By yaniv · 2026-05-14 · 7 min read
The adjuster calls early, the treatment gap opens quietly, and Proposition 213 catches uninsured drivers off guard. What actually matters in the first two weeks after a California collision.
By the time most people call a lawyer, the first two weeks have already happened. The adjuster has called. Somebody gave a recorded statement. There is a three week gap in the treatment records because the pain seemed to be getting better. None of that ends a case. All of it costs money, and all of it was avoidable.
Here is what matters in the order it comes up.
California requires you to report the collision to the DMV on form SR-1 within ten days if anyone was hurt or killed, or if property damage came to more than $1,000. Vehicle Code section 16000. That is a separate obligation from the police report and from telling your insurer, and people routinely assume one covers the others. It does not. The penalty is suspension of your license, which is an unforced error to hand the other side.
If officers came out, ask how to get the report. If nobody came out, write down the agency, the time, and what was said. A police report is not required to bring a claim. Its absence is simply something the defense will point at, so it helps to have your own record.
Adrenaline hides injuries. Neck and back symptoms from a rear-end collision often show up the next morning, sometimes later than that. Get examined early and describe everything that hurts, not just the worst of it, because the complaint you leave out of the first visit is the one an insurer later argues you invented.
Then keep the appointments. Treatment gaps are the most common argument we see against causation, and they are persuasive to a jury in a way that surprises clients. Stop treating for two months and the carrier's position writes itself: you got better, and whatever hurts now came from something else. If the obstacle is that you cannot afford care, say so out loud to your lawyer. There are ways to get treatment that do not require money up front.
The adjuster for the driver who hit you will call quickly and will be perfectly friendly. That person is paid by a company whose interests run against yours, and the recorded statement they want is taken before anyone knows how badly you are hurt. Your answers get locked in. Months later, when the MRI comes back, the transcript is what you have to live with.
You owe that carrier nothing. You do owe your own insurer prompt notice and cooperation, because your policy says so. Those are two different obligations to two different companies, and confusing them is common.
California bars an uninsured driver from recovering pain and suffering, even when the other driver caused the collision and even when liability is not seriously disputed. Civil Code section 3333.4, which came in with Proposition 213. Medical bills and lost wages are still recoverable. The part of the claim that is usually worth the most is not.
There are narrow exceptions. The most useful one is where the at-fault driver was convicted of driving under the influence. Outside of those, a lapse in coverage that saved a few hundred dollars in premiums routinely costs six figures in a serious case.
Photograph the vehicles, the intersection, the skid marks, and your injuries the same day. Get names and phone numbers for witnesses at the scene, because they scatter and are very hard to find later.
Video is the urgent one. Footage from a nearby business, a doorbell camera, or a commercial fleet vehicle is usually overwritten inside of a week or two. A preservation letter sent in the first days is often the only reason that video still exists when it matters. This is the single most time-sensitive thing a lawyer does early in a case, and it is why calling sooner is worth more than it sounds.
Two years from the date of injury for most personal injury claims in California. Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1.
Six months if a public entity is involved. A city bus, a county vehicle, a dangerous condition on public property: a written claim has to be presented to that entity within six months under Government Code section 911.2. Miss it and the claim is usually over before it starts. People do not realize the shorter clock applies until it has already run.
California uses pure comparative negligence. If you are found twenty percent responsible, you recover eighty percent of your damages. Not nothing. Adjusters are good at implying otherwise in the first phone call, and we have had people walk away from real claims because someone told them they were partly to blame.
This article is general information about California law. It is not legal advice and is not a substitute for advice from an attorney who knows the facts of your situation.
Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship with Yasmeh Law Group, and neither does contacting the firm. That relationship begins only after a conflicts check and a signed written engagement agreement. Do not send confidential information before then.
The statutes and deadlines described were accurate as understood on 2026-05-14. California law changes and any rule depends on the particular facts. Case results mentioned do not guarantee a similar outcome. Yasmeh Law Group practices only in California.
Serving Van Nuys, CA, Los Angeles County, and California. This page is informational and does not create an attorney-client relationship.