Fault and liability after a San Diego crash

The rules of the road are the fault rules

Fault in a California collision is measured against the Vehicle Code's duties. The statutes most often at issue:

• Basic speed law (§22350) — no speed is lawful that is not reasonable for the conditions.
• Lane-change safety (§22107) — a vehicle may not move from a lane until the movement can be made with reasonable safety.
• Right-of-way (§§21800–21802) — the yield duties at uncontrolled intersections, left turns, and stop signs.
• Red signals (§21453) — a driver facing a steady circular red must stop before the limit line.
• Following distance (§21703) — the rear vehicle's spacing duty.

A collision is the moment these duties collide. Which driver breached which duty — and by how much — is the fault question, and it is answered from the record: the police report's diagrams, the photographs, the physical evidence, the statements.

Comparative fault — Li v. Yellow Cab

California applies pure comparative negligence, adopted by the California Supreme Court in Li v. Yellow Cab Co., 13 Cal.3d 804 (1975), under Civil Code §1714. The rule: a claimant's recovery is reduced by the claimant's own percentage of fault — but not eliminated by it. A claimant found 40 percent at fault recovers 60 percent of the damages; a claimant found 90 percent at fault still recovers 10 percent. The percentages are findings made from evidence, not negotiations at the scene.

Evidence decides the percentages

What a driver says at the scene becomes part of the record, so scene statements should be factual — what was seen, where the vehicles were, what the signals showed. The percentages are decided later, from the whole file: the crash file is the raw material, and the claims file is the structure the percentages feed.