Most injured Californians have never been inside a courtroom and have no idea what the next 18 to 36 months look like after they sign up a lawyer. The timeline below is what actually happens in a California personal injury case — not a brochure version, but the one I walk clients through in our first meeting at the office. If you understand the arc, you’ll make better decisions along the way.
Preserve Evidence — Days 1 to 7
Everything that matters to the value of your case is decided in the first week. Skid marks fade. Surveillance footage gets overwritten on a 30-day loop. Witnesses move. The property owner mops up the spill and then swears nothing was ever on the floor. If you are physically able, photograph the scene, the vehicles, your injuries, your clothing, any instrumentality that caused the fall or crash, and the surrounding area with wide and close shots. Get the names and phone numbers of every witness — not just the obvious ones.
If a Santa Ana police officer, CHP officer, or OCFA paramedic responded, note the agency, the incident number, and the officers’ names. In California you have the right to request the Traffic Collision Report (CHP 555) once it is approved, usually within 10 business days. For premises cases, we send a formal evidence preservation letter the day we’re hired — it puts the property owner on notice that destroying video or sweeping records would be spoliation under Cedars-Sinai Medical Center v. Superior Court and gives us leverage later.
One more thing: do not give a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurance carrier until you talk to a lawyer. You are under no legal obligation to do so, and adjusters are trained to lock you into a version of events before you have all the facts.
Get Medical Care Right Away
If you were hurt, get seen. Today, not next week. There are two reasons — one medical, one legal. Medically, soft-tissue and head injuries often get worse on days 2 through 5 as inflammation sets in; the person who “walked away from it” at the scene is sometimes the one in the worst shape by Thursday. Legally, every day of delay between the accident and your first treatment becomes a defense exhibit at trial. The defense will argue the injury must have come from something else. Don’t give them that argument.
Follow through on care. If the ER tells you to see your primary care doctor in 48 hours, do it. If physical therapy is prescribed three times a week for six weeks, go to all 18 sessions. Gaps in treatment — even a legitimate “I couldn’t afford the copay” gap — are the single most common reason settlement offers come in low. We can usually set up treatment on a lien if cost is the barrier; call us before you skip appointments.
Social Media: Assume Everything Is Discoverable
Once you file suit, the defense gets to send you written discovery and, in many cases, formal requests for your social media content. California courts have ordered plaintiffs to produce private Instagram and Facebook posts when the content is reasonably likely to lead to admissible evidence. One photograph of you on a hike, taken two months after you claimed you couldn’t walk without a cane, can collapse six figures of value.
My standing rule for clients: no posts about the accident, no posts about your injuries, no posts about your activities, and no comments on other people’s posts about either, until the case is resolved. Tightening your privacy settings is not a solution — the defense can still subpoena the content. If you have active profiles, we talk through how to handle them case by case.
The Statute of Limitations Is Real — And Often Shorter Than You Think
Most California personal injury claims must be filed in court within two years of the date of injury under Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1. Medical malpractice is governed by a different, shorter clock under CCP § 340.5 (generally one year from discovery or three years from the injury, whichever is first). Minors have their own tolling rules.
And here is the one that destroys cases: if the defendant is a public entity — a city, county, the State, Caltrans, a school district, a transit authority — you must file a written government tort claim within six months of the injury under the Government Claims Act (Gov. Code § 911.2). Miss that deadline and your case against the public entity is almost certainly dead, even if the two-year statute has not run. Trip-and-fall on a defective sidewalk? Hit by a city bus? That six-month clock started the day it happened.
If there is any possibility a government entity is involved, see a lawyer within weeks, not months.
Liability Is Evaluated at the Outset — But It Keeps Evolving
California is a pure comparative negligence state under Li v. Yellow Cab Co. (1975) 13 Cal.3d 804 and Civil Code § 1714. That means even if a jury finds you 80% at fault, you still recover 20% of your damages. Comparative fault is not a bar to recovery — it is a reduction. Many clients come in thinking they have no case because they were partially at fault. They are usually wrong.
In the first week we evaluate: who caused this, who shares responsibility, who has insurance or assets, and what percentage of fault a jury is likely to assign. In a rear-end collision, the following driver is presumed negligent under Vehicle Code § 22350 and the basic speed law. In a premises case, we look at the property owner’s actual or constructive notice of the dangerous condition under Ortega v. Kmart Corp. (2001) 26 Cal.4th 1200. Those initial assessments shift as discovery unfolds — new witnesses appear, surveillance surfaces, defendants point fingers at each other — and we adjust the demand accordingly.
