WHAT IF THE ACCIDENT WAS
PARTLY MY FAULT?

The rule

California is a pure comparative negligence state. If you're found 30% responsible for an accident, you recover 70% of your damages. If you're found 80% responsible, you still recover 20%.

This is more generous than most states. Many use modified comparative negligence, which bars recovery entirely once a plaintiff crosses 50% or 51%. California has no such cutoff. Being mostly at fault reduces your case substantially, but it doesn't eliminate it.

How fault gets assigned

There's no formula. Fault percentages come from argument and evidence: the police report, witness accounts, physical evidence, traffic law violations, vehicle damage patterns, and sometimes accident reconstruction.

Adjusters assign an initial percentage early, and it is almost always higher than the evidence supports. That number then drives every offer that follows. Pushing back on it early, with evidence, is one of the more valuable things a lawyer does in a disputed case.

Where it comes up

Intersection collisions where both drivers claim a green light.

Lane change and merge crashes where positioning is disputed.

Pedestrian cases where the pedestrian crossed outside a marked crosswalk. Note that this does not eliminate a claim — drivers still owe a duty of care, and a pedestrian's share may be modest.

Slip and fall cases, where property owners argue the hazard was open and obvious or that the person was distracted.

Motorcycle cases, where insurers frequently assign fault to the rider by default, particularly around lane splitting. Lane splitting is legal in California, and the fact that a rider was doing it is not itself negligence.

Seatbelt use. Failure to wear one doesn't establish fault for the crash, but it can reduce damages where it contributed to the severity of injuries.

The related trap: uninsured drivers

Separate from comparative fault, California law bars an uninsured driver from recovering non-economic damages — pain and suffering — even when the crash was entirely someone else's fault. Economic damages like medical bills and lost wages remain recoverable, but the largest component of many claims is gone.

There are exceptions, including where the at-fault driver was under the influence. If you were driving without insurance, this is the first thing to raise with a lawyer.

What not to do

Don't concede fault to an adjuster. Apologizing at the scene, speculating about what you might have done differently, or accepting a percentage in conversation all get used later.

Fault allocation is a legal determination made on evidence. It is not something to negotiate away on a phone call three days after a crash.