News & Articles

A California property owner is not automatically liable when someone falls on their premises. Liability depends on whether the owner knew or reasonably should have known, that a dangerous condition existed and failed to fix it or warn about it in time. That knowledge requirement is called notice, and in most contested slip and fall claims […]

Legal Snapshot Legal Topic: Motorcycle accident fault allocation and the failure-to-see defence Case Stage: Pre-litigation, insurance negotiation, and civil trial Primary Legal Issue: Comparative negligence and duty to maintain a proper lookout Primary Authority: California Civil Code § 1714; Li v. Yellow Cab Co., 13 Cal.3d 804 (1975) Date Legal Authority Last Reviewed: 2025 A […]

California law requires every motorcycle rider and passenger to wear a safety helmet that meets federal standards. Riding without a compliant helmet does not bar an injury claim, and it does not reduce overall damages across the board. Under California’s pure comparative fault system, a helmet defense is a targeted argument: the at-fault party can […]

Short answer: Whether you must give a recorded statement in California depends entirely on which insurer is asking. The at-fault driver’s insurance company has no contractual authority over you; you are not their policyholder, and you are not required to give them a recorded statement. Your own insurer is different. California auto policies nearly always […]

A deposition is a formal, sworn, out-of-court proceeding in which a witness answers questions from attorneys while a court reporter creates a verbatim transcript. In a California personal injury case, depositions are authorized by the Civil Discovery Act, specifically California Code of Civil Procedure sections 2025.010 through 2025.620. [1] The testimony carries the same legal […]

A time-limited demand in California is a pre-litigation offer to settle a personal injury, property damage, bodily injury, or wrongful death claim against a tortfeasor within the insurer’s available policy limits, conditioned on acceptance within a specified deadline. Under Code of Civil Procedure sections 999 through 999.5, effective January 1, 2023, a claimant who sends a […]

When a commercial truck crash seriously injures someone on I-405 or SR-73 near Irvine, the first question at the scene is “who is responsible.” The more financially significant question quickly becomes “which insurance policy, or policies, actually fund a recovery, and up to how much?” Federal law sets minimum financial responsibility levels for interstate motor […]

No. A traffic citation issued at the scene and the fault opinion written into a CHP 555 collision report are generally not admissible in a California civil trial to prove negligence. The officer did not witness most crashes, and California law treats the officer’s lay conclusions about who caused the collision as inadmissible opinion evidence. […]

Under California law, a pavement crack, raised slab, or pothole is not automatically dangerous just because someone tripped on it. California Government Code section 830.2 allows a court to decide, as a matter of law, that a defect is so minor, trivial, or insignificant that no reasonable person would consider it a substantial risk of […]

In California, fault in a chain-reaction collision is not assigned automatically to the driver who struck first. Instead, every driver whose negligence contributed to the crash may bear a percentage of responsibility for the harm caused. California follows a system of pure comparative fault, which means a jury or insurer must examine the conduct of each […]