Car Accidents
More than 250,000 traffic collisions are reported in California each year. The legal response — and the value of the case that results — depends almost entirely on the lawyer you choose. Insurers settle higher when they know your attorney will try the case. Frances Dunham Law approaches every car accident case from that premise.
We handle rear-end collisions, intersection and left-turn cases, distracted-driving and DUI claims, hit-and-run and uninsured-motorist cases, and high-speed freeway crashes. Common injuries include whiplash and cervical strain, herniated discs, concussion and TBI, fractures, and internal injuries. Each requires careful medical documentation and, where appropriate, retained experts.
California’s pure comparative fault rule means you may still recover even if partly at fault. The statute of limitations is generally two years from the date of injury, with shorter deadlines for government-entity claims.
Common questions
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Truck Accidents
A collision with an 80,000-pound commercial truck is governed by federal law, regulated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and defended by carriers that retain trial-ready counsel from the moment of impact. A car-accident approach is not adequate.
Our team moves quickly on truck cases. Spoliation letters preserve electronic logging device data, driver qualification files, maintenance records, and dashcam footage before they are lost. We pursue every potentially liable party: the driver, the motor carrier, the trailer owner, the broker or shipper, and the company responsible for loading or maintenance. That breadth of defendants opens layered insurance coverage.
Common causes include driver fatigue and hours-of-service violations, improper training, distracted driving, and mechanical failure traceable to skipped maintenance. The injuries are often catastrophic — TBI, spinal cord injury, amputation, severe burns, wrongful death. Case values reflect that reality.
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Motorcycle Accidents
Motorcyclists are routinely blamed for crashes they did not cause. There is a default assumption — among adjusters, defense lawyers, and even some jurors — that the rider was speeding, weaving, or somehow asking for it. Overcoming that bias takes affirmative evidence: scene measurements, vehicle damage patterns, witness statements, and where warranted, accident reconstruction.
Lane splitting is legal in California under Vehicle Code section 21658.1. Helmet use is required, but failure to wear one does not bar your claim — it can only reduce certain head-injury damages under comparative fault. Right-of-way violations by left-turning vehicles remain the most common cause of motorcycle injury collisions.
Common injuries include road rash, clavicle and wrist fractures, traumatic brain injury (even with helmet use), spinal injuries, and internal injuries. Each requires careful medical development to support the claim.
Common questions
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Uber & Lyft Accidents
Rideshare claims involve layered insurance, shifting liability rules, and corporate defendants with sophisticated defense teams. Coverage depends on which ‘period’ the driver was in at the moment of the crash: offline, logged-in but waiting, accepted ride, or actively transporting a passenger. Knowing which policy applies — and when — is the difference between a denied claim and a million-dollar recovery.
During active rides, the platform’s $1 million liability and uninsured-motorist policies apply. During waiting periods, lower limits apply. Passengers in rideshare vehicles typically have the cleanest claim — the $1M policy applies and they cannot be at fault. Other drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists struck by rideshare drivers access the same coverage during active periods.
Uber and Lyft are defended by major firms with rideshare-specific litigation teams. They contest coverage triggers, driver classification, and damages aggressively. We develop these cases for trial readiness and demand the full available coverage rather than settling early.
Common questions
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Pedestrian Accidents
When a vehicle strikes a person on foot, the harm is rarely minor — and the case is rarely simple. California Vehicle Code section 21950 requires drivers to yield to pedestrians in marked and unmarked crosswalks. Violation supports a negligence-per-se claim. Even outside crosswalks, drivers have a duty to keep a proper lookout and operate safely.
Common scenarios include crosswalk strikes by left- and right-turning vehicles, backing-up incidents in parking lots, high-speed impacts on arterials, and hit-and-run cases. The injuries are different from vehicle-occupant injuries: lower-extremity fractures are nearly universal, pelvic fractures are common, head injuries occur even at low speeds, and internal injuries are frequent.
Defense lawyers often raise comparative fault — arguing jaywalking, intoxication, or distraction. California’s pure comparative fault rule means partial fault reduces but does not bar recovery. We address these defenses through scene investigation, EDR downloads, surveillance footage, and expert reconstruction.
Common questions
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Bicycle Accidents
Cyclists have the same rights to the roadway as motor vehicles under California Vehicle Code section 21200. Drivers must give cyclists three feet of clearance when passing (section 21760), check before opening doors (the ‘dooring’ statute), and yield in the same circumstances they would yield to other vehicles.
