How fault, insurance and deadlines work after a crash, and where the three states part ways.
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The general rule in each state. The guide below covers the exceptions.
The first hours shape everything that follows, for your health and for the record of what happened. Stop, check on everyone involved, call 911 if anyone is hurt, and exchange information with the other driver. Take photos before the vehicles are moved if it is safe to do so, and get the names and numbers of anyone who saw it.
Then see a doctor, even if you feel mostly fine. Some injuries take a day or two to show, and a medical record made close to the crash is the clearest proof that the crash caused the injury.
The law also puts specific duties on every driver. These differ by state.
| California | Texas | Washington | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duties at the scene | Stop at once, give your name, address and vehicle registration, show your license if asked, and give reasonable help to anyone injured, including arranging for medical care.Cal. Veh. Code §§ 20001 to 20003 | Stop, stay at the scene, exchange your name, address, vehicle registration and insurance information, show your license if asked, and give reasonable help to anyone who is hurt.Tex. Transp. Code §§ 550.021 to 550.023 | Stop, give your name, address, insurance company, policy number and license plate, show your driver’s license, and give reasonable help to anyone injured. In a crash with only property damage, move the vehicles off the road as soon as you can. Moving them does not affect who is at fault.RCW 46.52.020 |
| Reporting the crash | Two separate reports. A driver in a crash that injures or kills someone must make sure a written report reaches the CHP or city police within 24 hours. And any crash with an injury, a death, or more than $1,000 in damage to one person’s property must be reported to the DMV within 10 days on form SR 1.Cal. Veh. Code §§ 16000, 20008 | Call the police right away if anyone is hurt or killed, or if a vehicle cannot be safely driven. Texas no longer has a state crash report for drivers to file. The investigating officer files the report (form CR-3) when there is an injury, a death, or apparent damage of $1,000 or more.Tex. Transp. Code §§ 550.026, 550.062, 550.065(a)(1)(B); S.B. 312, 85th Leg., R.S. (2017), §§ 74(2), 81 | If no officer investigates, a driver must file a collision report within four days when anyone is injured or killed, or when damage to any one person’s property is $1,000 or more.RCW 46.52.030; WAC 446-85-010 |
Our first 72 hours checklist walks through each step and adds your state's rules.
All three states are fault states. The driver who caused the crash is responsible for the harm, and that driver's liability insurance is the first place a claim goes. It pays for your medical care, lost income, vehicle damage and the effect of the injury on your life, up to the policy limit.
That limit is often the real ceiling on a claim. The minimums each state requires are modest, and a serious injury can exceed them quickly.
| California | Texas | Washington | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum liability insurance drivers must carry | $30,000 for the injury or death of one person, $60,000 for two or more people, and $15,000 for property damage, for policies issued or renewed since January 1, 2025. The older figures of $15,000, $30,000 and $5,000 no longer apply.Cal. Veh. Code § 16056(a)(2) | $30,000 for the injury or death of one person, $60,000 for two or more people, and $25,000 for property damage, in one collision.Tex. Transp. Code § 601.072(a-1) | $25,000 for the injury or death of one person, $50,000 for two or more people, and $10,000 for property damage, in one accident.RCW 46.29.090 |
| Coverage for your own medical bills | California does not require drivers to carry coverage for their own medical bills. Medical payments coverage is optional. Where a policy has it, it can pay for immediate medical care no matter who was at fault.California Department of Insurance, Automobile Insurance Information Guide | Personal injury protection (PIP) is part of every auto policy unless it was rejected in writing. The statute does not require an insurer to provide more than $2,500 per person, and PIP pays no matter who was at fault.Tex. Ins. Code §§ 1952.152, 1952.153, 1952.155 | Insurers must offer personal injury protection (PIP) with every auto policy, and it can only be declined in writing. The minimum benefits are $10,000 for medical and hospital care, plus limited amounts for lost income, household services and funeral costs.RCW 48.22.085; RCW 48.22.095 |
| Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage | Every auto liability policy includes uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage unless the insurer and a named insured removed or reduced it in a signed written agreement.Cal. Ins. Code § 11580.2(a) | An auto policy in Texas must include uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage unless a named insured rejected it in writing. If you never signed a rejection, you may have this coverage without knowing it.Tex. Ins. Code § 1952.101 | A new auto policy must include underinsured motorist coverage, which in Washington also covers uninsured, hit and run and phantom vehicles, unless the named insured or spouse rejected it in writing.RCW 48.22.030 |
While fault is being sorted out, bills keep arriving. Three things can pay in the meantime:
If your own insurer pays bills that the other driver's insurer later covers, it may have a right to be repaid out of the settlement. How that works depends on the state and on the policy, and it is one of the things a lawyer checks before a claim is settled.
