Burneikis Law, P.C.

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Burneikis Law, P.C. Award Winning Personal Injury and Accident Law Firm with Multi-Million Dollar Results Personal injury law firm based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Burneikis Law pays referral fees to licensed attorneys in accordance with Rule 1.5.1 of the California Rules of Professional Conduct.

Imagine your car telling you it's okay to read your texts while it drives. GM has described an eyes-off system for the E...
10/20/2026

Imagine your car telling you it's okay to read your texts while it drives. GM has described an eyes-off system for the Escalade IQ, and that raises a fair question: what does California's phone law say about it?

The short answer is that California's handheld-phone law, Vehicle Code section 23123.5, has no exception for automated driving. It says a person shall not drive while holding and operating a handheld phone unless it is used hands-free.

So on the plain text, a driver holding a phone to read a text while the car drives itself is covered by the ban, even if the car's own system signals that it's fine to look away. Reading the same text on the factory display falls outside it. That's one reading of the statute, and no court has ruled on it. And if a crash happens, none of the statutes reviewed says who is responsible in the seconds after the car asks the driver to take back control.

These questions are still open. Worth keeping an eye on as eyes-off technology gets closer to showing up on our roads.

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San Francisco is reporting some encouraging numbers: the city says dangerous speeding dropped 84% at camera locations du...
10/20/2026

San Francisco is reporting some encouraging numbers: the city says dangerous speeding dropped 84% at camera locations during the program's first 18 months.

I spend my days with people whose lives changed in a few seconds on a California road, and speed is almost always part of the story. The faster a car is going, the less time anyone has to react and the more force a body takes on impact. That is true for drivers, and even more so for people walking, biking, or riding motorcycles.

A few plain facts about how these cameras generally work. The ticket goes to the registered owner of the vehicle as a civil penalty. It is not the same as an officer pulling someone over, and it does not settle who is at fault if a crash happens. That gets decided on the evidence.

The city also says 63% of drivers who received a citation did not get a second one, so it will be interesting to see whether the numbers hold.

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A new study ranks Santa Cruz sixth among California cities for cyclist danger, and it's a good moment for anyone who rid...
10/19/2026

A new study ranks Santa Cruz sixth among California cities for cyclist danger, and it's a good moment for anyone who rides to brush up on the basics.

California law requires drivers to leave at least three feet when passing a bike. If the road is too tight, they need to slow down and wait.

If a crash does happen, California looks at fault on both sides. A rider who was partly responsible can still recover, with the amount reduced by their share of fault. So how a crash is documented matters a great deal: photos, witness names, and medical records all count.

And watch the clock. Most injury claims have two years, but when a city or other public agency may be responsible for a dangerous road, the claim deadline can be as short as six months.

Ride safe out there, wherever you ride.

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Quick one for anyone who drives or shops for a RAV4 plug-in hybrid. Toyota has recalled about 31,000 of them because the...
10/19/2026

Quick one for anyone who drives or shops for a RAV4 plug-in hybrid. Toyota has recalled about 31,000 of them because they may shut down at high speeds. Losing power at high speed is scary for the driver and for everyone around them, so this one is worth two minutes of your time.

Go to nhtsa.gov/recalls, type in your 17-character VIN, and see whether your vehicle is covered. If it is, call a Toyota dealer. The fix is free.

Some people never get the mailed notice. It goes to the registered owner on file, so if you bought used or moved, it may be sitting at someone else's address. Worth passing along to a friend or relative who owns one, too.

Hold on to your repair paperwork once the work is done. Dates and receipts are easy to lose and hard to recreate later.

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Big rigs are part of everyday driving in California, so the rules about who gets behind the wheel of one matter to every...
10/15/2026

Big rigs are part of everyday driving in California, so the rules about who gets behind the wheel of one matter to everyone sharing the road.

