Personal Injury Questions, Answered Honestly

Personal injury representation at Albazian Law is on a contingency-fee basis: the fee is a percentage of what is recovered, agreed in writing before the case begins, and if there is no recovery there is no attorney's fee. Consultations are free. How fees and case costs interact — and the questions worth asking any lawyer before signing — are covered in my contingency fee guide.

Generally two years from the date of injury (Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1). The major exception is claims involving public entities — the City of Oakland, Alameda County, AC Transit, BART, Caltrans — where a written government claim is generally required within six months. Deadlines can also be extended in limited situations, such as for minors or when an injury was not reasonably discoverable. Treat every deadline question as urgent until a lawyer has answered it for your specific facts.

It depends on the severity and permanence of your injuries, your medical expenses and future care needs, lost income and earning capacity, the strength of the liability evidence, the insurance available, and how the case would land with an Alameda County jury. Anyone who promises a number before understanding those things is marketing, not evaluating. What I offer is an honest assessment — strengths and weaknesses — before you commit.

California follows pure comparative negligence: fault is expressed as percentages, and your recovery is reduced by your share but never automatically eliminated. Someone 30% at fault recovers 70% of their damages. Insurers use inflated fault arguments to discount claims, so the assignment of percentages is itself a fight worth having.

You are generally not obligated to give the other side's insurer a recorded statement, and doing so early rarely helps you — statements are taken before the full extent of injuries is known and are used to limit the claim later. Be truthful with your own insurer as your policy requires, decline recorded statements to the other side, and get legal advice first. Most injury lawyers, including me, will tell you for free whether your situation needs a lawyer at all.

Check your own policy for uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage — it applies to hit-and-run and uninsured-driver crashes, covers you even as a pedestrian or cyclist, and making a UM claim you didn't cause cannot lawfully raise your rates. One caution: California's Proposition 213 limits pain-and-suffering recovery for injured people who were themselves driving uninsured, with exceptions. These claims have their own procedures and deadlines.

Statistically, most personal injury cases settle. But settlement value is set by trial risk: insurers pay full value to lawyers who prepare cases they could credibly try, and discount the rest. I prepare every case I take as if it will be tried in Alameda County Superior Court, which is precisely what makes trial usually unnecessary.

Months for a straightforward claim that settles after treatment concludes; one to two years or more if suit is filed and the case moves through discovery toward trial. The biggest driver is medical: settling before your injuries stabilize means guessing at future care, and the guess is always in the insurer's favor. I move cases as fast as their facts allow — and no faster.

Whatever you have — nothing needs to be complete: photos, the report number or collision report, insurance cards and any policy documents, medical visit summaries, correspondence from insurers, and a simple timeline written while memory is fresh. If you have nothing but your account of what happened, bring that; gathering the rest is my job.

Yes. The practice is based in downtown Oakland and I serve all of Alameda County and the greater Bay Area — Berkeley, Alameda, Emeryville, San Leandro, Richmond, El Sobrante, Hayward, Fremont, and San Francisco. I meet clients at my office a block from 19th Street BART, at their homes when injuries make travel difficult, or by video.