A large number of people never call anyone because they believe they were partly to blame. They were going a little fast, they were tired, they crossed where there was no marked crossing. They assume that ends it.

It does not. California applies pure comparative fault: your recovery is reduced by your percentage of responsibility, and nothing more. At forty per cent at fault you recover sixty per cent. There is no cut-off above which you get nothing.

The percentage is an argument, not a fact

Nobody arrives at the scene with a number. It is assembled afterwards from the police report, the physical evidence, the road design, the vehicle data and the accounts of everyone involved. Every one of those inputs is contestable.

Police reports in particular carry more weight in people's minds than they do in law. An officer's opinion on fault is not binding and is frequently formed in fifteen minutes from one side's account.

Where fault often moves

Signal timing at an intersection. Sight lines obstructed by a parked truck or overgrowth. A vehicle's own event data recorder. Whether a crossing that "wasn't marked" was in fact an unmarked crosswalk, which in California it usually is at an intersection.

What this means practically

Do not concede a share of fault to an adjuster on the phone, and do not concede it to yourself. Say what happened, including the parts that do not flatter you, and let the percentage be worked out from evidence.