Uninsured Motorist Lawyer in Culver City

Reduced By, Not Added To

Where it does apply, the second surprise follows. Your coverage is reduced by what has already been paid, not added to it. Carry $100,000 in underinsured coverage, recover $30,000 from the at-fault driver, and the most your own insurer owes is $70,000. Not $100,000. Certainly not $130,000. Most published material on this subject implies otherwise.

What Etehad Law Does With One of These

The early work is reading your own policy properly, because the answer to whether you have a claim is in the declarations page rather than in the facts of the crash. After that it is establishing what the at-fault driver actually carried, and whether anyone else was liable.

These matters are usually resolved by agreement or by arbitration rather than in court. The statute requires a single neutral arbitrator where coverage or amount is disputed.

The Deadline Is Unusual and It Is Unforgiving

Most people know California gives two years for an injury claim. This one is two years from the date of the accident as well, but it is not a filing deadline in the ordinary sense. It is a condition on your claim existing at all.

Within those two years one of exactly three things has to have happened: suit filed against the uninsured driver, an agreement concluded with your insurer on the amount due, or arbitration formally instituted by written notice to the insurer sent by certified mail with return receipt requested. Reporting the claim does not count. Negotiating does not count. Settling with the at-fault driver without filing suit satisfies the ordinary injury deadline but does not satisfy this one.

Because it is a condition rather than a limitations period, the tolling that protects an injured child does not apply here. Courts have said so directly.

There is one protection worth knowing. Your insurer has to warn you in writing at least 30 days before the deadline, and failing to do so tolls it for 30 days. That duty disappears the moment the insurer knows you have a lawyer, which is a reason to tell them and a reason not to rely on the warning.

Hit and Run in Culver City

Two requirements, both easy to fall foul of.

First, there has to be physical contact. A vehicle that ran you off the road without touching you does not support a claim under the statute, however plainly it caused the crash.

Second, the accident has to be reported within 24 hours to the police department of the city where it happened, and a sworn statement filed with your insurer within 30 days after that. For a collision inside Culver City limits, that is the Culver City Police Department on Duquesne Avenue. Culver City is its own incorporated city with its own force, bordered by Los Angeles on nearly every side, so the reflex of calling LAPD sends the report to the wrong agency.

Settling With the Other Driver First

Here the common advice is wrong, and it is wrong in a way that costs people money.

You will read everywhere that you must obtain your insurer's written consent before settling with the at-fault driver or you forfeit the claim. That rule exists, in the Insurance Code, and it applies to uninsured motorist claims. The California Supreme Court held in 1992 that it does not apply to underinsured claims, because for those the statute requires you to exhaust the other driver's limits by settlement or judgment first. Conditioning coverage on a consent the insurer could refuse would defeat the scheme.

What you do owe on an underinsured claim is notice. If you sue the at-fault driver, your own insurer gets a copy of the complaint by personal service or certified mail, and access to the pleadings and depositions.

Follow your policy's own notice terms regardless, and do not take any of this as a reason to move without advice. The point is that the flat warning repeated across the internet is not the statute.

Where a Culver City Case Would Be Heard

Most of these resolve in arbitration rather than a courtroom. If a case is filed, Culver City sits in a slightly awkward position that is worth stating accurately.

An unlimited civil case, meaning one over $35,000, is assigned to the West District, at the Santa Monica or Beverly Hills courthouse. A limited civil case, at or under $35,000, goes downtown to the Stanley Mosk courthouse. Small claims goes to Beverly Hills. So the shorthand that Culver City cases are not heard downtown is only true above the threshold.

That threshold moved to $35,000 at the start of 2024. The court's own website still describes it as $25,000 in places.

Legal Disclaimer

This page is provided by Etehad Law for general information only and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. The attorney responsible for this communication is Simon P. Etehad, Esq. (California State Bar No. 186449), Etehad Law, Beverly Hills, California. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.