Legal Question in Personal Injury in California

The lack of tags did not cause the accident to occur, so it is irrelevant. The owner of the vehicle is liable for the first $15,000 in damages [jointly liable with the driver]. Do not tell anyone about the tags; did the other people notice it? Contact their insurance company. Do not tell them he has no driver's license as that would probably make the insurance policy void.

I disagree with Mr. Shers in part. He is completely correct that the tags are completely irrelevant. Don't even worry about it. Don't worry about the licenses either. Not your problem. Where I disagree with Mr. Shers is that you should not waste your time with the other party's insurance. They are guaranteed to jerk you around, because they have no legal obligation to you. Some people think that if they don't notify their own insurance company and just go through the other guy's insurance then their insurance won't know and their rates won't go up. That is false. The insurance companies report claims to the DMV if you don't. It's all public record. So just tender to your insurance company and let them do the work for you. And just forget about the tags and licenses. Not your problem.