Call For A Free Consultation(602) 345-1818
Call For A Free Consultation(602) 345-1818
You’re hurt, the bills are showing up, and an adjuster is already calling. Now you have to figure out which Arizona personal injury attorney to trust with a case you’ve never had to think about before. This page is written to answer the actual question you’re researching: how to evaluate the right lawyer, what Arizona law says about your claim, and what to do in the first 72 hours so you don’t accidentally hand the insurance company a discount.
We’re going to cite the actual statutes (A.R.S. § 12-542, § 12-2505, § 12-821.01, § 20-259.01), walk through a real comparative-negligence math example, and explain why Arizona has no cap on personal injury damages. If you’d rather just talk to a person, that’s fine too: (602) 345-1818.
The job is narrower than people think, and also more important than people think.
In Arizona, a personal injury attorney does five things on a typical case:
What we don’t do is wave a magic wand. Cases get won on documentation, leverage, and timing. That’s the actual product.
Not every fender-bender needs a lawyer. Here’s an honest cut.
You probably don’t need an attorney if:
– No injuries, only minor property damage
– The other driver clearly accepted fault and their carrier paid the property claim quickly
– You were checked out, cleared, and never followed up with a doctor
You probably do need an attorney if any of these apply:
– You went to an ER, urgent care, or doctor within a week of the crash
– You’re still in treatment (PT, chiropractic, imaging, specialist visits)
– Fault is disputed, or the other driver is blaming you
– The adjuster is pushing a recorded statement or a quick settlement
– You were a passenger, a pedestrian, a cyclist, or on a motorcycle
– The at-fault driver was uninsured, underinsured, or driving for Uber/Lyft/a delivery service
– A government vehicle was involved (more on the 180-day notice below)
– The injury involves a head impact, a fracture, a surgery, or any lasting limitation
The pattern: the more medical treatment there is, the more dollars in play, and the more reasons the insurance company has to push back. That’s where having a lawyer changes the number.
This is the deadline most people miss until it’s too late.
Under A.R.S. § 12-542, you have 2 years from the date of the injury to file a personal injury lawsuit in Arizona. Miss it by a day, and the case is gone, no matter how clear the fault was. This is the 2-year filing deadline that controls almost every PI claim in the state.
There are three exceptions you need to know about:
1. Claims against a government entity: 180-day notice (A.R.S. § 12-821.01).
If the at-fault party is a city employee, a state vehicle, a public bus, a school district, or any other government actor, you must serve a formal “notice of claim” within 180 days of the injury. That’s not a lawsuit, it’s a precondition. Miss the 180 days and your case against the public entity dies even though the 2-year SOL hasn’t run. This is a common ways valid claims get dismissed in Arizona.
2. Injured minors: tolling until age 18 (A.R.S. § 12-502).
If the injured person is under 18, the statute of limitations is tolled. The 2-year clock doesn’t start until their 18th birthday, giving them until age 20 to file. Parents often want to file on behalf of the child quickly anyway, and that’s allowed, but the deadline itself doesn’t run while the child is a minor.
3. Wrongful death.
Runs 2 years from the date of death, not the date of the injury that caused it. Different statute, different analysis.
If you’re not sure which deadline applies, call us before the calendar makes the decision for you: (602) 345-1818.
This is the rule that quietly controls settlement value, and most websites gloss over it.
Arizona is a pure comparative negligence state under A.R.S. § 12-2505. That means your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault, whatever that percentage turns out to be. Here’s Arizona’s comparative negligence rule in one sentence: every party pays (or recovers) in proportion to their share of fault.
Unlike most states, Arizona has no fault-percentage cutoff. A plaintiff who is found 99% at fault can still recover 1% of their damages under A.R.S. § 12-2505(A). That’s unusual. Most states bar recovery if you’re 50% or 51% at fault. Arizona doesn’t.
A real example. Suppose your total damages are $100,000 (medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering). The jury finds you 30% at fault for the crash. Your recovery: $70,000. The defendant pays 70% of the damages because you’re responsible for 30% of the fault.
Now flip it. Same $100,000 in damages, but the jury finds you 70% at fault. Your recovery: $30,000. You still recover, but the number drops fast.
This is why every conversation with the insurance adjuster is secretly a negotiation over your fault percentage, even when it doesn’t sound like one. When they ask about your speed, your distance, whether you looked left, whether you were on your phone, they’re building the comparative-negligence file. The percentage that gets assigned to you doesn’t just affect liability. It affects every dollar of the settlement.
There’s a second related rule worth knowing. Arizona uses several liability under A.R.S. § 12-2506, not joint liability. If two defendants caused your injury and one is assigned 80% fault and the other 20%, each pays only their share. You can’t collect the full amount from whichever defendant has the deeper pockets. This matters most in multi-vehicle crashes and commercial-driver cases.
Arizona recognizes three categories of damages in a personal injury case.
Economic damages are the quantifiable losses. Medical bills (past and future), lost wages, lost earning capacity, property damage, out-of-pocket costs. These are documented with receipts, records, and expert projections. See our breakdown of economic damages for the categories Arizona juries are instructed to consider.
Non-economic damages are the subjective losses. Pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, disfigurement, loss of consortium for a spouse. These are real and recoverable, but they don’t come with receipts. Read more on how non-economic damages are valued in Arizona.
