Blog

If you have suffered personal injury in a car accident that was not your fault you are entitled to be compensated for your medical bills, lost wages, and any other "out of pocket" expenses you had as well as a sum of money for pain and suffering and emotional distress. These latter two elements of damages are referred to in the legal profession as general damages.

Some years back Californians, weary of the effects of uninsured drivers upon the system as a whole, enacted what is known as Proposition 213. This law stands for the principal that if you were an injury victim in a car accident, you must show that your car had liability insurance coverage at the time of the accident in order to collect general damages from the driver who was at fault. This holds true even if you were not at fault at all in the car accident. It applies to the owner of the car who suffered personal injury as well as the driver of the car who suffered personal injury in the accident. In other words if you were involved in a car accident that was not your fault, suffered an injury, and were either the owner or driver of the car that was not at fault you must show there was liability insurance coverage on the car in order to be compensated for your general damages.

Passengers who are injured in an uninsured car that was not at fault in the car accident can still collect general damages(as well as their other damages)as long as they were not owners of the vehicle.

There are exceptions to Proposition 213. The most common one is if the driver of the car which was at fault was under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of the accident the driver or owner of the car which was not at fault can still collect general damages even if the car was uninsured at the time of the car accident.

Car accidents are the most common means by which people suffer personal injury and, thereby, have a personal injury case. Experienced personal injury attorneys, therefore, are expert at all phases of the car accident injury case as well as the laws surrounding such cases.

Proposition 213 was the subject of intense and protracted litigation surrounding its provisions at the time it was enacted. It is now settled law and applies to all personal injury car accident cases in California. Your personal injury attorney should be well familiar with its provisions and how it may affect your individual injury case.