Call For A Free Consultation(602) 345-1818
Call For A Free Consultation(602) 345-1818
You were hurt because someone else was careless. Now you’re sitting with medical bills, an insurance adjuster who keeps calling, and a real question: do you actually need an Arizona personal injury lawyer, or can you handle this on your own?
This page walks through how Arizona personal injury claims actually work. The statutory mechanics. The deadlines. What your claim could include. How insurance companies behave here. What a contingency fee really means. And how to decide whether to hire counsel at all. No sales pitch. Just the framework you need to make a clear decision.
A personal injury lawyer in Arizona does three things that matter:
What a lawyer doesn’t do: pay your bills while you wait, force a stubborn adjuster to act in good faith on day one, or make a thin case into a strong one. Facts are facts. We work with what the evidence shows.
You probably don’t need a lawyer if all of the following are true:
You probably do need to at least talk to a lawyer if any of the following are true:
The middle ground (a few medical visits, some lost time, a cooperative carrier) is where free case reviews are most useful. We tell people regularly that they don’t need us. That’s part of the job.
Our team handles the cases that come out of negligence on Arizona roads and in Arizona businesses:
If your situation isn’t on this list, call and ask. We’ll tell you whether it fits what we do or whether you’d be better served somewhere else.
Two Arizona doctrines do more to shape claim value than anything else: comparative negligence and several liability. Most people have never heard of either, and that’s part of why first offers come in low.
Under A.R.S. § 12-2505, Arizona is a pure comparative negligence state. That means a jury (or an adjuster doing back-of-envelope math) assigns a percentage of fault to each party, and your recovery is reduced by your share.
Example: total damages are $100,000. The jury finds you 30% at fault for the crash. Your recovery is $70,000. Even if you were 80% at fault, you could still recover 20%. Arizona does not bar recovery just because you contributed to the accident, which is unusual nationally and important to your case value.
This is the lever adjusters pull most often. “Our driver did run the light, but you were speeding, so we’re applying 25% comparative fault.” That sentence can cost you $25,000 on a $100,000 case. Read more about Arizona’s comparative negligence rule for how this actually plays out in negotiation.
Arizona also uses several liability under A.R.S. § 12-2506. In a multi-defendant case, each defendant pays only their assigned share of fault. They are not on the hook for each other’s share. If Driver A is 60% at fault and Driver B is 40%, and Driver B is uninsured and broke, you do not get to collect Driver B’s 40% from Driver A.
This is the opposite of how it works in some other states. It matters most in trucking cases, multi-car pileups, and cases involving a private actor plus a government entity. Understanding which defendants have money and how fault will be apportioned is a real part of case strategy here.
Under A.R.S. § 12-542, you have 2 years from the date of injury to file a personal injury lawsuit in Arizona. Miss it, and your claim is gone. No exceptions for “I was still negotiating with the adjuster.” Settlement talks do not toll the statute.
Two important wrinkles:
1. The 180-day government notice rule (A.R.S. § 12-821.01). If your claim is against the State of Arizona, a city, a county, a school district, or any other public entity (think: city bus, county pothole, state-employed driver, public hospital), you must serve a written notice of claim within 180 days of when the cause of action accrues. Miss the 180 days and you cannot sue the government, even if the 2-year statute hasn’t run yet. This is the deadline that most quietly destroys cases.
2. Minors. Under A.R.S. § 12-502, the statute is tolled for injured minors until their 18th birthday. They then have 2 years from that birthday to file. The 180-day government notice rule is treated differently and is not tolled the same way for adults bringing claims on a child’s behalf, so don’t sit on a child’s claim against a public school or city.
For a deeper walkthrough of Arizona’s 2-year statute of limitations and its exceptions, the linked page covers the variations.
Arizona recognizes three categories of damages in personal injury cases.
Quantifiable financial losses. Past and future medical bills, lost wages, lost earning capacity, property damage, out-of-pocket expenses, and the cost of future care. These are proven with bills, pay stubs, employer letters, and expert opinions. See the breakdown of economic damages in Arizona for what documentation actually moves the number.
Subjective losses. Pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, disfigurement, and loss of consortium. There is no formula in Arizona jury instructions. These are argued, not calculated.
Here’s something most people don’t realize: the Arizona Constitution contains provisions that have been interpreted to prohibit the legislature from passing laws that cap damages for death or personal injury (see Article II, § 31 and Article XVIII, § 6, as historically interpreted by Arizona courts). Many states have caps. Arizona doesn’t, and our constitution forbids them. That’s a real differentiator in case value here and worth understanding when an out-of-state adjuster tries to apply assumptions that don’t fit. The non-economic damages page covers how these are presented.
Rare, and reserved for conduct that goes beyond ordinary negligence. The Arizona Supreme Court in Linthicum v. Nationwide Life Insurance Co., 150 Ariz. 326, 723 P.2d 675 (1986), set the standard: the plaintiff must show the defendant acted with an “evil mind,” meaning conscious disregard for the rights of others. Drunk driving cases sometimes qualify. So can intentional misconduct by an insurance company. For more on when these are available, see punitive damages in Arizona.
