Written and reviewed by Josh Kohanim, Esq., California Bar No. 328609 · Reviewed
In this guide
A driver who left the scene, whether caught later or never found, broke a statutory duty, and the claim is built without a defendant to sue on conditions your own insurer will test. The criminal prosecution is controlled by the District Attorney and is separate from the civil claim.
Hit and run is common in Los Angeles. The California Office of Traffic Safety recorded 2,549 hit and run collisions in the City of Los Angeles in 2023, and Crosstown, working from LAPD Traffic Division data, counted 98 hit and run deaths in the city in 2024. Both figures are City of Los Angeles only.
What the driver who left owed you
California splits the duty in two, and the split decides how hard the police will look. Vehicle Code 20001 applies where the crash injures or kills someone other than the driver, and requires the driver to immediately stop the vehicle at the scene. Vehicle Code 20002 applies where only property was damaged.
| Vehicle Code 20001 | Vehicle Code 20002 | |
|---|---|---|
| When it applies | Injury to another person, or death | Damage to property only |
| The duty | Immediately stop at the scene | Stop at the nearest spot that does not block traffic |
| What must be given | Identification and aid to the injured | Name, address, license, registration, or a written notice left on the vehicle plus notice to police |
| Penalty | Up to one year in county jail, or state prison, and a fine of $1,000 to $10,000 | Misdemeanor: up to six months in county jail, a fine up to $1,000, or both |
| Where death or permanent, serious injury results | State prison for two, three, or four years, or 90 days to one year in county jail, plus the same fine range | Not applicable |
The written-notice option in Vehicle Code 20002 is why a note under a wiper blade is lawful in a parking lot and worthless after an injury crash. Once a person is hurt, the driver has to stop at the scene, and driving away is the separate offense the officer will investigate first.
The criminal case pays no medical bills
A prosecution punishes the driver. It does not value your injury, it does not pay a hospital, and it moves on a schedule set by the court's calendar rather than by your treatment. Restitution ordered in a criminal case is capped by what the judge orders and by what the defendant can pay, which in these cases is usually nothing.
Even a driver who is caught frequently turns out to be uninsured, which is often why the person fled. That returns you to the same place as the case where nobody was ever identified: your own policy. Our page on uninsured and underinsured motorist claims covers what that coverage pays when the driver is known but has none.
How your own uninsured motorist coverage pays
Insurance Code 11580.2 treats a car with an unknown owner or operator as an uninsured motor vehicle, so your own uninsured motorist coverage stands in for the driver who left. The statute attaches three conditions to that substitution, and an insurer checks all three before it discusses your injury.
| Condition | What the statute requires | The clock |
|---|---|---|
| Physical contact | The bodily injury arose out of physical contact of the automobile with the insured | At the moment of the crash |
| Police report | The insured, or someone acting for the insured, reported the accident to the police | Within 24 hours |
| Sworn statement | A statement under oath filed with the insurer | Within 30 days after that |
A fourth deadline runs behind those three. No cause of action accrues under the coverage, meaning the right to claim is lost, unless, within two years of the crash, you have filed suit for bodily injury, reached a written agreement on the amount due, or formally instituted arbitration. Two years feels long while you are treating and disappears while an adjuster asks for one more record.
If the car never touched you
This is the requirement that ends more of these claims than any other. The statute conditions the phantom vehicle claim on bodily injury arising out of physical contact of the automobile with the insured. A car that swerves into your lane, forces you into a barrier, and keeps going without ever touching you does not fit that language on its face, however plainly it caused the crash.
The physical evidence of contact becomes the case: paint transfer on the panel, the height and direction of the scrape, mirror fragments in the roadway, a piece of trim left behind with a part number on it. Do not let the vehicle be repaired or salvaged before it is photographed and examined. Once the panel is replaced, the proof of contact is in a scrap bin.
Getting the report and video in time
A crash inside city limits is reported to the Los Angeles Police Department; on a state highway it goes to the California Highway Patrol, which our page on Los Angeles freeway accidents explains. Report it the same day regardless of which agency responds, because the 24 hour condition on your own coverage runs from the collision, not from the day you decide to make a claim.
Collision reports are not public documents. Vehicle Code 20012 keeps them confidential and releases them only to people with a proper interest, which includes drivers involved, injured persons, owners of damaged property, people who may face civil liability, and the attorneys for any of them. A fee not exceeding the actual cost of the copy applies.
Then canvass for video the same week. Storefronts, gas stations, apartment lobbies, school cameras, buses, and doorbells all face the street, and most of them overwrite on a loop measured in days. A written request that names the date, the time window, and the camera angle, delivered while the footage still exists, is what turns an unidentified car into a license plate.
Help from the state crime victim fund
California funds a compensation program for crime victims, and hit and run is one of the few vehicle situations that qualifies. Government Code 13955 excludes acts involving the operation of a motor vehicle from the definition of a crime for this program, then carves out exceptions that include a violation of Vehicle Code 20001, driving under the influence, and vehicular manslaughter.
The California Victim Compensation Board reimburses medical and dental treatment, mental health services, income loss, funeral and burial expenses, relocation, residential security, home or vehicle modification for a victim who became disabled, and crime scene cleanup. It is a reimbursement program of last resort rather than a substitute for the civil claim, and it does not pay for pain and suffering.
When a hit and run claim fails
- No contact. A run-off-the-road with no touch does not meet the statutory definition, and this is the most common reason a phantom vehicle claim is denied.
- The report came late. A report filed on day three, after the pain set in, misses the 24 hour condition.
- No sworn statement inside 30 days. Insurers do not always ask for it. The statute still requires it.
- You waived the coverage in writing. Uninsured motorist coverage must be offered at your liability limits, and it can be deleted by a signed waiver. Read your declarations page, the summary page of your policy, today.
- You were the uninsured owner. Civil Code 3333.4 removes non-economic damages from an uninsured owner or operator, which leaves the bills and the wage loss and takes the rest.
- The two year window closed. Without a suit, a written agreement, or an arbitration demand inside two years, there is no claim.
What to do this week
Report the crash today if you have not, get examined, photograph every mark on the vehicle before anyone repairs it, and send your own insurer written notice that you are making an uninsured motorist claim. Then start the video canvass, because that is the piece that disappears while everything else waits.
We handle the sworn statement, the report request, and the canvass, and we deal with your own insurer, which becomes an adverse party, the other side of the dispute, the moment the claim is filed. The parent page, Los Angeles car accident lawyer, sets out the deadlines that apply to every claim. If you were on foot when the driver left, start instead at Los Angeles pedestrian accidents. No fee unless we recover.