Los Angeles Personal Injury Lawyer

It depends on which agency was involved. Before you can sue a California public agency for an injury, you generally must file a written claim with that agency within six months of the incident (Government Code §911.2 (opens in a new tab)). Here is where claims go for some of the public agencies in Los Angeles:

• City of Los Angeles

  Streets, sidewalks and city vehicles inside the City. Claims go to the Los Angeles City Clerk; the City Attorney's office says no other office, including its own, can accept them, and they can't be filed by phone.

  Source: Los Angeles City Attorney: Claims (opens in a new tab)

• County of Los Angeles

  County property and county vehicles. A signed, written claim goes to the Executive Officer-Clerk of the Board of Supervisors, by mail or in person.

  Source: Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors: Claims for Damages (opens in a new tab)

• LA Metro

  Metro buses and trains. Metro's Legal Services takes claims for damages on its claim form, in person or by mail only, and says claims sent by email are rejected.

  Source: LA Metro: Legal Services (claims for damages) (opens in a new tab)

• Federal agencies

  Federal vehicles, such as mail trucks, follow federal rules: a written claim generally must be presented to the federal agency within two years, and if the agency denies it, a lawsuit generally must be filed within six months after the denial is mailed.

  Source: 28 U.S.C. §2401(b) (opens in a new tab)

If a California agency rejects the claim in writing, a lawsuit generally must be filed within six months after the notice is delivered or mailed (Government Code §945.6 (opens in a new tab)). If the six-month claim deadline was missed, you can ask the agency for permission to file a late claim within a reasonable time, and no later than one year after the incident. The agency must grant it in certain situations, such as when the injured person was a minor for the whole six-month claim period (Government Code §911.4 (opens in a new tab); §911.6 (opens in a new tab)).

Usually in the Los Angeles County Superior Court, which divides the county into 12 districts. Under a court order issued in May 2024, new unlimited personal injury cases have been filed, since October 2022, in the district where the incident happened, as identified by the court's filing court locator. Personal injury cases filed in the Central District are assigned to judges at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, at 111 North Hill Street downtown, and the Northwest District courthouses are in Van Nuys. Claims against federal agencies follow a separate federal process.

It depends on the road. Freeway crashes are generally handled by the CHP; in the west Valley, for example, the CHP's West Valley Area office was created in 1969 to take over the region's freeways and highways from the LAPD. On city streets in the San Fernando Valley, the LAPD's Valley Traffic Division investigates traffic collisions and traffic-related crimes across the LAPD's Valley Bureau. Ask the officer at the scene for the report number, and keep it with your other records.

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.

In 2017, as part of the City's Vision Zero program, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation described a High Injury Network: 6% of Los Angeles streets, where 65% of all deaths and serious injuries involving people walking and biking occurred (LADOT (opens in a new tab)).

If you were hurt while walking or biking, our car accident page covers the rules drivers must follow, and our slip and fall page covers claims about dangerous public property.

Our office is in Woodland Hills, in the San Fernando Valley, and we take personal injury cases anywhere in California. We also have pages for Valley communities in the City of Los Angeles: Woodland Hills, Canoga Park, West Hills, Tarzana, Encino, Sherman Oaks, Van Nuys and Studio City. Other California cities are on our locations page.