Being involved in an automobile accident is a scary situation. There is always the possibility of your vehicle being damaged. And there is the chance that you could suffer from a personal injury. The laws that regulate insurance can be tricky to navigate as they change each year. In 1996 CA prop 213 was passed in California by the wishes of the insurance companies. This law keeps people injured in a car accident, without insurance, from obtaining all of the compensation they need to fully recover from the accident.

How Proposition 213 Works and Affects You

There are several layers to CA prop 213 that you will need to know about in order to fully understand and navigate the path to recovery.

The first thing to understand about CA prop 213 involves the car you were driving at the time of the accident. If the car was insured, then prop 213 will not apply to your situation. Your insurance will take care of any personal injury and pay to fix the damages to your car. But, if you were a passenger, then the following could be your reality.

  • If you were the passenger, then there is no application that will be applied to you. You will experience a full recovery from the accident.
  • If you were the driver and you did not have insurance, then your situation is going to take a different turn. You will only be allowed to cash in on economic losses related to wages and medical expenses. You will not receive damages from pain and suffering, emotional distress, or any related disability. It limits your rights to sue or collect damages as a result of the accident.

Considering the Exceptions to the Rules

Not every law or policy can anticipate every single scenario that can develop. Here are some exceptions that can be considered.

  • You may have been driving a company car that was not insured. And to your knowledge, you may have thought that it was insured.
  • Private property plays a big role in the outworking of prop 213. Private property has a way of nullifying what usually happens on public roadways. Law enforcement will not be as determined to state which party is at fault. It may fall into the hands of the insurance companies or lawyers to figure it all out and it could some time.
  • The car being driven is insured by another person and the driver is just borrowing the car. The driver may not have had insurance, but has coverage under the owner’s policy.

There are a lot of scenarios that can develop when it comes to auto accidents. The police may never dictate who is at fault, so it is not clear as to who is responsible. But the one thing that is certain is that recovery needs to happen. You may need the services of an automobile accident attorney. If that is the case, then you will want to have one that specializes in working through the legalities of CA prop 213.