Several Drivers at Fault: Who Pays?

Chain-reaction crashes on Highway 101, three-car intersection collisions and crashes where a third driver cut someone off all raise the same question: when more than one driver was careless, who pays for the injuries? In the auto accident cases we handle, the answer depends on two California rules. The first divides fault into percentages. The second, adopted by voters as Proposition 51 in 1986, decides how each kind of damages is paid once those percentages are set.

This guide explains both rules, what happens when one driver settles early or has no insurance, and how your own share of fault, if any, fits in.

How is responsibility divided among several drivers, step by step?

Each driver's conduct is judged separately. The jury decides whether each driver was negligent and whether that negligence was a substantial factor in causing your harm, and decides the liability of each defendant separately (CACI 3933).
Your own conduct may be considered. A defendant who claims you were partly at fault must prove you were negligent and that it contributed to your harm (CACI 405).
Percentages are assigned. Everyone whose fault was a substantial factor, including people who are not in the lawsuit, gets a percentage, and the total must be 100 percent (CACI 406).
Total damages are found once. The jury finds your total damages without considering anyone's percentage, and does not divide them among the defendants (CACI 406 and 3933).
The court allocates payment. After the verdict, the court applies the percentages: your damages are reduced by any share assigned to you, and each defendant's payment is set by the rules in the table below.

Who pays which part of the damages?

Kind of damages	Examples	How it is paid when several are at fault	Source
Economic	Medical expenses, lost earnings, repair or replacement costs, loss of use, substitute household help	Jointly and severally: each liable defendant can be required to pay the full amount, then seek contribution from the others	Civil Code 1431.2(b)(1); CACI 3933 Directions for Use
Noneconomic	Pain, suffering, inconvenience, mental suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, physical impairment, disfigurement	Severally only: each defendant pays only its own percentage, with a separate judgment for that amount	Civil Code 1431.2(a) and (b)(2)
Your own share of fault	Any percentage assigned to you	Your total damages are reduced by that percentage	CACI 405
A defendant who settled before trial	An earlier settlement in good faith	Claims against the others are reduced by the settlement amount, and the settling defendant is released from contribution claims	Code of Civil Procedure 877

Why are pain and suffering treated differently?

Before 1986, each at-fault defendant could be held liable for all of the plaintiff's damages, even if its share of the fault was small. Voters changed that for noneconomic damages with Proposition 51. The findings in Civil Code 1431.1 state that defendants should be held financially liable "in closer proportion to their degree of fault." Civil Code 1431.2(a) carries that out: in an injury or wrongful death case based on comparative fault, each defendant's liability for noneconomic damages is several only, in direct proportion to its percentage of fault.

The statute did not make the same change for economic damages. The Judicial Council's notes to CACI 3933 describe cases "involving the joint and several liability of multiple defendants or several liability only for noneconomic damages under Proposition 51." In practice this means that if one defendant cannot pay its share of your medical bills and lost earnings, the others who are liable may have to cover it, while no defendant pays more than its percentage of your pain and suffering. For how pain and suffering is measured, see how pain and suffering is valued.

How are the percentages proven?

Each driver's share comes from the same kinds of evidence used in any crash: the damage on each vehicle, the order of impacts, skid marks, video, witness statements and the crash report. In a chain-reaction crash, the sequence matters most. A driver who started the chain by changing lanes unsafely or stopping without reason may carry a large share, while a driver who was following too closely may also carry one for failing to stop in time (Vehicle Code 21703).

The rules each driver had to follow are the starting point. A broken traffic law that caused the kind of harm it was meant to prevent creates a presumption of negligence (Evidence Code 669), but each driver can argue about how much their conduct actually contributed. Insurers usually make their own fault estimates during settlement talks; those estimates are opening positions, not findings.

What if one driver settles early?

A release or dismissal given in good faith to one of several people liable for the same injury does not release the others unless its terms say so. It reduces the claims against the others by the amount stated or the amount paid, whichever is greater, and it releases the settling party from contribution claims by the others (Code of Civil Procedure 877).

