California Personal Injury Lawyer

Deciding how to proceed after an accident or injury can be complicated. You may struggle even to find time to consider your options when you’re dealing with doctor’s appointments, bill collectors, and difficulty getting around because of your injuries.

Even if you do have the time, it’s hard to know what to do when you’re not an insurance or legal expert (and most people aren’t). Often, clients tell us they just want someone to explain the options or answer specific questions.

At the CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm, we’re always available for a free consultation about your personal injury situation. We’ll learn about your injuries, answer your questions, and identify all available solutions.

There is no obligation, and if we take your case, you won’t owe us anything until we win or settle it, so there is no risk in learning more today.

California’s car insurance requirements are relatively low compared to many other states: You are required to have $15,000 in bodily injury liability per person, $30,000 per accident, and $5,000 in property damage liability.

You are not required to buy uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage (UM/UI), but given how low the requirement for liability insurance is, we highly recommend you invest in UM/UI coverage. If you are in an accident and your damages exceed the limits of the at-fault driver’s liability insurance, UM/UI is the most reliable way to cover additional damages.

In some situations, we can sue the driver directly or make a claim against a third party, but these solutions are not a good fit in every situation. It’s also helpful to keep in mind that about 16.6 percent of California drivers are completely uninsured.

You may also want to purchase Medical Payments, Collision, and Comprehensive coverage, which are optional but highly beneficial in some accidents. Medical Payments (sometimes called MedPay) will cover your own medical expenses in an accident, regardless of fault.

Everyone makes mistakes, and you should not assume that you will never cause an accident, even if you drive carefully. MedPay is also helpful if you weren’t at fault, but there simply isn’t enough evidence available to prove it.

Collision coverage is similar to no-fault insurance, which pays for accident damage to your vehicle regardless of fault. Comprehensive covers damage that may not be your fault but also can’t be attributed to another driver—theft, vandalism, fire damage, weather damage, collisions with wildlife, etc.

If your insurance claim has been rejected, please save a copy of the rejection letter and show it to a personal injury lawyer. We’ll go over the details of your accident or injury and work to determine if there is a way to appeal the decision.

In many cases, we can successfully fight the denial and obtain the compensation our clients deserve.

Fault is a major issue in both the undervaluing and rejection of insurance claims. Often, when clients come in with an insurance problem, it can be attributed to a dispute about who is to blame for the injury.

You may believe the other party is at fault, but they might think you are responsible. But as we discussed earlier, it’s entirely possible that both parties shared fault.

Even in this situation, there is room for significant disagreement. For example, if you’re in a car accident, the other driver’s insurance company might decide that you are 40 percent responsible.

But what if your contributions really only added up to 10 or 20 percent? Or, what if you didn’t contribute to the accident at all?

Who makes the final decision?

If you were to go to court, a jury or judge would decide, but most personal injury cases are successfully resolved out of court. Frequently, the insurance company decides.

In a car accident case, both drivers’ insurance companies may get involved and will ultimately negotiate an agreement together. Unfortunately, the insurance companies’ agreement isn’t always in the best interests of the injured party.

In other types of insurance claims, there may only be one insurance company. For example, if you fall and hurt yourself on your neighbor’s property, you might file a claim on their homeowner’s insurance.

In this case, there is no reason to file a claim on your homeowner’s insurance because your neighbor wasn’t hurt, and the accident didn’t happen on your property. Ultimately, the insurance adjuster who receives your claim will decide if you shared some fault for the accident or not.

If they overestimate your portion of responsibility, that could result in a smaller settlement for you.

When you have help from an experienced personal injury lawyer, we’ll fight to show you had little or no responsibility for your injuries. Our investigative team will immediately begin seeking new evidence to prove your case, including:

