You're driving your children home from school. You turn on your right turn signal and prepare to make a right hand turn at the next intersection. As you enter the turn lane you hear a bang. You stop the car and find that you’ve collided with another car on your passenger side. You know you looked and turned on your signal. You know that when you changed lanes there was no car there. The other driver has a different story. He says that he was already in the lane and you did not look or signal. Your car has huge dent in the rear passenger door. The rear wheel is bent and the tire is flat. Your kids are crying but aren't injured. The other car's front bumper is in pieces, the headlight is cracked and the front wheel is leaning. Neither car can be driven from the scene. The passenger in the other car says she hit her head and feels dizzy. The other driver is rubbing his neck and moaning. So who was the negligent driver?

Negligence is when a driver does something that is careless or reckless that causes or contributes to the cause of a car accident. In an accident that involves a rear-end collision, a left turn, failure to yield, or a collision with a parked car, proving negligence is easy.

In other cases proving negligence is much more complicated. Contributing factors such as a driver being intoxicated, distracted, ill or tired need to be considered with investigating accidents. Just because a driver is cited for an accident doesn't necessarily mean that his or her insurance company is going to pay out right away. The insurance company may try to prove that the other driver(s) contributed to the cause of the accident, even if the driver was cited for gross recklessness. This is referred to as "Contributory Negligence." Because of the complexity of some car accidents it may be necessary to file a lawsuit.

If you are injured in a car accident in the state of California and are planning to go to court it is important to contact a California accident attorney or personal injury lawyer in order to get the help you need and deserve.