Common scenarios include right-hook collisions where drivers pass and then turn across the bike’s path, dooring incidents, intersection collisions involving left-turning drivers, and sideswipes from drivers passing too closely. Injuries commonly include concussion and TBI, clavicle fractures, wrist fractures, pelvic injuries, and road rash that can produce permanent scarring.
Helmet use is required for riders under 18. Adults may legally ride without one, but absence of a helmet affects comparative fault on head-injury damages. Other damages — orthopedic, lost wages, scarring — remain fully recoverable.
Common questions
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Slip and Fall
Property owners and tenants owe a duty of ordinary care to keep their property in a reasonably safe condition. When that duty is breached — and you are hurt as a result — California law provides a path to full compensation.
To prevail, an injured plaintiff must generally show the defendant owned or controlled the property, was negligent in maintaining it, the plaintiff was harmed, and the negligence was a substantial factor. The doctrine of constructive notice is central: an owner does not have to actually know about a hazard if it existed long enough that they should have discovered it.
Common scenarios include wet floors in retail and grocery stores, defective stairs and stairwells, parking-lot hazards, inadequate lighting, and water accumulation in entryways. The mode-of-operation doctrine helps plaintiffs in self-service environments by recognizing that some hazards are predictable. Injuries are often serious — hip fractures, TBIs, wrist and shoulder injuries, back injuries.
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Premises Liability
Premises liability is a category broader than slip-and-fall. It includes injuries caused by any unreasonably dangerous condition on a property — and harms caused by the property owner’s failure to provide reasonable security, adequate lighting, or proper maintenance.
Negligent security claims hold property owners accountable when foreseeable criminal acts occur on their property. Foreseeability is established through prior similar incidents, area crime statistics, and the owner’s actual knowledge. Apartment buildings, hotels, parking structures, and bars are common venues. Damages can be substantial because the harms — assault, robbery, sexual violence, gunshot injury — are often severe.
Defective conditions and building code violations also support strong premises claims. Inadequate stair lighting, missing handrails, blocked emergency exits, defective sprinklers, and substandard balcony rails are all enforceable through civil litigation. The attractive nuisance doctrine imposes heightened duties when children are foreseeably present, particularly around swimming pools.
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Dog Bite Injuries
California Civil Code section 3342 establishes strict liability for dog bite injuries. The owner is liable for damages suffered by any person bitten while in a public place or lawfully on private property, regardless of the dog’s prior history. Unlike states with a ‘one bite’ rule, California allows recovery on the first bite.
The statute covers bites specifically. Non-bite injuries — being knocked down or scratched — may still support a common-law negligence claim. Children are disproportionately affected by serious dog bite injuries because of their proximity to a dog’s reach. Facial scarring is permanent and often requires multiple plastic surgery revisions. Hand and arm injuries can damage nerves and tendons. Psychological injury, particularly PTSD in children, is a recognized component of damages.
Most dog bite claims are covered by the owner’s homeowner’s or renter’s insurance policy. Standard policies provide $100,000–$500,000 in liability coverage. Some insurers exclude specific breeds or all dog bite claims after a first incident; we review the actual policy in every case.
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Wrongful Death
When negligence takes a loved one, no result restores what has been lost. But California Code of Civil Procedure section 377.60 permits surviving family members to hold the responsible parties fully accountable. The first tier of eligible claimants includes the surviving spouse, domestic partner, children, and issue of deceased children.
Recoverable damages include economic losses (the financial support the deceased would have contributed, household services, funeral expenses) and non-economic damages (loss of love, companionship, comfort, care, society, moral support). California does not cap these damages outside of medical malpractice contexts. Properly developed cases routinely produce seven- and eight-figure recoveries.
Distinct from wrongful death, the survival statute (Code of Civil Procedure section 377.30) permits the estate to bring claims the deceased could have brought, including pain and suffering between injury and death. Survival and wrongful death actions are typically prosecuted together. Common contexts include motor vehicle collisions, medical negligence, premises liability, defective products, and workplace fatalities.
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Catastrophic Injuries
Catastrophic injury cases — those involving life-altering harm — demand a firm that understands the true long-term cost of what has happened. Medical bills are only the beginning. Future medical care, attendant services, equipment replacement, home modifications, lost earning capacity, and the human cost of lost independence all factor into a properly valued claim.