Here’s the part that matters and that most competitor pages bury: Arizona has no cap on personal injury or wrongful death damages. Not statutory, not arbitrary. The Arizona Constitution itself prohibits the legislature from capping recovery in these cases. Article II, § 31 of the Arizona Constitution provides that no law shall be enacted limiting the amount of damages to be recovered for causing the death or injury of any person. Article XVIII, § 6 independently preserves the right of action to recover damages for injuries. Arizona is one of a small number of states with this constitutional protection. In a serious-injury case, this is a meaningful advantage over jurisdictions that do cap damages.
Punitive damages are the third category, and they’re harder to get. Under Arizona case law, principally Linthicum v. Nationwide Life Insurance Co., 150 Ariz. 326, 723 P.2d 675 (1986), punitive damages require proof that the defendant acted with an “evil mind,” meaning conscious and deliberate disregard for the rights and safety of others. Garden-variety negligence doesn’t get you there. Drunk driving with prior DUIs often does. Intentional misconduct does. A texting driver with no prior pattern, usually doesn’t, though the specific facts always control. See our overview of punitive damages in Arizona for the standard in more detail.
Almost every Arizona personal injury attorney works on a contingency fee. Here’s what that actually means.
What you should ask before signing: What’s the percentage at each stage? Who fronts the costs? What happens if I end the representation mid-case? These are fair questions, and any attorney who hesitates to answer them clearly is showing you something.
A short, useful list. You can paraphrase or read straight from your phone:
For a longer breakdown, we wrote a separate piece on how to choose the right personal injury lawyer in Arizona.
The first three days set up the next year of your case. In order of priority:
The other driver’s adjuster will usually call within 24 to 72 hours. That timing is on purpose. You’re still rattled, you haven’t had time to find a lawyer, and you don’t yet know the full extent of your injuries.
You are generally not legally required to give a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurance company. Your obligation to your own insurer is different, and it depends on the “cooperation clause” in your own policy. The two are easy to confuse, and adjusters sometimes blur the line on purpose.
What to say to the other driver’s adjuster: “I’m not giving a statement today. You can communicate with my attorney.” That’s it. Polite, firm, complete. Then take the adjuster’s name and direct line, and call us.
The other quiet move adjusters make is sending a medical-authorization form for you to sign. Don’t sign a blanket authorization. It lets them pull years of unrelated medical history to cherry-pick prior conditions they’ll later blame for your current injuries. A narrowed authorization to the relevant records is fine. A blanket one isn’t.
A meaningful share of Arizona drivers are uninsured or underinsured (often carrying only the state-minimum 25/50/15 limits). When the at-fault driver doesn’t have enough coverage to pay for your injuries, your own UM/UIM coverage steps in.
Under A.R.S. § 20-259.01, Arizona insurers are required to offer UM and UIM coverage to every customer, and a consumer can only reject it in writing. If you weren’t given that written rejection option, you may have UM/UIM coverage even if you don’t think you do. Worth checking your policy.
A UM/UIM claim is technically a first-party claim against your own insurer, but practically it’s an adversarial negotiation. Your insurer’s adjuster is now on the other side of the table on this claim. That’s not a knock on them, it’s the structure. If a carrier unreasonably delays or denies a valid first-party claim, Arizona law recognizes a separate cause of action for insurance bad faith under Noble v. National American Life Insurance Co., 128 Ariz. 188, 624 P.2d 866 (1981), which exposes the carrier to additional damages above the policy limits.
Our Phoenix personal injury practice covers the categories you’d expect from a Phoenix PI firm:
We work across the Phoenix metro areas we serve, and for a broader reference on the legal framework around all of this, see our Arizona personal injury law guide.
Two years from the date of the injury under A.R.S. § 12-542. If the at-fault party is a government entity, you have a much shorter 180-day window to serve a formal notice of claim under A.R.S. § 12-821.01. For injured minors, the clock is tolled until their 18th birthday under A.R.S. § 12-502.
No. Free case reviews are standard in Arizona PI work. Under a contingency fee agreement, there are no attorney’s fees unless we recover. Costs are separate and the specific terms are set in the written fee agreement.
You can still recover under A.R.S. § 12-2505. Arizona is a pure comparative negligence state, meaning your damages are reduced by your percentage of fault but not eliminated. A plaintiff who is 99% at fault can technically still recover 1%. The number that matters in most cases is somewhere in the middle, and negotiating that percentage down is a major part of the work.
No. The Arizona Constitution (Article II, § 31 and Article XVIII, § 6) prohibits the legislature from capping personal injury or wrongful death damages. This is a meaningful difference from many other states.
Generally no. You are usually not required to give a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurer. Your obligations to your own insurer are different and depend on the cooperation language in your policy. When in doubt, call us before the call.
It varies. A clear-liability case with completed treatment can resolve in a few months. A disputed-liability case, a serious-injury case, or one that requires a lawsuit can take a year or more. The single biggest variable is when your medical treatment finishes, because settlement value can’t be accurately calculated until then.
If you’re trying to figure out whether you have a claim, what it might be worth, or whether you even need a lawyer, the fastest way to get a real answer is a free case review. Jared takes the calls personally.
Free case review with Jared J. Pehrson: (602) 345-1818. We answer 24/7. No attorney’s fees unless we recover (specific cost terms are in the written agreement). Talk to us before talking to insurance.
By Jared J. Pehrson | Impact Legal Car Accident Attorneys
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