California Personal Injury Intake: Deadlines and Fault Rules

This guide is for law firms. If you were injured, contact a licensed California attorney.

Does California use comparative or contributory negligence?

California applies pure comparative fault: an injured person’s recovery is reduced by their share of fault, but never barred by it. The California Supreme Court adopted the rule in Li v. Yellow Cab Co. in 1975, rejecting the all-or-nothing contributory negligence rule California courts had applied before. A caller who was mostly at fault can still have a claim worth reviewing, because the other party’s share remains recoverable.

For intake, pure comparative fault argues against screening callers out on liability alone. A California intake specialist should take the full account even when the caller admits running a light or looking at a phone, and leave the evaluation to the attorney. The facts that matter are the same as anywhere: the scene, the police report, witnesses, and what each driver said afterward. What changes is that an unfavorable answer is a reason to record carefully, not a reason to end the call.

Source: Li v. Yellow Cab Co., 13 Cal. 3d 804 (1975), Wikipedia (1975)

Is California a no-fault state?

No. California is an at-fault state, so the injured person claims against the at-fault driver’s liability insurance. The Insurance Information Institute’s list of the twelve states with no-fault auto insurance laws does not include California. California callers will not have a PIP claim of the Florida or New York kind, though they may have medical payments coverage on their own policy.

That shifts California auto intake toward the other side’s coverage. The intake call should capture the other driver’s name and insurer from the exchange of information, the caller’s own carrier, and whether the other vehicle was a rideshare car, a delivery van or a company vehicle. Commercial and rideshare vehicles often carry different coverage from a personal policy, and the attorney will want to know which applies before the first letter goes out. The caller should not be asked to guess at limits.

Source: Background on: No-fault auto insurance, Insurance Information Institute

Which California deadlines can run out before the statute of limitations?

A California claim against a public entity for death or personal injury must be presented no later than six months after the cause of action accrues. Cal. Gov. Code § 911.2 sets that six-month period for claims relating to death or injury to the person, and one year for most other claims. The government claim comes before any lawsuit, so it can expire long before the two-year limitations period does.

California intake should ask whether a city bus, a Caltrans truck, a county vehicle or a school district vehicle was involved, and whether a fall or crash happened because of a public road, sidewalk or building. The caller often does not know the entity’s name. The dossier should record what they saw, such as the logo, the vehicle markings or the street, so the attorney can identify the entity and the claim deadline the next morning.

Source: Cal. Gov. Code § 911.2, California.Public.Law

Does California cap personal injury damages?

California caps non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases under MICRA, and the cap rises every year until 2033. Cal. Civ. Code § 3333.2, as amended, set a $350,000 limit against health care providers in non-death cases and a $500,000 limit in wrongful death cases, for cases filed on or after January 1, 2023. The non-death amounts increase by $40,000 each January 1 for 10 years, up to $750,000, and the death amounts by $50,000 a year up to $1,000,000.

The statute provides separate limits for health care providers, health care institutions and unaffiliated defendants. For an auto, trucking or premises case, MICRA does not apply. Intake matters here mainly for routing: a caller describing a hospital error or a surgical injury should be flagged as a medical negligence matter, because the caps, the notice rules and the economics of the case differ.

Source: Cal. Civ. Code § 3333.2, California.Public.Law

What does California guidance say about lawyers using AI?

Yes. The State Bar of California’s 2026 Practical Guidance on generative AI replaces its November 2023 guidance and adds rules for agentic AI. The guidance is issued by the Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct. It ties the duty of confidentiality to Rule 1.6 and Business and Professions Code § 6068(e)(1). Rule 1.6 replaced former Rule 3-100 when the current California Rules of Professional Conduct became operative on November 1, 2018, so older material citing Rule 3-100 is out of date.

The 2026 guidance says a lawyer must not deploy an agentic AI system in a way that allows autonomous external transmission of client information without appropriate safeguards and human review. For intake, that supports a model where the AI takes the call and an attorney reviews the result. Della’s dossiers go to the firm’s own dashboard for attorney review.

Sources: Practical Guidance for the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in the Practice of Law, State Bar of California, COPRAC (2026); California Rules of Professional Conduct (operative November 1, 2018), State Bar of California

Do California intake calls need recording consent?

California is an all-party consent state for recording phone calls, under Cal. Penal Code §§ 632, 632.7. All parties must consent to record a confidential communication (§ 632). For cellular and cordless calls, all parties must consent regardless of confidentiality. California’s Penal Code § 632 protects confidential communications and § 632.7 covers cellular and cordless calls, so the notice comes first on every call. Every Call Della plan includes a recording disclosure set for the firm’s state, and Della plays it before the caller describes their matter. Our call recording consent by state table covers all 50 states and DC.

Source: Reporter’s Recording Guide: California, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

What should a California intake call capture?

A California intake call should capture the facts that decide the deadline, the fault rule and the coverage, in the caller’s own words. The checklist below is the minimum for a California auto or premises matter. It is a list of facts to record, not questions to argue with the caller.

1. Incident date, city and county
2. Whether a public entity vehicle, road, sidewalk or building was involved, and any markings seen
3. Police or CHP report and any citation
4. Whether the other vehicle was a rideshare, delivery or company vehicle
5. Injuries, treatment so far, and whether the caller was admitted
6. The other driver’s insurer and the caller’s own carrier
7. Whether a health care provider’s error is involved
8. Whether the caller has signed anything with an insurer or spoken to another lawyer

How does Della handle California intake after hours?

Della, Call Della’s intake specialist, answers a California firm’s line in the firm’s name nights, weekends and holidays. She plays the recording disclosure, takes the full account without screening callers out on fault, and never gives legal advice. Each call becomes a dossier with a summary, urgency score, recording and transcript, reviewed by the firm. Urgent calls send an email alert to the attorney on call, on every plan.

Firms lose callers in the gap between the call and the reply. According to Lawyers Mutual NC (2019), reporting an ABA Law Practice Division secret-shopper study, lawyers took three or more days to reply to voicemails and online requests 42 percent of the time. See how Della runs after-hours personal injury intake, or compare California with other states in our personal injury rules by state table.