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California Injury Claims Under Pure Comparative Fault and No General Damage Cap
If someone else's carelessness hurt you in California, you can recover your medical bills, your lost income, and your pain, even if you were partly at fault.
California has used pure comparative fault since 1975, so a share of the blame lowers an award instead of erasing it.
Outside medical malpractice, no California statute caps what a jury can award for pain and suffering.
Most injury lawsuits must be filed within two years, and a claim against a city, county, school district, or state agency has a first step due in six months.
Lawsuit Legal answers questions around the clock, in English or Spanish.
Call (888) 713-6653 if you have questions about a California injury claim.
- Pure comparative fault under Li v. Yellow Cab Co. (1975): your share of fault reduces the award and never bars it
- No cap on pain and suffering outside medical malpractice, where the MICRA limit for an injury is $470,000 in 2026
- Two years to sue for most injuries under CCP § 335.1, and six months to present a claim to a public entity under Government Code § 911.2
- Request a Free Case Review, in English or Spanish
How California Splits Fault and Damages When Several Parties Share the Blame
The California Supreme Court threw out the all-or-nothing contributory negligence rule in 1975 and replaced it with pure comparative fault.[1] A jury assigns each party a share of the fault, and your damages are reduced by yours.
If a jury values your case at $400,000 and puts 25 percent of the blame on you, the award is $300,000. At 60 percent, it is $160,000. No percentage of fault bars the claim outright, which puts California among the few states that let a mostly-at-fault person recover anything, as our side-by-side of comparative negligence rules in every state shows.
Proposition 51, passed by voters in 1986, changed how the award is collected when more than one party is at fault. Under Civil Code § 1431.2, each defendant pays only its own percentage of your non-economic damages, the pain, suffering, and lost enjoyment of life, while every at-fault defendant stays responsible for the full amount of your economic damages, the medical bills and lost earnings.[2]
When one defendant is uninsured or cannot pay, its share of your pain and suffering may go uncollected, but the defendants who can pay still owe every dollar of your medical bills and wage loss, except that in lawsuits filed on or after January 1, 2027, a public entity found 15 percent or less at fault pays only its own share of economic damages too. Naming the driver's employer, the property owner, or the maintenance contractor alongside the person who caused the injury is how a California claim protects the non-economic side.
Behind both rules sits Civil Code § 1714, which makes everyone answerable for injuries caused by a lack of ordinary care, a duty the Supreme Court has applied broadly since Rowland v. Christian in 1968.
Every point of blame an adjuster assigns to you in the first phone call comes straight off what you take home, so the split deserves a challenge with the photographs, the witnesses, and the crash report.
- California Car Accident Claims
- Truck Crash Claims in California
- California Construction Injury Lawyers
- California Medical Malpractice Claims
- California Wrongful Death Claims
- Pedestrian and Bicycle Claims in California
- Lane Splitting and Motorcycle Fault in California
- California Nursing Home Neglect Claims
- Catastrophic Injury Lawyers
How Much Is a California Personal Injury Case Worth?
A California injury case is worth your full economic losses plus a jury's measure of your pain and suffering, reduced by any share of fault you carry, and limited in practice by the insurance and assets behind the people responsible.
"Outside medical malpractice, no California statute caps pain and suffering."
- Medical expenses. Past bills are measured by what was paid or is still owed, not the hospital's full list price, under Howell v. Hamilton Meats & Provisions (2011).[3] Future care is proven through your treating doctors and, in a serious case, a life care plan.
- Lost earnings and earning capacity. Wages already missed, and the income an injury takes from the rest of a career.
- Pain, suffering, and lost enjoyment of life. Uncapped in every California injury case except medical malpractice, where the limits are set out on our page about the 2026 MICRA cap figures.
- Punitive damages. Available under Civil Code § 3294 when clear and convincing evidence shows malice, oppression, or fraud, such as a driver who chose to drive drunk, the standard covered on our page about punitive damages in California injury cases. The bar that served that driver is usually immune, with exceptions for serving an obviously intoxicated minor that are explained in California's dram shop law.
Insurance sets the practical ceiling more often than the injury does. California raised its minimum auto liability limits for policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2025, to $30,000 per person, $60,000 per accident, and $15,000 for property damage, the first increase in decades.[4] A serious injury passes $30,000 in the first days of treatment, so the case turns on what else exists: the at-fault driver's employer, an umbrella policy, a commercial carrier, or your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage.
One rule cuts the other way. A driver who was uninsured at the time of the crash generally cannot recover pain and suffering at all, under the 1996 ballot measure explained on our page about Proposition 213 and uninsured drivers.
Which of those layers exists in your case, and which company stands behind each defendant, decides the ceiling long before anyone argues about the number.