Fault is worked out from evidence: the police report, photos, vehicle damage, video, what witnesses say, and the traffic laws that applied. Insurance companies make the first call, and they often split the blame between drivers. You do not have to accept their split. If the two sides cannot agree, a court decides.
How much the split matters depends on where the crash happened.
| California | Texas | Washington | |
|---|---|---|---|
| If you were partly at fault | California reduces your damages by your percentage of responsibility. There is no cutoff: you can recover something even if you were mostly at fault.Li v. Yellow Cab Co. (1975) 13 Cal.3d 804; CACI No. 405 | Texas reduces your damages by your percentage of responsibility. If you are found more than 50 percent responsible, you recover nothing.Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code §§ 33.001, 33.012 | Your share of fault reduces your damages by that percentage but does not bar your claim. One exception: an injured person who was under the influence can be barred entirely if that was a cause of the injury and they were more than 50 percent at fault.RCW 4.22.005; RCW 5.40.060 |
| If you had no insurance yourself | If you owned or drove a vehicle in the crash that was not insured as the law requires, you can still recover your medical bills and lost income from the driver at fault, but not damages for pain and suffering. There is an exception for an uninsured owner who was hit by a driver later convicted of driving under the influence.Cal. Civ. Code § 3333.4 | No rule published here for this state. Ask us. | No rule published here for this state. Ask us. |
Here is what that means in practice. If you are found 20 percent responsible, your damages are reduced by 20 percent in all three states. If you are found 60 percent responsible, California and Washington still allow a reduced recovery. Texas allows none.
Shared fault: an example
Two example shares of fault. In a real claim the share is decided from the evidence.
| State | Share of your damages you keep |
|---|---|
| California | 80% |
| Texas | 80% |
| Washington | 80% |
| State | Share of your damages you keep |
|---|---|
| California | 40% |
| Texas | Noneabove 50 percent at fault |
| Washington | 40% |
Two different companies will want to talk to you, and you stand in a different position with each.
Your own insurer. Policies commonly require you to report the crash promptly and to cooperate. The exact duty is in your own policy. Give the basic facts: when, where and who was involved. You do not have to guess about fault or about how badly you are hurt.
The other driver's insurer. You have no contract with that company. This site found no statute or insurance regulation in California, Texas or Washington that requires a person to give another driver's insurer a recorded statement, and none that says one is never required. What you say can be used later. Its adjuster works for the insurer and for the driver it covers. Be polite, confirm the basics, and take your time with anything more. More on recorded statements.
A few things are worth knowing before you agree to anything:
A lawsuit has to be filed before the limitation period ends, or the claim is almost always lost for good. Negotiating with an insurance company does not stop the clock. And the lawsuit deadline is not the only clock.
The clocks that can be running
More than one deadline can apply to the same event. The bars share one scale: the full width is 3 years.
Notice to your own insurer
Right away Policies require prompt notice of a crash.
Claims against a government agency
Deadline to sue for an injury
Deadline for a claim under your own policy
Its own deadline It runs on your policy’s terms and on rules of its own, and it is not always longer than the lawsuit deadline.
