California's Uninsured Driver Problem: A Local Attorney's Perspective

Collisions with uninsured and underinsured drivers remain one of the most overlooked risks on California roads, and the financial burden often falls on the victim. Barry P. Goldberg's team of car accident lawyers serving the Santa Clarita Valley is calling attention to the problem as the number of drivers without adequate coverage continues to climb.

Nationally, 15.4% of drivers carried no insurance in 2023, according to the Insurance Information Institute. California ranks among the worst states in the country: roughly one in five drivers has no liability coverage at all. Add underinsured drivers to the total, and an even larger share can't pay for the damage a serious crash causes.

On January 1, 2025, the Protect California Drivers Act (SB 1107) raised California's minimum liability limits for the first time since 1967, roughly doubling the required coverage to $30,000 per injured person and $60,000 per accident. Even with those minimums, a single serious injury can exhaust those limits within days, and leave it up to the injured driver to cover the difference.

"Most people assume the other driver's insurance will cover them," said Barry P. Goldberg, founding attorney at Barry P. Goldberg and a longtime authority on California's uninsured motorist law. "However, too often, it doesn't. When that happens, your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage becomes the difference between recovering your losses and absorbing them yourself. Knowing how to use that coverage and negotiate with insurance carriers is where legal experience matters most."

That protection, known as uninsured and underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage, pays for medical bills, lost income, and other losses when an at-fault driver can't. Recovering through your own policy, however, often means negotiating against the very insurer you pay each month, and those claims can be every bit as contested as a case against the other driver.

Barry P. Goldberg offers free consultations to anyone injured in a crash in Santa Clarita and the surrounding communities, including collisions involving uninsured or hit-and-run drivers. The firm handles cases on a contingency basis, meaning there are no upfront costs and no fees unless it recovers for the client.