Calabasas Personal Injury Lawyer

It depends on the road. Calabasas doesn't use the LAPD: the City says its law enforcement comes through a contract with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, served by the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff's Station at 27050 Agoura Road. That station also serves Agoura Hills, Hidden Hills, Malibu and Westlake Village. On the 101, crashes are generally handled by the CHP. Its West Valley Area office, at 5825 De Soto Avenue in Woodland Hills, lists Calabasas among the communities it serves and says its patrol covers both freeways and two-lane county roads.

If anyone was hurt, the drivers involved must also make a written report within 24 hours to the CHP or, inside a city, to the CHP or the city police department, and report the crash to the DMV within 10 days (Vehicle Code §20008 (opens in a new tab); §16000 (opens in a new tab)). Our car accident page walks through the other steps.

Calabasas has no city police department of its own, so ask a lawyer which agency should get that report.

File a written claim with the City of Calabasas first. The City's claim form says injury claims must be filed with the City Clerk's Office, at 100 Civic Center Way, no later than six months after the incident (Government Code §911.2 (opens in a new tab)). The form asks where and how the injury happened, why you believe the City is responsible and what your losses are so far, and it must be signed. It includes a street diagram for marking where the accident happened and where any city vehicle was. If the City rejects the claim in writing, a lawsuit generally must be filed within six months after the notice is delivered or mailed (§945.6 (opens in a new tab)).

Not every address near Calabasas is inside the city limits. The City's General Plan describes unincorporated county areas around the city, about 3.2 square miles as of 2014, that include neighborhoods, commercial areas and a public school (General Plan (opens in a new tab)). There, the County of Los Angeles may be the agency to claim against, and County claims go to the Executive Officer-Clerk of the Board of Supervisors (County claims (opens in a new tab)). Our Los Angeles page covers County, Metro and federal claims and what to do if a deadline was missed.

Calabasas cases usually go to the Los Angeles County Superior Court. Since October 10, 2022, new unlimited personal injury cases have been filed in the court district where the incident happened, and the court tells filers to use the filing court locator on its website to find it. Go by the exact location of the crash or fall, not just a ZIP code: a provision of the court's local rules refers to the parts of ZIP codes 91301 and 91302, the ZIP code of Calabasas City Hall, that lie in its West District. A lawsuit against a private person or business generally must be filed within two years of the injury (Code of Civil Procedure §335.1 (opens in a new tab)).

The City's General Plan names the Ventura Freeway (US 101) and the Malibu Canyon Road-Las Virgenes Road corridor as regionally significant routes with circulation and capacity problems. It calls the freeway interchanges at Valley Circle Boulevard, Parkway Calabasas, Calabasas Road-Mureau Road, Las Virgenes Road and Lost Hills Road particularly constrained, largely because of regional traffic, and notes that Caltrans controls them. When the freeway backs up at peak hours or during a crash or other incident, the plan says, traffic diverts onto Lost Hills Road, Las Virgenes Road, Mureau Road, Calabasas Road and Agoura Road (General Plan (opens in a new tab)).

The plan also describes Mulholland Highway west of Old Topanga Canyon Road as a rural, twisting route with many driveways that provides access to schools, and it calls for paved shoulders there, where feasible, for safer bicycle and pedestrian travel (General Plan (opens in a new tab)).

The City says its fire services, like law enforcement, come through contracts with the County of Los Angeles (City of Calabasas (opens in a new tab)). The City of Los Angeles plan area that includes West Hills and Woodland Hills borders Calabasas (community plan (opens in a new tab)), and two hospitals there list emergency departments open 24 hours: UCLA West Valley Medical Center, at 7300 Medical Center Drive in West Hills (HCAI (opens in a new tab); UCLA Health (opens in a new tab)), and Kaiser Permanente Woodland Hills Medical Center, at 5601 De Soto Avenue (Kaiser Permanente (opens in a new tab)). In an emergency, call 911.