Los Angeles Pedestrian Accident Lawyer

Los Angeles Pedestrian Accident Lawyer

DK Law represents pedestrians struck by drivers throughout Los Angeles. If a car hit you in a crosswalk, at an intersection, in a parking lot, or on a sidewalk, we can tell you whether you have a claim and who is likely responsible for paying it.

Quick Answers

• Cost to you: nothing up front. We work on contingency. No fee unless we recover money for you.
• If the driver had no insurance or fled, you may still get paid. Your own auto policy’s uninsured motorist coverage can apply even though you were on foot.
• If a dangerous street contributed, the City, County, or Caltrans can be a defendant. That claim has a six-month deadline, not two years.
• Being partly at fault does not end your claim. California reduces your recovery by your share. It never bars it.
• Two deadlines matter. Two years to sue a driver. Six months to file against a public entity. Hit-and-run claims add a 24-hour police reporting requirement.
• Call 24/7. Free consultation, in English, Korean, or Spanish.

Injuries We See in Pedestrian Cases

A person on foot has no structure around them, so the injuries tend to be severe even at low speeds.

• Head injuries, including concussions and traumatic brain injuries, often from the secondary impact with the road rather than the car.
• Fractures, most often to the pelvis, legs, and ribs.
• Spinal cord injuries, which can mean partial or complete paralysis.
• Internal bleeding and organ damage, which can be present without any external sign.
• Road rash, degloving, and lacerations from being dragged across pavement.
• PTSD, anxiety, and sleep disruption, which are compensable and routinely undervalued by insurers.

Symptoms that appear days later still matter, both medically and legally. Get evaluated by a doctor and report everything, including headaches, confusion, mood changes, and numbness. A gap between the collision and your first medical visit is the first thing an adjuster will use to argue you weren’t really hurt.

Who Pays if the Driver Had No Insurance or Drove Off?

Often your own auto policy does, even though you were walking.

California’s uninsured motorist statute defines who is covered by status, not by where you were sitting. Under Insurance Code section 11580.2, the coverage protects “the insured, the insured’s heirs, or legal representatives” for damages caused by an uninsured driver. Nothing in it requires you to have been in a car.

Two things people might not know:

• You probably have this coverage. California requires every bodily injury liability policy to include it unless you deleted it in writing. Plenty of pages call it optional or “usually required.” It is automatic until you sign it away.
• Underinsured coverage subtracts; it does not stack. If the driver carries $30,000 and you carry $100,000, your policy covers the $70,000 difference, not $130,000 total.

Hit-and-run cases have three requirements: physical contact with the unknown vehicle, a police report within 24 hours, and a sworn statement to your insurer within 30 days. The contact requirement is what defeats drivers who run off the road by a car that never touched them. A struck pedestrian clears it automatically. The 24-hour clock is the real problem, and it is brutally short for someone who spent that day in an emergency room.

What DK Law Does for Your Case

• Handles the insurance companies. The adjusters stop calling you and start calling us. We do not let you give a recorded statement before you understand what it is for.
• Finds every policy that could pay. The driver’s liability coverage is the obvious one. Your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, a commercial policy if the driver was working, and a public entity are the ones people miss.
• Obtains the evidence before it disappears. Traffic collision reports, signal timing records, nearby business and residential camera footage, and witness statements. Camera footage is frequently overwritten within days.
• Documents what the injury actually costs. Present medical care, future treatment, lost wages, and lost earning ability if you cannot return to the work you did before.
• Files against public entities on time. The six-month claim deadline is the one that ends otherwise strong cases.
• Takes it to trial if the offer stays unreasonable. Most cases settle before reaching that point, but some do not. We’re prepared to fight for full and fair compensation.

Does Jaywalking Hurt Your Claim?

California is a pure comparative negligence state under Li v. Yellow Cab Co. For example, a pedestrian found 20% at fault against a driver who was speeding and looking at their phone may still recover 80% of damages. So if total damages were $100,000, the pedestrian could recover $80,000.

Because the fault percentage has a direct impact on the payout, it’s typically one of the most contested points in a claim. An experienced personal injury lawyer can help you prove liability and hold the responsible party accountable for your damages.

If you want the crossing rules themselves, we cover California’s jaywalking law and the crosswalk rules most people get wrong separately.

Our pedestrian accident guide covers what to document early, which is most of what protects the claim later. If your injuries include a head injury, our Los Angeles brain injury team handles those cases.

What If a Dangerous or Poorly Maintained Intersection Caused the Crash?

Then the public entity that owns the street can be a defendant.

Government Code section 835 requires proof that the property was in a dangerous condition, that it caused the injury, that the risk was foreseeable, and that a public employee created it or the entity knew about it long enough to fix it. The defense is design immunity under section 830.6, which protects a design that was discretionarily approved before construction. It is real, and it’s narrower than it sounds: under Cornette v. Department of Transportation, immunity can be lost when conditions change, and the entity fails to respond.

Los Angeles makes this argument easier than most cities. The Los Angeles Department of Transportation publishes a High-Injury Network, and its own finding is that although only 6% of city street miles sit on that network, close to seventy percent of all deaths and severe injuries of people walking happen there. A city that has mapped and published where pedestrians are being killed has a harder time claiming it did not know.

Who you file against depends on the street. City surface streets belong to the City of Los Angeles. Unincorporated county roads belong to the County. State routes and freeways belong to Caltrans. Naming the wrong entity does not pause the clock.

How Long Do You Have to File?

• Claim against a driver: two years from the date of injury, under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1.
• Claim against a public entity: six months. Section 911.2 requires presentation within six months of accrual. You will see this written as “180 days,” including by Google’s AI summaries. Six calendar months runs 181 to 184 days, so the two are not interchangeable.
• Hit and run: 24 hours to report to police, 30 days for a sworn statement to your insurer.
• Late government claims can be applied for within one year under section 911.4, but relief has to be granted. It is a far worse position than filing on time.

LAPD asks you to allow a minimum of 45 days from the collision before releasing the traffic collision report. If a dangerous intersection is part of your case, a quarter of your six-month window can pass before you hold the basic document.

Talk to DK Law

Were you injured in a pedestrian accident? Whether the driver was insured, whether a second policy applies, and whether the street itself is part of your case are questions that get answered by looking at the facts.

If you were hit while walking anywhere in Los Angeles, tell us what happened and we will tell you honestly where you stand and whether we can help.

There is no fee unless we win. Call DK Law today for a free consultation.