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Call For A Free Consultation(602) 345-1818
Updated November 2026
By Jared J. Pehrson | Impact Legal Car Accident Attorneys
If you were hurt in a Gilbert car accident, you probably have two questions right now: who pays for this, and how long do I have to figure it out? This page answers both. We’ll walk through how Arizona law works after a crash in Gilbert, what compensation is actually on the table, and the moves to make (and avoid) in the first 30 days.
We’re a Phoenix-based personal injury firm that handles car accident cases throughout the East Valley, including Gilbert. Attorney Jared J. Pehrson takes calls directly. Free case review at (602) 345-1818.
Gilbert grew from a small farming town into a city of more than 270,000 people in about two decades. The road network is still catching up. That’s the short version of why we see so many serious crashes here.
New developments and road-widening projects are constant on Higley Road, Power Road, and Williams Field Road. Lane shifts, dropped speed limits, uneven pavement, and unfamiliar detours create rear-end and sideswipe crashes during every commute. Construction trucks merging in and out of work zones make it worse.
The Loop 202 Santan is Gilbert’s main freeway connection. The on-ramps and off-ramps at Gilbert Road, Higley Road, and Val Vista Drive are repeat offenders for rear-end collisions and merge-related crashes. Drivers misjudge gaps. Traffic stacks up fast at rush hour.
Gilbert Road, Val Vista Drive, Baseline Road, Guadalupe Road, Elliot Road, and Williams Field Road all carry heavy commuter traffic. Left-turn collisions at signalized intersections are the most common pattern we see.
The SanTan Village area near Williams Field and SanTan Village Parkway is packed on weekends. Distracted drivers hunting for parking, pedestrians cutting between cars, and quick turns into commercial driveways cause regular crashes.
The Heritage District along Gilbert Road south of Guadalupe Road has its own pattern: lower speeds, but more pedestrians, cyclists, and rideshare drop-offs. Impaired driving picks up on weekend evenings.
Gilbert has dozens of schools spread across its neighborhoods. Morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up generate predictable risk: impatient drivers ignoring reduced limits, parents doing U-turns near school entrances, kids on bikes crossing wide arterials. School zone crashes often involve pedestrians and tend to be severe.
Based on accident reports and traffic patterns, these intersections come up over and over:
If your crash happened at one of these spots, we already know the layout, signal phasing, and common fact patterns.
The injury list runs from minor soft-tissue strains to permanent disability:
Most clients are first treated at Banner Gateway Medical Center on Higley Road or Mercy Gilbert Medical Center on McQueen Road. Both have trauma-capable ERs. If you were treated at either, we can pull those records and bills as part of building out your claim file.
This is the part most articles handle badly. Here’s what you actually need to know.
Under A.R.S. § 12-542, you have two years from the date of the accident to file a personal injury lawsuit in Arizona. Miss it and the court will dismiss the case, no matter how clear the liability. Two years sounds like plenty until you factor in medical treatment, insurance back-and-forth, and gathering evidence. The earlier we get involved, the cleaner the file. More on this at our Arizona statute of limitations page.
Under A.R.S. § 12-2505, Arizona reduces damages in proportion to the claimant’s percentage of fault. If you’re partially at fault, you can still recover, but the award gets cut by your fault share.
The math is straightforward: total damages × (100% minus your fault percentage) = recovery.
Example. You’re rear-ended at Val Vista and Elliot, but a jury decides you were 30% at fault for stopping abruptly. Total damages: $100,000. Recovery: $70,000.
Insurance adjusters know this rule. They lean on it hard. Expect them to push a higher fault number at you in the first call. Read more on Arizona’s comparative negligence rule before you respond to anything.
Under A.R.S. § 12-2506, Arizona uses several liability rather than joint liability. If two drivers each caused part of your crash, each pays only the portion of damages tied to their fault percentage. You don’t get to collect the full amount from whichever defendant has deeper pockets. This is why identifying every potentially liable party early matters, especially in multi-vehicle pileups on the 202.
For policies issued or renewed beginning July 1, 2020, Arizona’s minimum liability limits under A.R.S. § 28-4009 are 25/50/15: $25,000 per person for bodily injury, $50,000 per accident, and $15,000 for property damage.
Here’s the practical problem. A single ER visit and an MRI can blow through $25,000. A surgery, a few weeks of physical therapy, and lost wages can wipe out $50,000 in a hurry. Plenty of Gilbert drivers carry exactly the minimum, which means even a clear-liability case can run out of available coverage fast. That’s where the next section comes in.
Under A.R.S. § 20-259.01, your own insurer is required to offer UM and UIM coverage. You can reject it, but the rejection has to be in writing. The minimum offering is the same 25/50 as liability limits, and you can buy more.
