A pedestrian has nothing between them and the vehicle, so the injuries are serious at speeds that would barely mark a car. The claim itself, though, is usually contested on a narrower point: whether the person was where they were entitled to be.
Right of way, the marking and timing of the crossing, sight lines at the corner, and the condition of the roadway are what answer that question. Margossian Law represents injured pedestrians in California.
Right of Way, and the Argument About It
Drivers must yield to pedestrians in marked and unmarked crosswalks, and must exercise due care regardless of where someone is walking. Pedestrians in turn must not step suddenly into the path of a vehicle close enough to be a hazard.
Most disputes live in the gap between those two rules, and the insurer’s first move is usually to place the pedestrian outside the crosswalk. Even where that is right, it reduces a recovery in proportion to fault rather than ending the claim. California applies pure comparative negligence, and a driver’s duty of care does not switch off because someone crossed mid-block.
When the Road Itself Is Part of the Problem
Some of these collisions are not only about the driver. A signal with too short a crossing interval, a faded or obscured crosswalk, inadequate lighting, or a sightline blocked by vegetation a public agency was supposed to maintain can each contribute.
That possibility changes the timetable rather than only the theory. A claim involving a public entity generally has to be presented in writing within six months, which is why it is worth identifying early whether a road authority belongs in the case.
What a Claim Can Recover
California recognizes two kinds of loss. Economic losses can be added up from records. Non-economic losses cannot, and in a pedestrian case, where the injuries tend to be orthopedic and the recovery long, they are frequently the larger figure.
Losses with receipts
- Medical treatment already received
- Treatment reasonably expected in future
- Income lost while unable to work
- Reduced ability to earn a living going forward
- Clothing, a phone, and other belongings destroyed in the impact
- Out-of-pocket costs the injury forced on you
Losses without them
- Physical pain, during recovery and after it
- Emotional distress and its effects on daily life
- Disfigurement and permanent scarring
- Loss of enjoyment of the things you did before
- Loss of consortium, claimed by a spouse or domestic partner
How Long You Have
Two deadlines govern most injury claims in California, and they are nothing like each other in length, and the short one comes up regularly in pedestrian cases. So much of what these claims turn on belongs to a public agency: the crosswalk markings, the signal timing, the sight lines at the corner, the transit bus itself. Where an agency may be responsible, a far shorter claim period applies, and nothing at the scene announces it.
6 months
To present a claim against a public entity
2 years
To file suit in most other cases