What to do after a car accident in California

Getting rear-ended on the 405 or clipped in a Sacramento intersection throws your day into chaos, and the choices you make in the first hour can decide a claim you won't settle for months. The universal advice (call 911, get checked out by a doctor, don't admit fault) is covered on the national guide this page sits under. What follows is the part specific to California: the exact duties, deadlines, dollar figures, and exceptions that apply here.

At the scene, California law gives you specific duties

Once anyone hurt is safe, state law requires the drivers to exchange information. That means your name and current address, your driver's license number, the vehicle identification number, the registered owner's address, and evidence of insurance, including the insurer's name and address and your policy number.¹ Write down the same details for the other driver, and get names and numbers for any witnesses before they leave.

If the crash injured or killed anyone, the duty goes further. The driver has to make a written report within 24 hours to the California Highway Patrol, or to the local police department if it happened inside city limits.² That is a separate obligation from whatever report the responding officer files.

Photograph everything before the cars are moved. Vehicle positions, damage, license plates, skid marks, signals, and street signs all matter, because California decides these cases on fault and that evidence is what proves it.

Reporting to the DMV, and the SR-1 most drivers miss

There's a second report many Californians never hear about until it's too late. If the crash caused any injury, any death, or more than $1,000 in property damage to any one person, you (or your insurer or attorney) have to file form SR-1 with the DMV within 10 days.³ Miss that window and the DMV can suspend your license, no matter who caused the crash. Ten days is far shorter than people expect, so put it on the calendar the same day.

To get the official account of the crash, you request the collision report the responding agency wrote. If CHP handled the scene, you ask for it with form CHP 190, and the copying fee runs from $10 for a short report to $40 for a long one.⁴ The full process for pulling that report is covered here: crash reports in California.

How fault works here

California is a fault state. There is no mandatory personal injury protection, and the state only compels drivers to carry liability insurance, not first-party medical coverage.⁵ MedPay is an optional add-on. So in most cases it's the at-fault driver's insurer that pays for your injuries and your vehicle.

The state also follows pure comparative negligence, a rule the California Supreme Court adopted in Li v. Yellow Cab Co. in 1975.⁶ Your compensation is reduced by your share of fault, but it is never wiped out. If a jury finds you 30 percent responsible, you still collect 70 percent of your damages, and even a driver found 90 percent at fault recovers the last 10 percent. Insurers know this, and they will try to shift as much fault onto you as they can. That is the real reason the scene photos matter.

The insurance you'll actually be dealing with

California raised its minimum liability limits on January 1, 2025. The floor is now $30,000 for injury to one person, $60,000 per crash, and $15,000 for property damage, written as 30/60/15.⁷ Those minimums rise again to 50/100/25 on January 1, 2035.⁷ They are still floors, and a serious injury blows past $30,000 fast.

That gap is why uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage matters so much in California. Insurers must offer UM/UIM on every liability policy, and you can only decline it by signing a written waiver.⁸ If you don't remember signing one, you probably have the coverage. Pull your own declarations page early, because when the other driver is uninsured or carries only the state minimum, your UM/UIM may be the deepest pocket in the case.

One California rule can erase a big part of your claim. Under Proposition 213, an uninsured driver cannot recover non-economic damages (pain and suffering) at all, and neither can a driver later convicted of DUI for the crash.⁹ Economic losses like medical bills and lost wages are still recoverable, but the pain-and-suffering piece is often the largest, which is one more reason to keep your own coverage current.

The deadlines that end a claim

Two years. That is how long you have to file a lawsuit for personal injury or wrongful death in California, counted from the date of the crash.¹⁰ Blow the deadline and the court will dismiss the case regardless of its merits.

