Los Angeles car accident attorney Steven M. Sweat revisits a case that has become one of California’s clearest lessons in the difference between winning a claim and collecting on one. UPDATE — JULY 2026 This post was originally published in September 2022, days after the crash and while the Los Angeles Police Department’s investigation was…
Continue reading ›Published July 2026 · By Steven M. Sweat, Personal Injury Lawyers, APC · Data study based on NHTSA FARS records, 2019–2024 Article Summary: A new study released by Steven M. Sweat, Personal Injury Lawyers, examined six years of federal traffic fatality records (2019–2024) to identify the California counties with the highest pedestrian risks and the…
Continue reading ›Quick Answer Personal injury mediation in California is a confidential, non-binding settlement negotiation conducted with a neutral mediator — typically a retired judge or veteran trial attorney — who shuttles between the parties in private sessions to close the gap between demand and offer. Nothing said at mediation can be used in court: Evidence Code…
Continue reading ›Quick Answer A policy limits settlement is a settlement for the maximum amount the at-fault party’s liability insurance will pay — and a policy limits demand is the formal, deadline-driven offer that forces the insurer to pay it. Under California law, an insurer that unreasonably rejects a reasonable settlement demand within its policy limits can…
Continue reading ›Quick Answer To look up a Riverside County Superior Court case, create a free account on the court’s Public Access portal (reached from riverside.courts.ca.gov) — case-number searches are free and return the register of actions, while name searches carry a fee. To look up a San Bernardino County Superior Court case, use the Court Access…
Continue reading ›Quick Answer To look up an Orange County Superior Court case, use the court’s free Case Access system at occourts.org and search by case number within the correct case category — civil, criminal/traffic, probate, or family. If you don’t have the case number, the court’s Case Name Search lets you search by a person’s or…
Continue reading ›Quick Answer Do TBI patients ever fully recover? It depends heavily on severity — and the honest answer is more nuanced than most people expect. Most people with a mild TBI (concussion) recover fully within weeks to three months, and nearly all regain functional independence within a year — yet large multicenter studies have found…
Continue reading ›Quick Answer Dash cams are legal in California. Under Vehicle Code section 26708(b)(13), a dash cam may be mounted on the windshield in exactly three zones: a 7-inch square in the lower corner farthest from the driver, a 5-inch square in the lower corner nearest the driver (outside the airbag deployment zone), or a 5-inch…
Continue reading ›Article Summary California Vehicle Code 22350 (CVC 22350) is the state’s basic speed law: no one may drive faster than is reasonable or prudent given the weather, visibility, traffic, and roadway — and never at a speed that endangers people or property. The defining feature of CVC 22350 is that a driver can violate it…
Continue reading ›Article Summary California Vehicle Code 21703 (CVC 21703) prohibits following another vehicle “more closely than is reasonable and prudent,” accounting for speed, traffic, and road conditions — it is California’s tailgating statute, and it is the reason the rear driver is presumed at fault in most rear-end collisions. A CVC 21703 citation is an infraction…
Continue reading ›