Filing Suit Opens Discovery
If pre-litigation negotiations don’t produce a fair offer, we file a complaint in the appropriate California superior court — typically Orange County if the accident happened here. Filing suit changes the dynamic. The defense carrier assigns defense counsel, we exchange initial disclosures, and formal discovery begins: Form Interrogatories, Special Interrogatories, Requests for Admission, Requests for Production of Documents, and depositions.
You will likely be deposed. I prepare every client personally — a half-day session going over the ground rules, likely topics, and the handful of trap questions that come up in almost every PI deposition. We also depose the defendant, the investigating officer, treating physicians, and often an eyewitness or two. Expert witnesses — accident reconstructionists, biomechanical engineers, treating surgeons, life care planners, vocational economists — are designated under CCP § 2034.260 roughly 70 days before trial.
Discovery usually takes 9 to 15 months. It is the longest and most tedious phase of the case, and it is where most of the real work happens.
Most Cases Settle at Mediation
The vast majority of California personal injury cases — I’d put the number above 90% — resolve at mediation, usually in the window between the close of discovery and the trial date. A retired judge or experienced attorney-mediator sits with both sides for a day (sometimes two) and shuttles between rooms until a number is reached.
Mediation works because both sides have real information for the first time: the medical records are complete, depositions are done, experts have been designated, and the defense carrier has reserved money against the case. A fair settlement at mediation gets money in your pocket in 60 to 90 days instead of waiting another year for trial, and it eliminates the risk that a jury does something unexpected.
That said, I never recommend settling for less than a case is worth just because mediation is scheduled. If the number isn’t right, we walk out and set it for trial. The defense carriers know which firms will actually try cases, and they value cases accordingly. That is the single most important reason to hire a lawyer who tries cases, not just one who files them.
Trial Is a Different World
If the case doesn’t settle, we try it. In Orange County Superior Court a typical PI trial runs 5 to 10 court days. We select a jury of 12 under CCP § 231, give opening statements, put on our case-in-chief with lay and expert witnesses, cross-examine the defense witnesses, and argue damages. California personal injury damages break into economic damages (medical bills past and future, lost earnings, loss of earning capacity, out-of-pocket costs) and noneconomic damages (pain, suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life) under CACI 3903 and the Judicial Council’s standard jury instructions.
A verdict is binding but not instant. Post-trial motions, costs memoranda, and — if the defense is unhappy — an appeal to the Fourth District Court of Appeal can add 12 to 24 months before the money actually arrives. That is one reason mediation is usually the right call when the number is close to fair.
Medical Liens Have to Be Negotiated
Once there is a settlement or verdict, the money doesn’t go straight to you. Health plans, workers’ compensation carriers, Medicare, Medi-Cal, and treatment providers who worked on a lien all have claims against the recovery. Negotiating those liens down is the quiet step that separates a decent settlement from a great one.
Under Howell v. Hamilton Meats & Provisions, Inc. (2011) 52 Cal.4th 541, a plaintiff with health insurance generally recovers only the amount actually paid by the insurer, not the inflated “billed” amount. That cuts against gross recovery but also usually caps lien reimbursement at the Howell number. Medi-Cal liens are governed by Welf. & Inst. Code § 14124.70 et seq. and are typically reduced by the attorney-fee ratio under Ahlborn-style calculations. Medicare has its own byzantine reimbursement rules under the MSP statute. Every lien gets negotiated. In many cases I can cut the liens by 30% to 50%, and that money goes directly into your pocket.
Call Us Early
Every stage of this process is easier if a lawyer is involved from day one. Evidence gets preserved. Treatment gets coordinated. Statutes get calendared. Social media mistakes get avoided. Insurance carriers hear from a lawyer who tries cases instead of from an injured person who doesn’t know the rules.
Consultations are free and the fee is contingent — you pay nothing unless we recover money for you. If you were hurt in Santa Ana, Orange County, or anywhere in California, call (888) 618-9788 or reach out through the contact form.
Adam J. Krolikowski is a California trial lawyer practicing since 1999, admitted to every California state court, the U.S. District Courts for all four California districts, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court. This article is general information, not legal advice for any specific case. Deadlines and procedures described above have exceptions and the facts of your case matter — talk to a lawyer.