For policies issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2020, A.R.S. § 28-4009 sets Arizona’s minimum liability coverage at 25/50/15: $25,000 per person, $50,000 per accident for bodily injury, and $15,000 for property damage. That is the floor. Plenty of drivers in Phoenix carry exactly that and not a penny more, which becomes a problem fast in any case with real injuries.
Under A.R.S. § 20-259.01, insurers in Arizona must offer uninsured motorist (UM) and underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage. The consumer can reject it, but only in writing. This is the most important coverage on your own policy and the one most often overlooked. If the at-fault driver is uninsured, hit-and-run, or underinsured for the harm caused, your own UM/UIM coverage is what fills the gap.
If you’re not sure whether you have it, dig out your declarations page. If you don’t see it, you may have rejected it on a prior renewal without realizing what you were signing away. More on uninsured motorist coverage in Arizona.
Arizona law recognizes a first-party bad faith claim against your own insurer when the carrier fails to handle a claim with reasonable care. The Arizona Supreme Court’s decision in Noble v. National American Life Insurance Co., 128 Ariz. 188, 624 P.2d 866 (1981), is the foundational case. Unreasonable denial, unreasonable delay, lowball offers that ignore documented evidence, and refusal to investigate can all support a bad-faith claim. This is a powerful claim where it applies because it opens the door to damages beyond the policy limits.
The other driver’s insurance company will call you. Often within 48 hours. They’ll be friendly. They’ll ask how you’re doing. They’ll ask for a recorded statement.
Here’s what they’re not telling you: you have no legal obligation to give a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurer. That obligation exists in your own policy with your own carrier (cooperation clause). It does not extend to the at-fault driver’s carrier. A recorded statement on day three, before you know the full extent of your injuries, is a reliable way to reduce your own claim.
Before that call:
A 15-minute free case review can save you a recorded statement that haunts the file for the next eighteen months.
Most personal injury lawyers in Arizona, including us, work on a contingency fee. That means the attorney’s fee is a percentage of the recovery. No recovery, no attorney’s fee. The exact percentage and the treatment of case costs (filing fees, expert witnesses, medical record fees) are set out in your written fee agreement, which you should read before you sign.
“No fee unless we recover” is shorthand. The real terms live in the fee agreement, and we walk through them line by line before anyone signs anything.
What this structure does: it aligns the lawyer’s interests with yours. We get paid more when you get paid more. It also means we are selective about which cases we take, because we are betting our own time and money on the outcome.
What it doesn’t do: eliminate case costs as a concept. Those are usually advanced by the firm and reimbursed from the settlement, again, per the written agreement.
Before you sign anything, ask:
There’s more in our walkthrough of how to choose an Arizona personal injury lawyer, including the questions most clients wish they’d asked before signing.
Jared J. Pehrson handles cases personally. You will not be passed to a rotating cast of associates. Free case review is exactly that, a conversation about what happened, what the law says about it, and what your options are. If we’re a fit, we sign a written fee agreement and start work. If we’re not, we’ll tell you why and, where we can, point you to a firm that is.
We serve clients across the Phoenix metro areas we serve, including Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa, Tempe, Glendale, Chandler, Peoria, and Avondale.
Two years from the date of injury under A.R.S. § 12-542. If your claim is against a government entity (state, city, county, school district), you must also serve a written notice of claim within 180 days under A.R.S. § 12-821.01. Settlement talks do not stop these clocks.
No. Your cooperation duty under your own policy does not extend to the at-fault driver’s insurer. You can decline. In most cases, you should, at least until you’ve talked to a lawyer.
Most Arizona personal injury lawyers work on contingency, meaning the attorney’s fee is a percentage of the recovery and there is no attorney’s fee if there is no recovery. Case costs are addressed separately in the written fee agreement, so read it carefully.
Yes. Arizona is a pure comparative negligence state under A.R.S. § 12-2505. Your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault, but you are not barred from recovery even if you were largely at fault. On a $100,000 case where you were 30% at fault, you would recover $70,000.
No. The Arizona Constitution (Article II, § 31 and Article XVIII, § 6) has long been interpreted to prohibit laws that cap damages for death or personal injury. This is unusual and is one of the reasons Arizona case values can run higher than in cap states.
Your own uninsured motorist (UM) and underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage is what fills the gap. Under A.R.S. § 20-259.01, your insurer was required to offer this coverage and you could only reject it in writing. Check your declarations page.
Highly fact-dependent. Some claims with clear liability and finished medical treatment resolve in a few months. Cases with disputed liability, ongoing treatment, or litigation can take a year or more. The driver of timing is usually your medical treatment, since you don’t want to settle before you understand the full picture of your injury.
If you were injured in Arizona and you’re not sure what to do next, talk to us before you talk to insurance. Free case review with Jared J. Pehrson. No attorney’s fees unless we recover, with the specific terms in a written fee agreement you’ll review before signing.
Call (602) 345-1818. We answer 24/7.
By Jared J. Pehrson | Impact Legal Car Accident Attorneys
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