Law Office of Adam Sorrells

08/07/2026

08/07/2026

Wishing Everyone a Safe & Happy Weekend!

PROPERTY DAMAGE vs. INJURY CLAIMS: Why We Often Handle Them Differently

After a car crash, people are often surprised to learn that the claim for damage to their vehicle and the claim for their physical injuries may need to be handled very differently.

With many personal auto insurance policies, property damage liability coverage is separate from bodily injury liability coverage. Because of that, we generally want to resolve the property damage claim as quickly as reasonably possible—getting the vehicle repaired, establishing a total-loss value when necessary, and helping the client move forward with transportation.

The bodily injury claim is different. Injuries can take time to fully develop. Treatment may continue for months, future medical care may be necessary, and the long-term effects of an injury may not be immediately known. Settling an injury claim too early can mean settling before the full extent of the damages is understood.

That is why, in many cases, the approach is:

Move efficiently on the property damage. Be patient and thorough with the injury claim.

But commercial insurance policies can present a different issue. Some commercial policies use a combined single limit, meaning property damage and bodily injury claims may draw from the same overall policy limit. When multiple vehicles, serious injuries, or substantial property damage are involved, every dollar paid toward one claim may affect the amount of insurance available for the others.

The lesson? Know the insurance policy before deciding how and when to settle any part of a claim.

Every case and every insurance policy is different. Understanding the available coverage is an important part of developing the right strategy after a serious collision.

Law Office of Adam Sorrells
California Personal Injury Attorney
530-893-9900
www.chicopersonalinjury.com

Wishing everyone a safe and happy weekend!

The Law Office of Adam Sorrells represents personal injury victims throughout Butte County. The firm's Chico attorney has 25+ years of experience and membership in The American Board of Trial Advocates. Call now for a free consultation!

07/30/2026

Happy Thor's Day (Thursday) everyone. Was the series on proving medical causation helpful?

07/29/2026

PROVING MEDICAL CAUSATION: Today we finish the series on proving medical causation in a personal injury case by reviewing CACI 200 jury instruction. We started with CACI 430 instruction on causation. We covered CACI 431 that instructs on how to evaluate evidence where there is more than one possible cause of an injury. We then reviewed CACI 3927 for situations where there has been an aggravation of a pre-existing injury. (Review prior posts if needed). Today the final instruction is the basic burden of proof instruction in a civil case. While the Plaintiff (The injured person) has the burden of proof on most issues, the amount of proof required to prove any one issue is quite minimal (An important thing to explain to a jury). Unlike a criminal case, where somebodies freedom is at stake, our burden of proof in a civil case is quite miniscule. In a criminal case, the very high burden of proof is Guilty Beyond a Reasonable Doubt. It has been said that "It is better to let 100 Guilty Men go free rather than improperly convict one innocent man (Apparently in the old days only men committed crimes); whereas in a civil case, our burden of proof is simply "More likely true than not true".

07/29/2026

CACI 200-Obligation to Prove - More Likely True Than Not True
The parties must persuade you, by the evidence presented in court, that what they are required to prove is more likely to be true than not true.
This is referred to as “the burden of proof.”
After weighing all of the evidence, if you cannot decide that something is more likely to be true than not true, you must conclude that the party did not prove it. You should consider all the evidence, no matter which party produced the evidence.
In criminal trials, the prosecution must prove that the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. But in civil trials, such as this one, the party who is required to prove something need prove only that it is more likely to be true than not true

07/14/2026

CACI 3927. Aggravation of Preexisting Condition or Disability
1. [Name of plaintiff] is not entitled to damages for any physical or emotional condition that [he/she] had before [name of defendant]'s conduct occurred. However, if [name of plaintiff] had a physical or emotional condition that was made worse by [name of defendant]'s wrongful conduct, you must award damages that will reasonably and fairly compensate [him/her] for the effect on that condition.

07/14/2026

Following up on the July 9, 2026 post on proving medical causation in a civil personal injury case, we previously covered CACI jury instructions 430 and 431. The next important instruction is CACI 3927, entitled "AGGRAVATION OF A PRE-EXISTING CONDITION". Imagine this scenario. Somebody has had low back pain for years. Maybe they take pain medication, they sometimes see a chiropractor, but they can still work full time and even play golf or softball on the weekends. They are then crashed into in a car crash and the injury is to their low back. Since the car crash, the person can no longer play golf or softball and they are now in too much pain to work. The insurance company might argue that the pain was all "Pre-existing" and would have happened without the collision or that the pain was from "Degeneration" and not from injury. In a case like this, the medical evidence becomes very important. The jury instruction that addresses this issue is CACI 3927. (Posted above).