Why Would a Personal Injury Lawyer Not Take My Case?
- Tom Feher, Esq.
From Tom Feher, Esq. “A declined case is almost never a judgment about you or about whether you were hurt. It usually means the math does not work, and the honest thing is to say that in the first call rather than six months in.”
Short answer: A California personal injury lawyer turns down a case for one of five reasons: the deadline has passed, nobody legally responsible can be identified, there is no insurance or assets to collect from, the injuries and losses are too small to justify the cost of proving them, or a statute bars the damages you would be seeking. Being genuinely injured is not enough on its own. Most declines are about collectability and cost, not about whether you were hurt.
Key Takeaways
- The deadline is the most common single reason: injury claims run 2 years from the incident under Code of Civil Procedure 335.1, and claims against a public entity must be presented within 6 months under Government Code 911.2.
- Negligence has to be provable, not just alleged: Civil Code 1714 requires a failure of ordinary care that caused your injury. A genuine accident with no careless party is not a claim.
- No insurance and no assets usually ends it: a winning judgment against someone with nothing collects nothing, and California minimum policies are only $30,000 per person.
- Two statutes can wipe out the damages entirely: Civil Code 3333.4 bars non-economic damages for uninsured owners and for drivers convicted of DUI, and Code of Civil Procedure 377.34 removes pre-death pain and suffering from survival actions filed on or after January 1, 2026.
- A decline is not a verdict on your case: firms have different appetites, different case costs, and different caseloads. A second opinion is free and worth getting.
Turned Down Somewhere Else?
A decline at one firm does not mean your case has no value. Feher Law gives second opinions at no cost and will tell you honestly what we see. Call (310) 340-1112 – You pay nothing unless we win.
| Reason a case gets declined | What can sometimes change it |
|---|---|
| The filing deadline has passed | Delayed discovery, a minor plaintiff, or a defendant out of state can extend it. Worth checking, not assuming |
| No clear negligence by anyone | New evidence: a camera, a maintenance record, a witness nobody canvassed |
| The at-fault driver is uninsured | Your own uninsured motorist coverage, a second at-fault party, or an employer vicariously liable |
| Injuries are minor and treatment is short | Symptoms that persist and get properly documented can change the picture |
| You were uninsured at the time | Economic damages remain recoverable even when non-economic damages are barred |
| Several firms have already passed | An honest explanation of why, which a good firm will give you |
Reason One: The Deadline Has Already Run
This is the most frequent reason a case is declined outright, and it is the one nobody can fix. A claim for personal injury or death must be filed within 2 years of the injury under Code of Civil Procedure 335.1. If the defendant is a city, county, school district, transit agency, or the state, the real deadline comes much sooner: Government Code 911.2 requires a written claim to be presented to the public entity within 6 months of the cause of action accruing, and missing that presentation requirement ends the case long before the 2 year mark matters.
There are genuine extensions. The clock can be delayed where an injury was not reasonably discoverable, it is paused while an injured person is a minor, and it can be tolled while a defendant is out of the state. None of these are safe to assume. If you are anywhere near a deadline, that is a reason to call today rather than after you finish treatment, because the filing can be made and the treatment can continue afterwards.
Reason Two: Nobody Was Legally Negligent
Being injured and having a claim are different things. Civil Code 1714 makes everyone responsible for injuries caused by a want of ordinary care, which means a lawyer has to be able to identify a specific person or company that failed to act reasonably and show that the failure caused your injury. Accidents genuinely happen. A driver who has a first seizure at the wheel, a slip on a spill that nobody had time to discover, a collision with no traceable cause: these are real injuries with no recoverable claim.
Where this call is closest, the deciding factor is usually evidence rather than law. A nearby business camera, a vehicle’s event data recorder, a maintenance log, or a witness nobody contacted can convert an unprovable case into a strong one. That is why the timing of the first call matters so much, and why our guide to documenting a California car accident is worth reading before evidence disappears.
Shared fault is a different situation and is often misunderstood as a reason for decline. California reduces a recovery by the injured person’s percentage of fault instead of barring it, and Civil Code 1431.2 makes each defendant severally liable for non-economic damages in proportion to that defendant’s own share. Being partly at fault reduces the number. It does not end the case, and a firm that declines purely because you were 30 percent responsible is not applying California law correctly.
Not Sure Whether Your Case Was Fairly Assessed?
Feher Law will look at what the last firm saw and give you a direct answer, at no cost and with no obligation. Call (310) 340-1112 – You pay nothing unless we win.
