Pedestrian Injury Claims After Being Hit by a Car

Attorney Answer

With four words to go on, no one can tell you what your claim is worth or how fault will land — but the framework California applies is short, and the steps that protect a claim are the same in almost every version of this. Here is both.

The rule that decides responsibility is Civil Code § 1714(a): "Everyone is responsible, not only for the result of his or her willful acts, but also for an injury occasioned to another by his or her want of ordinary care or skill in the management of his or her property or person, except so far as the latter has, willfully or by want of ordinary care, brought the injury upon himself or herself." Whoever failed to use ordinary care answers for what that failure caused. The closing clause accounts for your own conduct, and California treats it as pure comparative fault: if a share of responsibility is attributed to you, the recovery is reduced in proportion to that share and is never eliminated (Daly v. General Motors Corp., 20 Cal. 3d 725 (1978)). There is no percentage at which a California claim simply stops.

If you were on foot, Vehicle Code § 21950 is the provision that usually sets the terms. It requires a driver to yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crossing within a marked crosswalk or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection, and requires a driver approaching such a pedestrian to exercise all due care and reduce speed. It also asks something of pedestrians — subdivision (b) requires due care and bars stepping suddenly from a curb into the path of a vehicle so close as to be an immediate hazard. Subdivision (d) then makes clear that the pedestrian's duty does not relieve the driver of the duty of due care. Note that an unmarked crosswalk can exist at an intersection with nothing painted on the roadway, so "there was no crosswalk" is not always the end of the question.

What you can recover is measured by Civil Code § 3333: "For the breach of an obligation not arising from contract, the measure of damages, except where otherwise expressly provided by this Code, is the amount which will compensate for all the detriment proximately caused thereby, whether it could have been anticipated or not." In practice that reaches medical treatment, future care, lost income, and the human consequences of the injury.

What you can do

1. Get seen by a doctor if you have not been, and keep every record and bill. A gap between the collision and the first treatment is the argument insurers reach for first.

2. Get the traffic collision report number from the agency that responded and request a copy of the report.

3. Write down nothing for the insurance company, but do preserve what already exists: photos from the scene, the driver's information, any witness contact details, and the clothing or equipment you had with you.

4. If there is video — a business camera, a doorbell, an intersection camera — ask for it to be preserved now, in writing. Footage is overwritten quickly.

5. Report the claim to the driver's insurer, and tell your own insurer as well if you carry a policy; medical payments and uninsured motorist coverage can matter, and notice is normally required whether or not you use it.

6. Ask a local lawyer before you give a recorded statement or sign anything, and bring the report and the medical records to that conversation.

7. Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts with a local attorney is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.

⏱ Time limits apply. A claim for injury runs on Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1, which gives two years for an action for injury caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another; damage to property runs on § 338(c)(1)'s three years; and a claim involving a public entity or a government vehicle is governed by a much shorter deadline. Which applies depends on facts this page does not have. Have a local attorney confirm the deadline for your situation rather than calculating it yourself.