| California | Texas | Washington | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claims against a government agency | A written claim must be presented to the city, county, state agency or other public entity within six months. If the entity sends a proper written rejection, a lawsuit generally has to be filed within six months of that notice. A request to file late must be made within a reasonable time, not to exceed one year after the claim arose. The statute leaves a few narrow kinds of time out of that year.Cal. Gov. Code §§ 911.2, 911.4, 945.6 | A city, county, school district or state agency must receive notice of the claim within six months of the incident. The notice describes the injury or damage, the time and place, and what happened. A city’s charter can set its own notice period, which may be shorter, so do not assume you have the full six months.Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 101.101 | Before suing a city, county or other local government, you must present a tort claim form to its designated agent and then wait 60 calendar days. Claims against the State go to the Office of Risk Management with the same 60 day wait. The form has to be presented within the normal limitation period, and that period is paused during the 60 days.RCW 4.96.020; RCW 4.92.100; RCW 4.92.110 |
| Deadline to sue for an injury | Generally two years for an injury caused by someone else’s wrongful act or carelessness.Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1 | Two years from the day the claim arises. For most crashes and falls that is the day of the injury.Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a) | Three years for most injury claims.RCW 4.16.080(2) |
| Deadline for a claim under your own policy | For an uninsured motorist claim, one of three things must happen within two years of the crash: a lawsuit is filed against the uninsured driver, an agreement on the amount is reached with your insurer, or arbitration is formally started in writing by certified mail.Cal. Ins. Code § 11580.2(i) | A claim against your own insurer for uninsured or underinsured motorist benefits is a contract claim, generally subject to a four year limit. The deadline to sue the driver who caused the crash is still two years.Franco v. Allstate Ins. Co., 505 S.W.2d 789 (Tex. 1974); Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.051 | No rule published here for this state. Ask us. |
| Deadline for vehicle and property damage | Three years for damage to a vehicle or other personal property.Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 338(c)(1) | Two years for damage to a vehicle or other property.Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a) | Three years for damage to a vehicle or other personal property.RCW 4.16.080(2) |
Use the deadline checker to see the general rule for your date, and treat the result as a starting point. Claims under your own policy, claims involving a government vehicle and claims for children all have rules of their own.
Many small claims with no injury get resolved without one. It is worth talking to a lawyer when any of these is true:
Our intake team answers at any hour. Tell us what happened or call 800-411-9049.
For an injury, the general deadline is two years in California and Texas and three years in Washington. Vehicle damage has its own period: three years in California and Washington, two in Texas. A claim against a government agency starts with a much earlier step, and talking to an insurance company does not stop any of these clocks.
No. An insurance claim is a request for payment made to an insurance company. A lawsuit is filed in court, and it is the lawsuit that has to be filed before the limitation period ends. Negotiating with an insurer does not stop that clock.
In California and Washington your damages are reduced by your share of the fault, and you can still recover something. Texas makes the same reduction but allows no recovery if you are found more than 50 percent responsible. Washington has one exception, for an injured person who was under the influence, if that was a cause of the injury and they were more than 50 percent at fault.
It depends on the state. In California, a crash that injures or kills someone must be reported in writing to the CHP or city police within 24 hours, and a crash with an injury, a death or more than $1,000 in damage to one person’s property must be reported to the DMV within 10 days on form SR 1. In Texas the investigating officer files the report, so call the police right away if anyone is hurt or a vehicle cannot be safely driven. In Washington, if no officer investigates, a driver must file a collision report within four days when someone is hurt or killed or one person’s property damage is $1,000 or more.
The driver who caused the crash is responsible, and that driver’s liability insurance pays up to the policy limit. While fault is being sorted out, medical payments coverage or PIP on your own auto policy pays regardless of fault, and your health insurance pays as it would for any other care. Texas policies include PIP unless it was rejected in writing, Washington insurers must offer it, and in California medical payments coverage is optional.
This site found no statute or insurance regulation in California, Texas or Washington that requires a person to give another driver’s insurer a recorded statement, and none that says one is never required. You have no contract with that company, its adjuster works for the insurer and for the driver it covers, and what you say can be used later. Your own insurer is different: policies commonly require you to report the crash promptly and to cooperate, and the exact duty is in your own policy.
No web page can tell you that, and this site does not estimate claim values. It depends on your injuries and treatment, your lost income, how fault is divided and how much insurance is available. The intake team can talk through your situation with you.
Primary sources for the rules on this page. Checked on the dates shown.
This site gives general legal information. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney client relationship. Deadlines depend on the facts. Some are much shorter than the general rule. Do not rely on this page to decide how long you can wait.
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