Reason Three: There Is Nothing to Collect
This is the reason clients find hardest to hear, because it has nothing to do with the merits. A judgment is only worth what the defendant can pay. California requires just $30,000 for injury to one person, $60,000 per accident, and $15,000 in property damage on policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2025 under Vehicle Code 16056, and a large share of drivers carry exactly that. If a catastrophic injury is caused by a driver with a minimum policy and no assets, the practical ceiling on recovery is the policy, no matter how strong liability is.
Before accepting that conclusion, a careful firm looks for additional sources: your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, an employer vicariously liable because the driver was working, a commercial policy, a bar or host with dram shop exposure, a vehicle owner who negligently entrusted the car, or a government entity responsible for a dangerous road condition. The first firm to look at your file may have stopped at the at-fault driver. Our page on which insurance coverages actually pay you goes through the usual candidates.
Reason Four: The Damages Are Too Small to Prove Economically
Litigating a personal injury case costs real money before anyone is paid. Records, filing fees, deposition transcripts, and expert witnesses routinely run into the tens of thousands of dollars, and on a contingency the firm advances all of it at its own risk. Business and Professions Code 6147 requires the written fee agreement to state the contingency rate and explain how those costs affect your recovery, precisely because that arithmetic determines what you actually keep.
When someone has a few thousand dollars in treatment and fully recovered in a month, the cost of proving the case can exceed what the case is worth, and taking it would leave the client with little or nothing after costs. That is a decline made in the client’s interest, and the honest version of it says so plainly. If symptoms persist and treatment continues, the picture genuinely changes, which is why a decline early in treatment is worth revisiting later.
Reason Five: A Statute Bars the Damages You Are Seeking
Two California statutes end otherwise strong cases, and both surprise people. Civil Code 3333.4, passed as Proposition 213, prevents recovery of non-economic damages by an injured person who owned the vehicle and did not carry the insurance the financial responsibility laws require, by an uninsured driver, and by a driver convicted of driving under the influence in the same incident. Medical bills and lost earnings remain recoverable. Pain and suffering, which is frequently the largest component of a claim, does not. A case that would be worth a great deal can become worth only its out of pocket losses.
The second is Code of Civil Procedure 377.34. In a survival action brought by the estate of someone who has died, damages for the decedent’s own pain, suffering, or disfigurement before death are recoverable only where the action was granted a preference before January 1, 2022 or was filed on or after January 1, 2022 and before January 1, 2026. For survival actions filed on or after January 1, 2026, that element is gone, which materially changes what an estate’s claim is worth. A wrongful death claim by surviving family members is separate and is not affected by that limit.
A Second Opinion Costs You Nothing
Firms decline cases for reasons that have nothing to do with the strength of yours, including caseload and case costs. Call (310) 340-1112 – You pay nothing unless we win.
What to Expect When You Work With Feher Law
- Free Case Evaluation: We go through the incident, your treatment, the insurance available, and the deadlines. If your case was declined elsewhere, we want to know the reason given.
- Case Investigation: Where the obstacle is evidence, we look for what was not collected: cameras, vehicle data, maintenance records, and witnesses, before any of it disappears.
- Coverage Search: We look past the obvious defendant for employers, commercial policies, vehicle owners, public entities, and your own uninsured motorist coverage.
- Demand and Filing: We present a documented demand and file inside the 2 year deadline, or far sooner where a public entity claim is required.
- Resolution: You approve any settlement, and we walk you through the settlement statement so you know what you are keeping after costs and liens.
Why California Injury Clients Choose Feher Law
Thomas Feher, Esq. has taken more than 50 jury trials to verdict, and that trial record is what moves settlement math, because insurers pay real value to firms they know will pick a jury. The results are public: a $20.7 million brain injury verdict against a hotel defendant in July 2026, a $14.6 million verdict in Simone v. Estate of Bruce Jameson for a catastrophic spine injury, an $8.5 million recovery for a T-boned worker, and more than $170 million recovered for California clients overall. Feher Law also treats the back end of the case, lien negotiation and the settlement statement, as part of the representation, not an afterthought, because the firm’s job is your net recovery, not just the headline number. From offices in Torrance and Huntington Beach, the firm serves clients throughout Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County, and Riverside County, in English and Spanish. Every case is handled on contingency – you pay nothing unless Feher Law wins for you.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Last reviewed by Thomas Feher, Esq. – September 2026
