Legal Question in Personal Injury in California

Again, did you feel one impact, or two?

In my view, as long as V2 was moving at all, he will be faulted by V1, who will claim that he would never have been able to stop even if V2 had NOT hit him. Hence, if you DON'T sue V2, then you stand a risk of losing a percentage of your damages if a jury finds V2 20% at fault. If he had been at a standstill, I would say it was safe not to sue him, but not this way.

For my money, "one impact or two" does not solve the equation. You could get two impacts two ways. One: Vehicle 1 hits Vehicle 2 like a billiard ball, propels him into you and then plows into V2 again, and you feel that impact as well. Two: Vehicle 2 hits you all by himself and then Vehicle 1 also fails to stop and hits Vehicle 1 while he is still in contact with your car, so you feel the second impact as well. Yet, the consequences of the two scenarios are very different.

What you should be taking away from all this, is that these issues are complicated and even experienced attorneys may disagree. If you are soliciting this advice so you can handle the case by yourself, I think that would be a mistake.