In California, Personal Injury Claims May Arise From Incidents Such As:
- Trip, Slip and Fall
- Medical Malpractice
- Pedestrian Accidents
- Bicycle Accidents
- Uber/Lyft Accidents
- Construction Accidents
- Car Accidents
- Truck Accidents
- Wrongful Death
Two Years to Sue, or Six Months to Claim Against a Public Entity
Most California injury lawsuits must be filed within two years of the injury under Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1, but a claim against a public entity must first be presented to that entity within six months under Government Code § 911.2.[5]
| Type of claim | Deadline | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Car, truck, fall, assault, or other injury | 2 years from the injury | CCP § 335.1 |
| Wrongful death | 2 years from the death | CCP § 335.1 |
| Medical malpractice | 1 year from discovery, and no later than 3 years from the injury; a 90-day notice of intent can extend the last days | CCP §§ 340.5, 364 |
| City, county, school district, transit agency, or state agency | 6 months to present a written claim; then generally 6 months from a written rejection to sue | Gov. Code §§ 911.2, 945.6 |
| Uninsured motorist claim on your own policy | 2 years to sue the driver, settle, or demand arbitration | Ins. Code § 11580.2(i) |
| A child's injury | Paused until 18 for most claims, but not for a claim against a public entity | CCP § 352 |
The government claim is the deadline people miss. A crash with a Metro bus, a fall on a city sidewalk, an injury at a public school, or a surgery at a county hospital all start the six-month clock, and the claim has to reach the right office in the right form, as our page on the six-month government claim deadline lays out entity by entity.
Every other clock, with its exceptions and the traps that shorten it, sits on our page covering California filing deadlines for injury claims.
A missed deadline ends the claim whatever its merit, and the six-month government clock often runs out before treatment does.
Three California Injury Rules That Changed on January 1, 2026
Survival claims. When a person dies of their injuries, a survival action filed on or after January 1, 2026, can no longer recover the pain and suffering they endured before death. Cases filed from 2022 through 2025 kept that recovery. The family's own wrongful death damages are unaffected, as our page on survival damages after the 2026 change explains.
Malpractice caps. The MICRA limit on non-economic damages rose to $470,000 for an injury and $650,000 for a death, and it climbs again every January 1 until 2033.
Uber and Lyft trips. The uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage that protects a rideshare passenger while in the car fell from $1,000,000 to $60,000 per person, and a separate 2026 law changes how lien-based medical bills are valued in rideshare and delivery-app cases for crashes on or after January 1, 2027. Our page on California rideshare accident law after SB 623 sorts out which rule applies when.
Each of these changes turns on a date, so the date of your filing or your crash belongs in the first conversation.
Southern California Injury Cases and the Defendants Behind Them
Los Angeles County Superior Court received 48,117 of the state's 108,403 unlimited civil filings for personal injury, property damage, and wrongful death in fiscal year 2024-25, close to half the state's total in one court system.[6] The cases that bring people to us usually have a defendant with its own rules.
The county where the injury happened decides the courthouse and the claim offices, and we cover Los Angeles County injury claims and San Diego County injury claims on their own pages.
- Trucks. Port drayage on the 710, warehouse freight on the 60 and the 10, and the grade on Cajon Pass, covered on our page for California truck crash claims.
- Construction sites. Falls and struck-by injuries, where a 1993 Supreme Court decision limits who can be sued and its exceptions decide the case. See construction injury claims in California.
- Kaiser Permanente. Malpractice claims by Kaiser members go to private arbitration rather than a jury, a process described on our page about Kaiser malpractice arbitration.
- Pedestrians and cyclists. Turning drivers, unsafe passes, and dooring account for most of these crashes, covered on our page about pedestrian and bike crash claims in California.
- Dog bites. Under Civil Code § 3342 the owner is liable for a bite in a public place or where the person bitten was lawfully present, even if the dog had never bitten anyone, as set out in California's dog bite law.
- Nursing homes. Bedsores, falls, and weight loss in a facility can support claims under state resident-rights and elder abuse laws, explained on our page about California nursing home neglect.
- Hit-and-run and underinsured drivers. Your own policy often pays, under rules set out on our page about uninsured motorist and hit-and-run claims.
- Police chases. A bystander hit by a fleeing driver can sometimes claim against the pursuing agency, which is immune under Vehicle Code § 17004.7 only if it adopted a compliant pursuit policy and trains officers on it every year, as explained in police chase injury claims in California.
- Deaths. Only certain relatives can sue, and they sue together, as our page on who can file a California wrongful death claim explains.
- Children. A judge has to approve any settlement of a child's claim through the process on our page about a minor's compromise.
- Hospital bills. A hospital lien can claim part of a settlement, within limits covered on our page about hospital and Medi-Cal liens.
Identifying that defendant early decides which deadline applies, which insurer pays, and which rules govern the evidence.
What a § 6147 Contingency Agreement Should Tell You Before You Sign
California requires every contingency fee agreement to be in writing and to state the percentage, how case costs affect the fee and your recovery, and that the fee is not set by law and can be negotiated. The details, and the medical malpractice limits, are on our page about California contingency fee agreements.
You can also change lawyers at any point, and the first firm is paid out of the same fee rather than on top of it. Our page on switching personal injury lawyers in California walks through the paperwork.
If you already have a lawyer and an offer in hand, a second opinion on a California settlement offer costs you nothing.
The agreement you sign controls the fee, the costs, and who decides when to settle, so it is worth reading line by line before the first meeting ends.