What if the accident was my fault?

If the accident is your fault, either in whole or in part, it may be a situation where you would be looking to your own insurance carrier to defend claims made against you.  

If you have Property Damage Liability Protection, then your carrier would owe you a defense against claims made against you for damages to others’ cars.   If you have “Comprehensive” or “Collision” coverage, then you would look to your own carrier to replace or repair your vehicle under that coverage.   If you have neither of these coverages, you may be in a situation where you would have to either repair or replace the vehicles involved or defend yourself in an action that may be filed against you for reimbursement in that regard.

Therefore, persons must purchase Liability coverage, and the legal minimum in California is $10,000 in property damage coverage.

We would recommend that you purchase much more than $10,000 in property damage liability protection.  Even a relatively minor accident involving an expensive vehicle could easily wipe out that coverage. Multiple vehicle impacts occur every day where one car is blamed for damage to several other vehicles.   In these circumstances, if you only have minimal coverage, your insurance carrier may not have enough money to go around, and you may have to contribute funds out of your own pockets to fix or replace all of the vehicles involved.