Fresno Personal Injury Lawyer

It depends on where the crash happened. On city streets, it's generally the Fresno Police Department. Freeways and state highways are generally handled by the CHP's Fresno Area office, at 1380 E. Fortune Avenue. The CHP says its Fresno Area officers patrol more than 4,045 miles of state highways, freeways and unincorporated roads across Fresno County, so a crash just outside city limits may be a CHP report too. Before you leave the scene, ask the officer which agency is taking the report and for the report number.

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.

You generally must file a written claim first. Claims against the City of Fresno go to its Risk Management Division, at 2600 Fresno Street, Room 1030. The City says the claim must be filed in duplicate, in person or by mail, on its Claim for Damages form. For an injury, the deadline is generally six months from the incident (Government Code §911.2 (opens in a new tab)). Fresno Area Express (FAX) is operated by the City of Fresno, so a FAX bus crash is generally a claim against the City as well. The form asks for the police report number.

The County of Fresno is a separate government with its own claim office. Claims against the County go to the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors at the Hall of Records, 2281 Tulare Street, Room 301, by mail or in person. The County says it does not accept claims by email or fax, and that its Risk Management division handles them (County of Fresno (opens in a new tab)).

If the City or the County turns the claim down in writing, the time to sue is short too: generally six months after the rejection notice is delivered or mailed (Government Code §945.6 (opens in a new tab)).

Usually in the Superior Court of California, County of Fresno. The court says its unlimited civil cases, which are lawsuits over $35,000, are heard at the B.F. Sisk Courthouse, 1130 O Street, and its civil division page lists limited civil cases, $35,000 or less, at the same address. If the City or the County may be responsible, the written claim described above generally has to come first, within six months for an injury.

Fresno's General Plan says State Route 99 runs through the city from northwest to southeast, connecting it to the central and southern San Joaquin Valley. State Routes 41 and 180 cross the city north to south and east to west, toward Yosemite and Kings Canyon National Parks, and State Route 168 links Fresno to Clovis and the Sierra Nevada. The plan notes that freeways are under the State's jurisdiction, not the City's, and calls SR 99 a crucial corridor for local and regional goods movement (General Plan (opens in a new tab)).

The City's Vision Zero Action Plan, adopted on May 21, 2026, counts 217 fatal and 629 severe injury crashes on city streets reported to the Fresno Police Department from 2019 to 2023. Its goal is to eliminate those deaths and severe injuries by 2050 (City of Fresno (opens in a new tab)). If you were hit by a big rig, our truck accident page covers the federal trucking rules and the company records that can matter.

In an emergency, call 911. Community Regional Medical Center, at 2823 Fresno Street, is home to the Table Mountain Rancheria Trauma Center, which the hospital describes as the only Level I trauma center between Los Angeles and Sacramento, and it appears as an adult Level I center on the state EMS Authority's trauma center list. The state's HCAI profiles list a comprehensive emergency service level there, and basic emergency service at St. Agnes Medical Center, 1303 East Herndon Avenue, and at Kaiser Foundation Hospital in Fresno, 7300 North Fresno Street (EMSA (opens in a new tab); HCAI (opens in a new tab); St. Agnes (opens in a new tab); Kaiser (opens in a new tab)).