Written and reviewed by Josh Kohanim, Esq., California Bar No. 328609 · Reviewed
In this guide
Families told the at-fault driver "only had the minimum," or whose medical bills already exceed the policy on the table, have four questions: what California requires, how every other policy is found, how their own coverage works, and what collecting from an individual looks like. The full framework is on our Los Angeles catastrophic injury lawyer page.
What California requires a driver to carry
Vehicle Code section 16056 sets the floor for financial responsibility, the insurance a driver must carry, and it moved for the first time in decades. The section became operative on January 1, 2025, and its subdivision (d) schedules another increase for January 1, 2035.
| Policy issued or renewed | One person injured | More than one person | Property damage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before January 1, 2025 | $15,000 | $30,000 | $5,000 |
| On or after January 1, 2025 | $30,000 | $60,000 | $15,000 |
Subdivision (d) raises those figures again on January 1, 2035, by an additional $20,000 for one person, $40,000 for more than one, and $10,000 in property damage. Read the first column, policy issued or renewed, carefully: the 2025 figures apply to policies issued or renewed on or after that date, so a policy in force from an earlier term can still carry the old limits. These numbers are a financial responsibility floor. They were never built to fund a spinal cord injury, and in a serious case the first question is what else exists.
Finding the policies nobody volunteered
Policy limits are the ceiling written into the policy itself, stated per person and per accident. Insurance adjusters disclose the primary policy, the one that pays first. Excess layers, employer coverage, and commercial policies usually surface only when someone asks in a way the law requires an answer to.
Once suit is filed, Code of Civil Procedure section 2017.210 allows discovery, the formal exchange of information in a lawsuit, of the existence and contents of any agreement under which an insurer may be liable to satisfy a judgment, the insurer's identity, and the nature and limits of the coverage. That is how layered coverage gets found. An umbrella policy sits above the primary policy and pays after it is exhausted; an excess policy does the same thing for a business, often at much higher limits.
Other people's policies are often the real answer. If the driver was working, the employer answers for conduct within the scope of employment under the rule stated in California jury instruction CACI No. 3720, and a commercial auto policy is a different order of magnitude than a personal one. If the driver borrowed the car, Vehicle Code section 17150 makes the owner liable for negligent operation by a permissive user, someone driving with the owner's permission. That route has a hard ceiling: section 17151 caps the owner's liability at $15,000 for one person, $30,000 for more than one, and $5,000 in property damage, a figure last amended in 1967. The cap applies to that owner-liability theory, not to an employer's liability for its employee.
Demanding the full policy
When the loss clearly exceeds a policy, we make a demand for the limits, on a deadline, with the medical proof attached. The reason that demand has force is the insurer's own exposure. As CACI No. 2334 and its authorities put it, quoting Comunale v. Traders & General Ins. Co. (1958) 50 Cal.2d 654, 659, an insurer deciding whether to compromise a claim "must take into account the interest of the insured and give it at least as much consideration as it does to its own," and where there is great risk of a recovery beyond the limits, good faith requires settling within them.
The instruction exists for what the Judicial Council calls an excess judgment case: a judgment against the insured above the policy limits after the insurer rejected a demand inside them. An insurer that refuses a reasonable limits demand is deciding to run that risk on behalf of its own policyholder. That is the pressure, and it only works when the demand is documented, complete, and answerable within the time given.
Your own underinsured motorist coverage
Underinsured motorist coverage is the part of your own auto policy that pays when the at-fault driver carried less than you did. Insurance Code section 11580.2 governs it, and the mechanics matter more than the concept, because three of them end claims.
| Rule | What the statute says | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Exhaustion | Coverage does not apply until the liability limits of all vehicles causing the injury are exhausted | The at-fault policy is collected first, then the UIM claim opens |
| Offset | The insurer's liability is its limit less amounts paid by those legally liable | A $100,000 UIM limit against a $30,000 payment leaves $70,000 |
| Written consent | Coverage does not apply where the insured settles without the insurer's written consent | Never sign a release with the at-fault driver's insurer before your own insurer consents in writing |
| Two-year rule | Suit filed, arbitration agreed, or arbitration formally demanded within two years of the accident | The clock runs from the crash, not from the settlement |
| Waiver | The insurer and named insured may delete the coverage by written agreement | Check the declarations page; some people rejected this coverage years ago |
Read your declarations page, the summary page of your policy, before you assume there is nothing there. Household policies, resident relatives' policies, and umbrella policies with uninsured motorist endorsements, the add-on that carries this coverage, all get missed, and in a case where the at-fault limits are small, this is frequently the largest single source of recovery.
When the person at fault has nothing
Suing an individual with no insurance and no property rarely produces money. A judgment can be entered and it lasts: under Code of Civil Procedure section 683.020 a money judgment may not be enforced after ten years from the date it is entered unless it is renewed. Wages can be garnished and bank accounts levied, but a person without assets does not become solvent because a court says they owe you.
One piece of pressure exists in the Vehicle Code. Under Vehicle Code section 16370, the Department of Motor Vehicles suspends the driving privilege of a person who has failed for 30 days to satisfy a judgment, on receipt of a certified copy of it. That matters to some defendants a great deal. It is not a substitute for coverage, and we say so at the start rather than after two years of litigation.
More of a capped settlement for you
When the total available money is fixed, the only remaining variable is what comes out of it. Reducing liens, the claims by hospitals and health plans to be repaid from your recovery, stops being paperwork and becomes the case. A hospital lien under Civil Code section 3045.4 must be satisfied only out of 50 percent of the money due under the settlement or judgment, and Welfare and Institutions Code section 14124.78 stops the Medi-Cal director at what the beneficiary keeps once fees and litigation costs are taken out.
One more rule shapes what a capped case is worth. Under Civil Code section 1431.2, each defendant's liability for noneconomic damages is several only, so an uninsured defendant's share of the pain and suffering does not shift to the insured one. Economic damages are treated differently, which is one more reason the life care plan is built carefully. Our guide to life care plans and future medical costs covers that work.
When the usual rule changes
- Several people were hurt by the same driver. A per-accident limit is divided among all of the claimants, so a $60,000 accident limit is not $60,000 for each person. Speed matters, and so does knowing who else is claiming.
- You already signed a release. A release is the settlement document that ends your claim against the driver. Settling with the at-fault driver's insurer without your own insurer's written consent can forfeit the underinsured motorist claim under Insurance Code section 11580.2. Get consent first and sign second.
- The at-fault driver was working, driving for an app, or in a company vehicle. The employment question changes the available coverage completely, and it is answered with records rather than with the driver's description of the job.
- A public entity is involved. Public agencies are frequently self-insured, which changes the negotiation, and the six-month claim deadline in Government Code section 911.2 applies regardless of how much coverage exists.
- The vehicle or product failed. A manufacturer defendant brings a different kind of policy into the case, and preserving the vehicle or the item is what makes that claim possible.
What to do first
Get your own declarations page and read the uninsured and underinsured motorist lines. Do not sign anything from the at-fault driver's insurer. Write down every employer, owner, contractor, and company connected to the vehicle or the site, because each one is a possible policy. And get the coverage search started before the medical bills finish accumulating, since the answer changes what the whole case should look like.
If the injuries here include limb loss or burns, the injury-specific guides are amputation and limb loss and severe burn injuries, and the crash-side questions are covered on our truck accident page.