San Diego Personal Injury Lawyer

On city streets, the San Diego Police Department; on the freeways, generally the CHP. The SDPD says it responds only to injury crashes and to hit-and-runs with injuries or leads on a suspect, so call 911 if anyone is hurt. For freeway incidents, the SDPD points people to the CHP. The CHP's San Diego Area office, at 5902 Kearny Villa Road, lists the City of San Diego among the cities it covers. The SDPD asks you to allow three to 10 business days after the crash before requesting its report, and the CHP takes report requests online through its crash portal or with a CHP 190 form.

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.

File a written claim with the City first. California law generally requires an injury claim against a public agency to be presented in writing within six months, before any lawsuit (Government Code §911.2 (opens in a new tab)). City of San Diego claims are handled by its Risk Management Department. You can submit one through the City's online Public Liability claims portal, or print, sign and mail or hand-deliver the City's RM-9 claim form (or another written claim that meets the Government Code) to 1200 Third Avenue, Suite 1000. The City says it stopped accepting first-notice claims by email on December 11, 2023. With an injury claim, it asks for unaltered copies of your medical bills.

A written rejection from the City starts a new clock: generally six months, from the day the notice is delivered or mailed, to file a lawsuit (Government Code §945.6 (opens in a new tab)). Freeways are a separate matter: the City's Mobility Element notes that the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) manages the state's highway and freeway lanes, so a claim about a freeway's condition would generally involve the State rather than the City.

Usually in the San Diego Superior Court's Central Division, at the Hall of Justice, 330 West Broadway, downtown. The court's filing guide says to go by the zip code where the person or company you are suing lives or does business, or where the incident happened. Its zip code list puts San Diego neighborhoods such as Hillcrest, Clairemont, Mira Mesa and Rancho Bernardo in the Central Division, and Otay Mesa in the South County Division. For civil cases, the court's local rules count South County as part of Central. The Hall of Justice holds the court's Civil Independent Calendar courtrooms and its Civil Business Office.

The City's General Plan Mobility Element, as amended in 2024, describes Interstates 5 and 15 as the region's two major north-south corridors for commercial trucks, and I-8, State Routes 94 and 125 and SR 905 as its primary east-west truck corridors (Mobility Element (opens in a new tab)). The CHP's San Diego Area office describes its territory as fourteen freeway systems covering more than 300 miles, across San Diego, Chula Vista, National City and Coronado (CHP (opens in a new tab)).

If a big rig or delivery truck was involved in your crash, our truck accident page explains how those claims work.

The County of San Diego's EMS agency lists six trauma centers, five for adults and one for children, and four have San Diego mailing addresses: UCSD Medical Center in Hillcrest, at 200 West Arbor Drive, which is also listed as a burn center; Scripps Mercy Hospital San Diego, at 4077 Fifth Avenue; Sharp Memorial Hospital, at 7901 Frost Street; and Rady Children's Hospital, at 3020 Children's Way, the pediatric trauma center. The other two are Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla, at 9888 Genesee Avenue in La Jolla, and Palomar Medical Center in Escondido. On the state EMS Authority's list, UC San Diego, Scripps Mercy and Scripps La Jolla are Level I adult trauma centers, Sharp Memorial and Palomar are Level II, and Rady Children's is Level I for children. In an emergency, call 911.