anyone is injured or killed. Vehicle Code section 16000 and the DMV require an SR-1 within 10 days for any injury, any death, or property damage over $1,000, no matter who was at fault. Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1 gives you two years to file suit for the injury and section 338(c) gives you three years for the damage to the car.
The deadline people miss is the short one. If a city bus, a county truck, a school district vehicle, or a badly maintained roadway had anything to do with the crash, Government Code section 911.2 requires a written claim to that public entity within six months. Miss it and the two year statute never gets a chance to matter. The entity then has 45 days to act on the claim under Government Code section 912.4, and once it sends a written rejection you have six months to file suit under section 945.6. One deadline runs the other way: under Code of Civil Procedure section 352, the clock on an injured child’s own claim does not run while they are a minor, though that tolling does not apply to a government claim. The California courts explain the general rules on their deadlines to sue self-help page.
Proposition 213 and your insurance
This rule changes cases. Under Civil Code section 3333.4, added by Proposition 213 in 1996, a person who owned the vehicle in the crash and did not carry the insurance California requires cannot recover non-economic damages. Non-economic damages are the pain, the suffering, the sleeplessness, the year you lost. Medical bills and lost wages survive. Everything else is gone, even if the other driver ran the red light and admitted it.
The same bar applies to a driver convicted of DUI in the crash. There is one narrow exception: an uninsured owner injured by a driver who was convicted of DUI can still recover non-economic damages. If your registration lapsed or your policy cancelled for non-payment, say so to your attorney on day one. It is not a reason to stay quiet; it is a reason the claim has to be built differently.
Admitted fault
A carrier that accepts fault has conceded one issue and kept four. Expect the fight to move to causation, whether this crash caused this injury or whether something in your history did; to the reasonableness of the charges, since billed amounts and paid amounts are different numbers; to gaps in treatment, where three quiet weeks are read as recovery; and to the value of pain and suffering, which has no invoice attached to it.
None of that means the claim is in trouble. It means the middle of the claim is about medicine and records rather than about who ran the light. Keep treating, keep every appointment, and let the file answer the questions before you do.
The adjuster's deadlines
California insurers work under the Fair Claims Settlement Practices Regulations published by the California Department of Insurance. Section 2695.5 gives an insurer 15 calendar days to acknowledge a claim and 15 calendar days to respond to a communication from a claimant. Section 2695.7 gives it 40 calendar days after receiving proof of claim to accept or deny, and 30 calendar days after an agreement to settle to send the money. Those are rules with dates in them, which makes a stalled claim measurable rather than only frustrating.
Insurance Code section 790.03 defines unfair claims settlement practices, including failing to act reasonably promptly on communications and forcing an insured to litigate by offering substantially less than what is ultimately recovered. Keep every letter and note the date of every call. A file that shows the dates is worth more in a negotiation.
Exhausted policy limits
For policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2025, California’s minimum liability limits are $30,000 for one person’s injuries, $60,000 per crash, and $15,000 for property damage, under Vehicle Code section 16056 as amended by Senate Bill 1107. Many drivers carry the minimum and nothing more. A hospital admission and a surgery consult can exhaust $30,000 before anyone discusses lost wages.
When that happens the case turns to your own underinsured motorist coverage, and sometimes to a second defendant: the employer of a driver who was working, the owner who lent the car under Vehicle Code section 17150, or a rideshare company’s commercial policy. If the other driver was on an app, our Los Angeles Uber accident lawyer page explains which coverage applies at which point in the trip.
Questions people ask when the crash was not their fault
Do I still have to call my own insurance if the other driver admitted fault?
Will my rates go up if I use my own collision coverage?
The other driver’s insurer wants a recorded statement. Do I have to give one?
How long does a not-at-fault claim take?
What if the other driver has no insurance at all?
Can I claim the belongings that were destroyed in my car?
Should I accept the first offer if it seems fair?
Building your own proof
You build the proof yourself, and you use your own policy to keep your life moving while the other carrier makes up its mind. Photograph the scene, exchange what the Vehicle Code requires, get examined the same day, report to your insurer, file the SR-1 inside 10 days, and calendar the six month government claim deadline if a public entity was involved. Then stop talking to the other side and let your medical records carry the claim.
If the adjuster has gone quiet, if fault is suddenly being questioned, or if the offer arrived before your treatment did, that is the point to bring in help. Our Los Angeles car accident lawyer page walks through how a claim is built and valued, and there is no fee unless we recover.