One deadline is much shorter and catches people off guard. If a government vehicle, a public bus, or a dangerous public road was involved, you generally have to present a written claim to that public entity within six months of the crash before you're even allowed to sue.¹¹

Property damage runs on its own clock. A claim for damage to your vehicle or other personal property has a three-year statute of limitations.¹²

Special situations that change the math

Drunk driver. California generally shields alcohol sellers and social hosts from liability when they serve an adult who later crashes,¹³ with a narrow exception: a licensee who serves an obviously intoxicated minor can be liable if that sale is the proximate cause of the injury.¹⁴ Against the drunk driver personally, punitive damages are available if you can prove malice, oppression, or fraud by clear and convincing evidence, a standard that drunk-driving conduct can meet.¹⁵

Motorcycle crash. California requires every rider and passenger to wear a helmet, with no age exception.¹⁶ It is also the only state to write lane splitting into statute, defining it as riding a two-wheeled motorcycle between rows of stopped or moving traffic in the same lane, so a rider who was splitting lanes is not automatically at fault.¹⁷

Distracted driver. Holding and using a phone while driving is illegal, and so is texting; only hands-free voice operation or a single tap on a mounted device is allowed.¹⁸ The base fine is small, $20 for a first offense and $50 for later ones, but a citation is strong evidence of negligence in your injury claim.¹⁸

And one thing California does not have is a cap on damages in an ordinary car-crash case. There is no ceiling on your economic or non-economic recovery. The state's one well-known damages cap comes from MICRA, and it applies only to medical malpractice, not to auto collisions.¹⁹

Your car, and when to bring in help

Even after a clean repair, a vehicle with a crash on its history report sells for less, and California's three-year property-damage window¹² leaves room to pursue that loss. How diminished value works in California is covered here: diminished value in California.

Not every crash needs a lawyer. But if you were seriously hurt, if the other side is disputing fault, if a government entity or a commercial truck is involved, or if the insurer is using comparative fault to shrink your payout, get advice well before the two-year clock runs out. You can start with the legal directory.

This article is general information about California law, not legal advice.

Sources

1. California Vehicle Code § 16025 (information exchange after a crash). https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=VEH&sectionNum=16025.

2. California Vehicle Code § 20008 (written report within 24 hours when injury or death). https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=VEH&sectionNum=20008.

3. California Vehicle Code § 16000 (SR-1 accident report to the DMV). https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=VEH&sectionNum=16000.

4. California Highway Patrol, Collision Report (Form CHP 190). https://www.chp.ca.gov/notify-chp/collision-report-chp-190/

5. California DMV, Insurance Requirements for Vehicle Registration. https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/vehicle-registration/insurance-requirements/

6. Li v. Yellow Cab Co. (1975) 13 Cal.3d 804. https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1139343/li-v-yellow-cab-co/

7. California Vehicle Code § 16056 (minimum financial responsibility limits). https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=VEH&sectionNum=16056.

8. California Insurance Code § 11580.2 (uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage). https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=11580.2&lawCode=INS

9. California Civil Code § 3333.4 (Proposition 213 bar on non-economic damages). https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&sectionNum=3333.4.

10. California Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1 (two-year limit for injury and wrongful death). https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=335.1&lawCode=CCP

11. California Government Code § 911.2 (six-month claim deadline against a public entity). https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=GOV&sectionNum=911.2.

12. California Code of Civil Procedure § 338(c)(1) (three-year limit for property damage). https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=338.&lawCode=CCP

13. California Business and Professions Code § 25602 (general immunity of alcohol sellers). https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=BPC&sectionNum=25602.

14. California Business and Professions Code § 25602.1 (liability for serving an obviously intoxicated minor). https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=BPC&sectionNum=25602.1.

15. California Civil Code § 3294 (punitive damages, clear and convincing standard). https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&sectionNum=3294.

16. California Vehicle Code § 27803 (universal motorcycle helmet requirement). https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=VEH&sectionNum=27803.

17. California Vehicle Code § 21658.1 (lane splitting). https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=VEH&sectionNum=21658.1.

18. California Vehicle Code §§ 23123 and 23123.5 (handheld phone and texting ban, base fines). https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=VEH&sectionNum=23123.5.

19. California Civil Code § 3333.2 (MICRA non-economic damages cap, medical malpractice only). https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&sectionNum=3333.2.