Vehicle Damage and Injury Claims a Month After a Crash

Attorney Answer

A month is not late — but two different clocks are already running on what happened, and they are not the same length. In California a claim for damage to a vehicle gets three years under Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 338(c)(1), which covers an action for injuring goods or chattels. A claim for a personal injury gets only two, under Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1: "Within two years: An action for assault, battery, or injury to, or for the death of, an individual caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another." People routinely assume the longer period covers everything. It does not, and the shorter one is the one that matters most.

Who pays turns on fault. Cal. Civ. Code § 1714(a) provides: "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." If you think part of the crash was on you, that is not a reason to drop it. California applies pure comparative fault: your share reduces the recovery in proportion and never bars it, as the California Supreme Court applied and reaffirmed in Daly v. General Motors Corp., 20 Cal. 3d 725 (1978).

What you can be paid is set by Cal. Civ. Code § 3333 — the amount that will compensate for all the detriment proximately caused, whether or not it could have been anticipated. On a vehicle claim that reaches beyond the repair bill or the value of the car: towing and storage, the cost of getting around while it was off the road, and income you lost if you use the vehicle for work. Those consequential losses are commonly left out of a first offer, and they are recoverable only if you have kept the receipts.

Insurers work to their own deadlines under California's claims regulations. Under Cal. Code Regs. tit. 10, § 2695.5(e), an insurer must acknowledge a claim, provide the necessary forms and reasonable assistance and begin any necessary investigation within fifteen calendar days of notice, and under § 2695.7(b) it must accept or deny the claim, in whole or in part, within forty calendar days of receiving proof of claim. If yours has gone quiet, those are the rules to hold it to.

What you can do

1. Report the crash to your own insurer if you have not already. A month of silence is survivable; six is harder to explain.

2. Photograph the damage before anything is repaired, and keep the police report number, the other driver's information and any witness details.

3. Get your own written repair estimate rather than relying only on the one the insurer produces.

4. Keep every receipt — towing, storage, a rental or rides, and any work you missed because the car was gone.

5. If you have had any physical symptoms since the crash, get examined now. A month with no medical record is the first thing an adjuster will point at, and the injury clock is the shorter one.

6. If an offer arrives that you do not understand, or is below what a comparable vehicle costs, ask for the written itemization the regulations require before you accept it, and speak with a local attorney before signing any release.

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

⏱ Time limits apply. Damage to a vehicle runs on Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 338(c)(1)'s three years; a personal injury claim runs on the two years in Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1. If a city, county, state or transit vehicle was involved, a far shorter deadline applies instead — Cal. Gov't Code § 911.2(a) generally requires a written claim within six months of accrual. When each period began depends on your facts, so have a local attorney check the dates rather than counting from the day of the crash yourself. Separate from any claim deadline, California requires a driver involved in the crash to report it to the DMV on form SR-1 within 10 days when any one person's property damage exceeds $1,000 or anyone is hurt, regardless of fault and regardless of whether police attended or a report was made (Cal. Veh. Code § 16000(a)) — and if that report was never filed, raise it with your lawyer or the DMV now, because an unfiled report can lead to license suspension.