When a lawsuit is pending, any party can ask the court to decide whether the settlement was made in good faith. A finding of good faith bars the other defendants from later claims against the settling party for comparative contribution or indemnity, and the party challenging the settlement has to prove it was not in good faith (Code of Civil Procedure 877.6). Because of these rules, the order and terms of settlements with several drivers matter, and so does the amount each one pays.

What changes the answer?

One driver had no insurance or too little. Economic damages may be collected from the other liable defendants, while that driver's share of noneconomic damages may go unpaid unless your own coverage applies. Read how uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage works.

One driver was working. An employer can be liable for an employee's driving in the scope of the job; see whether the driver's employer or the car's owner can be held responsible.

A vehicle defect contributed. A manufacturer can be one of the parties at fault; see whether a defective car part can be the cause of a crash claim.

A public agency's road contributed. A city, county or the State can share fault for a dangerous condition, but a written claim is due within six months (Government Code 911.2); see crashes involving a dangerous road.

Someone died. The same rules apply in a wrongful death case, and the decedent's own fault can be weighed. See wrongful death when the person was partly at fault.

What could this look like? An example

For example, imagine a three-car crash on Highway 101 near Windsor. Driver A changes lanes without looking and forces Driver B to brake; Driver C, following too closely, rear-ends B, who is injured. B was not at fault. A jury finds B's damages to be $100,000 in economic losses and $200,000 in noneconomic losses, and assigns 60 percent of the responsibility to A and 40 percent to C.

For the $200,000 of noneconomic damages, A pays $120,000 and C pays $80,000, each through a separate judgment, and neither pays the other's share. For the $100,000 of economic damages, A and C are jointly and severally liable, so if C's insurance runs out, B can collect the unpaid economic amount from A, and A can seek contribution from C. If A had settled before trial in good faith for $50,000, the claims against C would be reduced by that $50,000. This example is made up to show how the rules fit together; it says nothing about any real case.

What mistakes do people make in multi-vehicle crashes?

Claiming against only the driver who hit them, when another driver started the chain.
Settling with one driver without understanding how it reduces the claims against the others.
Not getting every driver's name, insurer and policy information at the scene or from the report.
Assuming each driver will pay its share of medical bills, when collection may depend on who has coverage.
Waiting too long to identify a public agency or a vehicle defect as another cause.

What should I do this week?

Get the crash report and list every driver, owner and insurer it names.
Write down the order of impacts as you remember them.
Open a claim with each driver's insurer and keep every claim number.
Keep photos of every vehicle's damage; they help show the sequence.
Read our guide on rear-end collisions for how a following driver's share is judged. For turning drivers, see right of way at intersections.
Do not sign a release with any one driver's insurer before getting advice.

Frequently asked questions

Does the jury split the damages among the drivers?

No. The jury finds your total damages once and assigns percentages of responsibility; the court then allocates payment (CACI 3933).

Can a driver who is not in the lawsuit be assigned fault?

Yes. Percentages can be assigned to nonparties, including people who settled earlier or were never sued (CACI 406 and the notes to CACI 3933), which can reduce what the remaining defendants owe for noneconomic damages.

What counts as economic damages?

Objectively verifiable monetary losses, such as medical expenses, lost earnings, burial costs, loss of use of property, repair or replacement costs, substitute household services and lost employment or business opportunities (Civil Code 1431.2(b)(1)).

Can I recover if I was partly at fault too?

Yes. Your total damages are reduced by your own percentage (CACI 405), and the rest is divided among the other parties under the rules above.

Do I have to sue every driver?

Not necessarily, but a driver who is not sued can still be assigned a percentage, and you cannot collect that driver's share of noneconomic damages from the others. That is why every possible party should be identified early.

How long do I have to sue several drivers?

The same two years apply to each (Code of Civil Procedure 335.1), and six months for a claim against a public agency. See California personal injury deadlines.

If more than one driver caused your crash, contact Young Law Group today at (707) 343-0556 or through our contact page for a free consultation.

Several drivers caused the crash: who pays what in California?