Our approach combines aggressive liability investigation with depth of damages development. We retain qualified life-care planners to project decades of future medical needs, economists to translate those needs into present-value damages, and vocational experts to address loss of earning capacity. The medical record is built through close coordination with treating providers.
Common contexts include severe traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury with paralysis, amputation, severe burns, and multiple-trauma cases. Each carries its own evidentiary considerations and its own range of expert involvement. The cases are longer, more resource-intensive, and more demanding than ordinary injury claims — and the recoveries reflect that reality.
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Brain Injuries
Traumatic brain injury claims are routinely undervalued — by insurers, by defense lawyers, and sometimes by the plaintiff’s own attorneys. The harms are real, but they are often invisible on imaging and disputed by defense experts hired to suggest the injury ‘couldn’t have been that bad.’ Building a TBI case requires the right specialists from intake forward.
Our approach combines treating physician testimony with neuropsychological evaluation, vestibular and cognitive assessment, day-in-the-life documentation, and detailed family-member interviews. Mild TBI cases — concussions in low-impact crashes — frequently produce substantial recoveries when properly developed. Moderate and severe TBI cases typically require comprehensive life-care planning.
Symptoms include persistent headaches, cognitive fog, fatigue, sleep disturbance, mood and personality changes, sensitivity to light and sound, and executive function impairment. Many of these are missed in initial emergency room evaluation. Early specialist referral matters not only for treatment but for case documentation.
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Spinal Cord Injuries
Spinal cord injury cases are among the most consequential in personal injury law. The injuries are permanent, the medical and life-care costs are extraordinary, and the loss of independence is profound. Properly valued, these cases produce seven- and eight-figure recoveries — but reaching those values requires sophisticated development.
Complete and incomplete cord injuries each present different damages profiles. Tetraplegia involves loss of function in all four limbs and substantially higher care costs than paraplegia. Even ‘incomplete’ injuries — preserving some sensation or function — typically produce lifelong limitations and require comprehensive life-care planning.
Damages categories include lifetime attendant care, durable medical equipment, home and vehicle modifications, ongoing medical care for complications (pressure injuries, urinary tract infections, autonomic dysreflexia), and lost earning capacity. Non-economic damages reflect the loss of mobility, intimacy, recreation, and independence. We retain physiatrists, life-care planners, and vocational experts to develop each component thoroughly.
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Construction Accidents
Construction accidents typically involve overlapping legal frameworks: workers’ compensation, third-party liability, OSHA regulation, and sometimes contractual indemnity disputes. Workers’ comp is generally the exclusive remedy against the employer, but third-party claims against general contractors, subcontractors, equipment manufacturers, and property owners often capture the real value of these injuries.
Common scenarios include falls from heights, scaffold collapses, electrocution, crane and equipment incidents, falling-object strikes, trench collapses, and confined-space injuries. OSHA standards establish duty levels that, when violated, support negligence-per-se claims. Multiple-party liability is the norm, not the exception. Identifying every responsible defendant expands available insurance coverage substantially.
Injuries are often severe — TBI, spinal cord injury, amputation, multiple fractures, burns, and wrongful death. Damages categories overlap with general catastrophic injury cases, with added attention to lost trade-specific earning capacity, vocational retraining needs, and union benefit considerations.
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Workplace Injuries
Workplace injuries are often resolved through California’s workers’ compensation system — but that resolution rarely captures the full value of the harm. Workers’ comp pays limited categories of benefits: medical care, temporary disability indemnity, permanent disability indemnity, and vocational retraining where applicable. It does not pay pain and suffering. It does not pay full lost wages.
Third-party liability claims fill that gap. When someone other than the employer caused or contributed to the injury — a contractor, equipment manufacturer, property owner, or motor vehicle driver — a separate civil claim captures the additional damages. The recoveries from third-party claims are coordinated with workers’ comp liens, but the net to the injured worker is typically substantially higher than workers’ comp alone.
Common third-party scenarios include construction-site injuries involving multiple contractors, vehicle accidents during work-related driving, defective equipment cases, and premises liability incidents on properties not owned by the employer. Identifying every potentially liable third party is one of the most consequential decisions in workplace injury representation.
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