A trucking group is urging FMCSA to adopt a proposed rule on English proficiency for commercial drivers. English proficiency requirements have existed for many decades, and the proposal would make noncompliance an out-of-service violation so states enforce it uniformly. The group says enforcement has been inconsistent, including in California.

The link to safety is easy to see. Driving a commercial truck involves communication, and a driver's ability to communicate matters. When a truck crash happens, I look beyond the driver to how the company hired, trained, and supervised that person, and federal safety regulations are a big part of that picture.

Nothing is final yet. FMCSA would have to decide whether to move forward with the proposed rule.

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Most people assume that if a government agency is responsible for harm, they can simply sue it. California law is more c...
10/15/2026

Most people assume that if a government agency is responsible for harm, they can simply sue it. California law is more complicated than that.

A Court of Appeal has ruled that Sonoma County can be sued over a 2020 death at a Cotati group home. That keeps the case alive. It does not decide who is at fault, but it means a court will get to hear the claim.

The reason this kind of ruling gets attention is that public entities start from a position of immunity in California. A claim has to fit within a specific statute to go forward.

The detail that catches people off guard is the timeline. Injury and wrongful death claims against a public entity generally have to be filed with that entity within six months. For most private lawsuits, you have two years. Waiting too long can close the door entirely.

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10/14/2026

The crash happened in the 19000 block of Gannett Lane, fire officials said. | Link in comments ⬇️

Many people expect a concussion to clear up quickly. For a lot of people, the headaches, dizziness, fatigue, and trouble...
10/13/2026

Many people expect a concussion to clear up quickly. For a lot of people, the headaches, dizziness, fatigue, and trouble concentrating keep going much longer. In a Curtin University study, almost half of participants still reported symptoms a year after their injury.

The study looks at the risk factors behind those prolonged symptoms, and it's useful reading for anyone recovering from a head injury or caring for someone who is.

One thing worth knowing from the legal side: in California, a person's health history doesn't let the at-fault driver off the hook. If someone was more vulnerable to a lasting injury, the responsible party still answers for the harm that was caused.

The other thing is paperwork. The medical record carries the weight. Tell every provider about every symptom, keep your follow-up appointments, and don't let weeks go by without being seen.

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Chrysler has issued a recall for about 265,000 Ram vehicles because of a steering risk. It covers certain 2022 to 2026 R...
10/13/2026

Chrysler has issued a recall for about 265,000 Ram vehicles because of a steering risk. It covers certain 2022 to 2026 Ram ProMaster 1500, 2500 and 3500 vehicles and 2024 to 2026 Ram 3500 Electric vehicles. If you drive one, it is worth a minute of your time.

The law gives you this: when a manufacturer files a safety recall, it has to fix the problem at no charge to you. You can look up your vehicle by VIN at NHTSA.gov and see right away whether anything is open. Plenty of recall letters get lost in the mail or tossed with the junk, so checking yourself is the safest way to know.

It is also worth knowing that California holds manufacturers responsible for defective products. If a defect causes a crash, the injured person does not have to prove the company was careless. And if a steering problem ever plays a part in a collision, the vehicle itself is key evidence, so it should not be sent off to salvage before it has been looked at.

Share this with anyone in your family who drives one.

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Sharing the road with an 18-wheeler is a normal part of driving in California, so the rules on how long truckers can wor...
10/12/2026

Sharing the road with an 18-wheeler is a normal part of driving in California, so the rules on how long truckers can work matter to all of us.

FMCSA is moving toward testing more flexible hours-of-service options. Under current rules, drivers generally have a 14-hour window to drive after 10 hours off duty. Pilot programs like this one are how regulators gather real-world data before deciding whether any permanent change makes sense.

Two things worth knowing. First, a driver following the clock is evidence of care, but it does not automatically answer whether that driver was too tired to be safe. Second, the logging data that shows how long a driver was working does not last forever, so it can be gone sooner than many people assume.

I'll be watching what the pilot data shows.

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Oakland, CA
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