Car Accident Lawyer in Tarzana, CA

You were driving through Tarzana, and now you have a sore back, a car that may be totaled and an insurance adjuster asking for a recorded statement. That is when most people start searching for a Tarzana car accident attorney. Moe Abdallah Law, P.C. handles motor-vehicle injury cases and nothing else, and only when someone was physically hurt or a family lost a loved one. Moe talks with clients himself, by call and text. Your first conversation is free at any hour, nights and weekends included. This page walks through what a car crash in this part of the San Fernando Valley looks like on the ground: the streets where drivers collide, who writes the report, where you get treated, what the insurance numbers mean, and which deadlines can end your claim.

Left turns and driveways on Ventura Boulevard, Reseda Boulevard and Tampa Avenue

Plenty of Tarzana car crash cases start on the surface streets, not the freeway. Ventura Boulevard carries daily traffic past shops, restaurants and parking lots, with driveways all along it. Reseda Boulevard and Tampa Avenue run north and south across it, and Victory Boulevard forms the neighborhood's northern edge. The City of Los Angeles lists Ventura Boulevard from Winnetka Avenue to White Oak Avenue, and Reseda Boulevard from Mecca Avenue to Devonshire Street, on its Vision Zero High Injury Network. That is the 2018 dataset, so it tells you where the city flagged severe crashes, not which corner caused yours. Collisions here follow a pattern. A driver turns left across traffic and misjudges the gap. Someone pulls out of a shopping center and hits a car in the lane. A light turns and both drivers swear they had the green. Each of those fights comes down to evidence. Take photos of the cars and the road before anyone moves them if you can, write down witness names, and note any business with a camera pointed at the street. Cameras often overwrite within days. We send preservation requests early. A clip showing who entered the intersection first can change your case.

Merging and slowdowns at the US-101 exits for Reseda and Tampa

The Ventura Freeway, US-101, passes through Tarzana with exits at Reseda Boulevard and Tampa Avenue. Cars slow hard as they come off those ramps, and drivers speed up to merge on, which sets up rear-end crashes and sideswipes. Chain collisions are the hardest to sort out. Say you stop for traffic, a car hits you from behind, and you are shoved into the car ahead. The front driver's insurer may say you caused it. The rear driver may say you stopped short. The facts that matter are the order of impacts, the damage on each bumper, and what the cars' event data recorders captured about speed and braking in the seconds before. The California Highway Patrol patrols the freeways inside Los Angeles, so the report you need may come from a different agency. If you were hurt on the 101 and are not sure which one responded, the officer's card or the incident number given at the scene will tell you. Whatever the road, do not tell an adjuster that you are fine. Soft-tissue injuries, concussions and back injuries often get worse over the first few days, and an early statement gets quoted back to you later.

Your LAPD collision report and the DMV SR-1 form

If your crash happened on a Tarzana street, LAPD handles it. The LAPD West Valley Community Police Station at 19020 Vanowen Street in Reseda covers the neighborhood, and traffic investigations go through the LAPD Valley Traffic Division at 7870 Nollan Place in Panorama City. LAPD's Request a Traffic Report page is the place to order your collision report, but LAPD says to allow at least 45 days after the crash before asking for it online. Reports involving an arrest, a death or a juvenile, and anything issued before February 1, 2016, must be requested by mail. Separately, California law requires you to report the crash to the DMV on the SR-1 form within 10 days if anyone was injured or killed, or if damage to any one person's property tops $1,000. The duty is yours even if the other driver was clearly at fault. The SR-1 is a different thing from the police report, and one does not replace the other. When Moe takes a case, his office helps you request the report and checks it for errors, such as a wrong street, a missing witness, or a fault finding that does not match the physical evidence.

Where Tarzana car crash victims get treated

Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center, at 18321 Clark Street, is the main 9-1-1 receiving hospital in the neighborhood. It is not a trauma center, so paramedics treating a serious collision injury may take you to Northridge Hospital Medical Center on Roscoe Boulevard, which Los Angeles County lists as a Level II trauma center. Encino Hospital Medical Center on Ventura Boulevard and Kaiser Woodland Hills are also nearby 9-1-1 receiving hospitals, and neither is a trauma center. Common car crash injuries include whiplash, herniated discs, broken wrists and ribs from the steering wheel, knee injuries from the dashboard and head injuries from the window or headrest. Go to the emergency room even if you feel okay at the scene. Adrenaline hides pain. A gap between the crash and your first medical visit is the first thing an insurer points to when it argues your injury came from somewhere else. Keep every discharge sheet, bill and receipt. If you cannot get the treatment you need because you lack health insurance, tell Moe early. There are ways to get care while a claim is pending, and those bills become part of what the other side owes you.

Policy limits, the 30/60/15 minimum and the fault arguments you will hear

California's minimum liability limits for policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2025 are $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident for bodily injury, plus $15,000 for property damage. Those numbers are the floor, and some drivers carry no more than that. A broken bone and a short hospital stay can burn through $30,000 quickly. When the at-fault driver's policy is too small, your own underinsured motorist coverage may fill part of the gap. Insurers have to offer it, and your policy covers it unless you signed it away in writing. One of our past results shows how this works. An insurer offered $900. Moe got the at-fault driver's insurer to tender its policy limit, then pursued the underinsured claim, and the client's total was $75,000. Past results do not predict a similar outcome. Expect the adjuster to try a few moves. The adjuster will ask for a recorded statement, suggest you were speeding or distracted, and offer a quick check before you know how long you will need treatment. California follows pure comparative negligence under Li v. Yellow Cab Co. (1975) 13 Cal.3d 804, so you can still recover when partly at fault, but your share of the blame lowers the award. Do not sign a release or accept a check until you know the full cost of your injuries.

Deadlines, city vehicles and the court that hears a Tarzana collision case

You generally have two years from the crash to file a lawsuit against a private driver, under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. A claim for damage to your car has three years under section 338(c)(1). When a City of Los Angeles vehicle or a street defect is involved, the clock is much shorter. You must present a written claim to the city within six months, under Government Code section 911.2, filed with the Office of the City Clerk at City Hall, Room 395, or through the city's online claim portal. Email and fax claims are not accepted. If the city rejects it in writing, you have six months from that notice to sue. A lawsuit worth more than $35,000 must be filed at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse at 111 N. Hill Street. Smaller cases from ZIP 91356 are assigned to the Chatsworth Courthouse on Penfield Avenue. Most claims settle without a trial, but Moe files when an insurer will not pay a fair amount. He works on contingency, so you pay nothing unless he wins, and Se Habla Espanol. Call (323) 716-1992 any time, day or night. Another result: $30,000 in policy limits for a client hurt in a head-on crash, with femur and ankle fractures that needed surgery. Past results do not predict a similar outcome.

Talk to a Tarzana car accident lawyer

Call (323) 716-1992 for a free, no-obligation case review. You pay nothing unless we win, and we'll handle the insurance companies for you. Learn more about our car accidents representation →

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