Why this matters: when the at-fault driver carries the state minimum or has no insurance at all, your UM/UIM coverage is often the only meaningful source of recovery. We check this on every Gilbert case because it changes the entire claim strategy. If you’re not sure what you carry, dig out your declarations page or call your agent before you make any decisions. Also see our overview on what to do when the other driver has no insurance.
Arizona breaks damages into two main buckets, with a third available in narrow cases.
Economic damages are the quantifiable financial losses you can document with paper:
These are mostly an exercise in record-gathering and, where future costs are involved, expert support.
Non-economic damages cover the subjective losses: pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, and loss of consortium for spouses. There’s no calculator that spits out a clean number. Value depends on injury severity, treatment length, permanence, and how well the impact is documented.
Arizona is unusual here. The Arizona Constitution (Article 2, Section 31, and Article 18, Section 6) prohibits laws capping damages for personal injury or death. Most states have caps. Arizona does not. That’s a meaningful advantage for plaintiffs with serious injuries.
In a narrow set of cases, punitive damages are available. Arizona requires proof of an “evil mind,” which courts interpret as conduct showing conscious disregard for the safety of others. DUI crashes are the most common Gilbert fact pattern where punitives come into play. They’re meant to punish, not to compensate, and the bar is high.
What we don’t do: quote you a settlement range based on injury type. Anyone who gives you a number before reviewing your medical records, liability picture, and available coverage is guessing. Real claim value comes from real facts.
The first 48 hours matter. Here’s the short list:
Two things separate this firm from the high-volume operations you see on billboards.
Direct attorney access. You talk to Jared, not a rotating cast of paralegals and case managers. Calls get returned. Strategy decisions happen with the attorney who knows your file.
Contingency fee. No upfront cost to you. We’re paid out of the recovery, and the exact fee and cost terms are spelled out in a written agreement before we start. If we don’t recover, you don’t owe attorney’s fees.
Local familiarity. We know Gilbert’s intersections, the relevant ADOT data, both hospitals’ record-request workflows, and the local insurance adjusters who handle East Valley claims.
We also handle general personal injury matters as a personal injury attorney in Phoenix and across the East Valley.
Two years from the date of the crash under A.R.S. § 12-542. There are narrow exceptions (claims against a government entity have a 180-day notice requirement), but two years is the default. Don’t wait. Evidence gets stale and witnesses disappear.
You can still recover. Arizona reduces damages in proportion to your fault share under A.R.S. § 12-2505. If a jury says you were 25% at fault on $80,000 in damages, you recover $60,000. Adjusters will try to push your fault number higher than the facts support. That’s something to push back on with documentation, not concede on the phone.
Almost never. First offers are calibrated to close cheap and fast, usually before you know the full extent of your injuries. We’d rather see the offer first, evaluate what you’re actually walking away from, and tell you straight whether it’s reasonable.
The case review is free. We work on contingency, which means no attorney’s fees unless we recover. Exact fee percentages and how case costs are handled are laid out in the written fee agreement before you sign anything.
This comes up constantly in Gilbert. The state minimum is 25/50/15. A serious injury can exceed those limits on day one of treatment. When that happens, the next sources of recovery are your own UM/UIM coverage, any umbrella policy, and, in some cases, third-party defendants (an employer if the driver was on the clock, a bar that overserved a DUI driver under Arizona’s dram shop rule, and so on). This is exactly why early case investigation matters.
UM (uninsured motorist) coverage pays when the at-fault driver has no insurance, including hit-and-run cases. UIM (underinsured motorist) coverage pays the gap when the at-fault driver’s limits aren’t enough to cover your damages. Under A.R.S. § 20-259.01, your insurer had to offer both. If you didn’t reject in writing, you probably have it. Check your declarations page. For most Gilbert drivers hit by a minimum-policy or no-policy driver, UM/UIM is the recovery.
Get the adjuster’s name, claim number, and direct line. Tell them you’ll respond after speaking with counsel. Don’t give a recorded statement. Don’t agree to a quick settlement offer. Then call us at (602) 345-1818 before you call them back.
Whether your crash was on the Loop 202 Santan, at Gilbert and Baseline, near SanTan Village, in the Heritage District, or in a school zone, we can help you figure out what to do next. The first call is free and there’s no obligation to hire us.
Free case review: (602) 345-1818. We answer 24/7. No attorney’s fees unless we recover.
We serve clients in Gilbert, Mesa, Chandler, Queen Creek, and across the Phoenix metro.
By Jared J. Pehrson | Impact Legal Car Accident Attorneys
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