• Witness testimony. Even if you don’t recall seeing any witnesses at the scene, we’ll canvas the area and talk to residents in case anyone did see something.
• Photo or video evidence. We know it isn’t always convenient to grab your phone and take pictures after an accident or injury, but if you can, it might be helpful to your case. If possible, take pictures of your injuries, any property damage (such as the damage to both vehicles in a car accident), the area where the accident occurred, and the surrounding area as well. If you were unable to take pictures, we’ll visit the scene and try to locate videos or photos from any nearby cameras—today, many people have doorbell or security cameras, and in some cases, we can actually find a video of the accident. However, the more time passes, the more likely it is that any video from that day will be deleted, so please contact a lawyer as soon as you can.
• Electronic evidence. Depending on the situation, we may look at phone or other electronic records. Event Data Recorder or EDR data from both vehicles is often used in car accident cases, as it can tell us the speed and direction of each vehicle and the actions taken by the drivers.
• Medical records. If there is a dispute about how your injury occurred, your medical records could be beneficial in showing what happened. Sometimes, we will also consult with medical experts who can testify about how specific injuries happen.
• Expert testimony. Aside from medical experts, we might also use testimony from experts in other fields who can shed light on how an accident or injury transpired. For example, if you were injured at a mall due to their renovation efforts, a construction expert might speak to the hazardous condition that caused you to fall.
• Police report or other official reports. These aren’t available in every kind of personal injury case but are typically created after a car accident and sometimes after other events, such as a boating accident. Police reports are usually based on evidence at the scene and statements from the involved parties and witnesses. A car accident report will include the officer’s opinion of what happened based on the available evidence, but sometimes the evidence is limited. For this reason, it’s possible to challenge the police report if we can find evidence to support another narrative.

It’s impossible to answer this question without knowing more about the particular case. Some personal injury claims can be settled in a few months, while others could take two years or more. The time frame varies widely depending on a number of factors:

• How much is your case worth? In general, the insurance company will be more invested in fighting a high-value claim than a less expensive one. If your claim is only worth a few thousand dollars, and you have a lawyer who has gathered a lot of evidence in your favor, the insurance company probably won’t want to spend time and money trying to lower the cost or get out of paying entirely. It will be easier and probably cheaper for them to just pay a fair settlement and be done with it. On the other hand, if you were severely injured and your case is worth six of seven figures, they’re more likely to put effort into fighting it, which means it will take longer to settle the case.
• How complicated is the case? Sometimes, this depends on the available evidence. If there is ample evidence in your favor, it’s likely that your case will be easier to settle and will probably be completed more quickly. Unfortunately, sometimes, the evidence is less clear-cut, and there is room for the other party or the insurance adjuster to argue about its meaning to the case. Of course, this is why we work so hard in the investigation phase of your claim, so we can create the strongest possible case, but we are still limited to the evidence we can find. In some situations, there is little available evidence, and the insurance adjuster may demand more documentation or claim the evidence isn’t convincing enough. These cases tend to take longer to resolve.
• More concerns about fault. Sometimes, the insurance adjuster will still disagree about the injured party’s percentage of fault in spite of strong evidence. For example, they might agree that their client ran a red light and our client was going ten miles over the speed limit but disagree about how fault should be apportioned. They could argue their client is only 50 or 60 percent responsible, while we might suggest that number should be much higher. It can take weeks or months of negotiation to reach a fair agreement in these cases.
• The insurance company’s general responsiveness. We will work as quickly as possible on your case, but we can’t force the insurance company to do the same. Sometimes, we wait a long time to hear back from the insurance company. Naturally, we stay on top of your case and follow up as needed, and if necessary, we’ll even take legal action, but we can’t guarantee they will respond in a timely manner. In some cases, the insurance carrier’s lengthy response times can elongate a case by a few weeks or months.
• The necessity of going to court. As we discussed earlier, courtroom trials are not actually common in personal injury cases. Even when we file a lawsuit with the court, we can still negotiate a settlement before the case ever goes to trial, and we usually try to do so. Trials are time-consuming and stressful for the injured party, and if we can achieve a reasonable settlement without one, it’s often better for the client. However, in situations where the at-fault party and/or their insurance company won’t relent on key points and a fair settlement can’t be reached, we are prepared to argue your case in trial. The trial itself could take days or weeks, depending on the situation, and there may be a considerable waiting period before the court’s calendar has an opening. Discovery, jury selection, and other pre-trial activities also lengthen the process, so if your case does go to court, you can expect a delay.

After reviewing your case, your lawyer should be able to give you a generally expected time frame for how long it might take, but please be advised that this can change based on factors outside of our control. We’ll always keep you updated on what’s happening with your case and respond to your questions.