Two claims, two contracts
After a collision there are two insurance relationships, and they work differently:
- Third-party claim — against the at-fault driver's liability policy. It pays only after fault and damages are established, and it pays what is owed, up to the policy limits.
- First-party claim — against your own policy: collision coverage for your car, medical payments coverage where carried, and uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage, which steps in when the at-fault driver has no coverage or too little.
UM coverage must be offered with every California policy and applies unless waived in writing (Insurance Code §11580.2) — the provision that matters in hit-and-run and uninsured-driver collisions.
The minimum limits — SB 1107
Senate Bill 1107 (Stats. 2022, ch. 717) raised California's minimum liability limits for the first time in decades. For policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2025, the minimums are $30,000 for bodily injury to one person, $60,000 for bodily injury per accident, and $15,000 for property damage (Vehicle Code §16056, as amended; Insurance Code §11580.1b). Policies issued earlier may still carry the older 15/30/5 floors until their first renewal on or after that date. The same statute schedules a further increase, to 50/100/25, for January 1, 2035.
The structure of a third-party claim
| Stage | What happens | What it produces |
|---|---|---|
| Fault | Which driver was negligent, and by what percentage. California applies pure comparative negligence — recovery is reduced by your own share of fault, not eliminated by it. | The liability decision |
| Damages | Economic losses (bills, wages) and non-economic harm, each documented from the record. | The demand |
| Negotiation | Exchange between the claim and the insurer, bounded at the top by policy limits. | Settlement or suit |
What the policy limits mean in practice
The at-fault driver's bodily-injury limit is a ceiling on the third-party claim, not a target. A $30,000 per-person policy — the post-SB 1107 floor — caps what that policy pays for one person's injuries. Where the at-fault driver carries no coverage or the floor is not enough, UM/UIM coverage on your own policy is the second line of the structure. The fault file explains how the percentages are decided.
What this desk does not do
No settlement averages, no "what your case is worth" calculators, no invented numbers. Value is established the slow way: liability, documented damages, and negotiation. Any average found online is a guess wearing a number — this desk explains the structure instead.
Notice is prompt, not procrastinated. Policies set their own notice schedules; the record built in the first weeks after a crash is what makes the claim concrete. Whether to accept any offer is a legal question — this desk gives no advice.